In Brisbane in the past few days, I stood with Jennie O'Brien Lutton in front of a large bush (6 feet high?) of "Rita Petersen". (The bush was labelled Peterson, but the references seem to show that it may have been Petersen) There were two fairly distinct flowers on the bush, light pink flowers with a darker outer circle, and other flowers with the main colour being a dark pink. The bush looked more like a tea, than a china, to me. Very smooth wood between mature brown prickles (the older were gray) and many canes were thornless. The pedicel was prickly and the receptacle was long with no narrowing at the top where it met the bud. The opening bud was a very dark pink.

For the moment HelpMeFind has kept "Rita Petersen" as being a clone of 'Archiduc Charles', but if there are any other Australian thoughts that it may be something else entirely, it is a easy matter to separate this foundling into its own file. The following is from a private email to me from Jennie O'Brien Lutton dated September 8, 2006. As Jennie has a great interest in this rose, I know she would agree with this public sharing of part of the history of "Rita Petersen". She said:

I wrote to all and invited them to meet at the heritage area in New Farm Park. This garden was designed by Heritage Roses in Australia members in about 1990, and most of the roses were supplied by them. Probably in 1996 or 1997, a city council gardener, Colin Robards, was in charge of the Heritage area. He showed a great interest and made a big effort to get plans drawn and roses labelled. Rita Mortiss (HRIA member and one of the team originaly responsible for the heritage Rose planting in the park) and I, undertook to provide the correct details for the labels. We spent a lot of time double and triple checking references and discussing which we would choose when there was some difference in information. There are a few roses with labels like "Herston Rose" and "Sandgate Rose", these being the suburbs in which the old rose was found and propagated. We decided to label "Rita Petersen" with her name, even though we could find no record of it anywhere. Several people had told us it was "Rita Petersen". Roly Kent (now deceased), long time president of the QRS had actually told Rita Mortiss the name of the rose. Another of our long term members, Lionel Chitts, who was also part of the original HRIA team in the Heritage Area at New Farm Park, had the name from other sources. I had been told by a very elderly lady with a strong accent (probably Greek or Italian) over her fence that "everyone grows this Rita". The first time we saw anything about Rita Peterson in print, apart from Sue Zwar's comments about New Farm Park, was the reprint of Editor Stewart's article in the journal. We then felt that our decision to label the rose with the name had been the correct decision, even if the name of the rose was not proved. Editor Stewarts comments are interesting. Was General Galleni a popular rose at that time? Could he possibly not have seen it enough to positively identify it, or was he just repeating the text from Heers catalogue? There are certainly some similarities - the main being muddled and variable colour. Both have very variable blooms, size, colour shape etc even simultaneously However the General is red and creamy in the centre and obviously a tea rose, and Rita is red and pinky centred and obviously a china rose. I do not grow Rita. The plant we labelled "Rita Peterson" is quite common in Brisbane. I know quite a few places where it grows, mostly in older suburbs. There are 3 or 4 plants in a garden in the next block from me, but the people who live there know nothing about the garden.Most of our members could tell you where there are plants near them.

I tend to agree with others who have suggested this rose might actually be 'Princess de Sagan'. It is a reasonably good match for some early illustrations of that rose. It certainly has characteristics that seem closer to a china rose than a typical tea rose.

It is hard to believe that this lovely little rose may be extinct. It was apparently a very popular rose in its day.

"Princesse de Sagan": My plant here in Richmond Va. from Heritage in Ca. does not look like the plate reproduced by Cass amid the HMF photos. Heritage sells two roses under this name, allowing that one or the other may be the real plant; and I've lost track which of the two mine is.
Temperatures over the last 5 years or so average 101 F at worst for a week or two, low 30's and even a few high 20's F in winter, but this is a terraced garden open to the Winter wind. Rain in spring is generous, the summer is a drought, and rain begins slowly in Aug., with a very few violent Summer storms. Yes the world has been growing warmer gradually.
The Tea I grow is very much like all the photos in HMF. It's about 15 years old, is a modest 5' tall, and unfortunately has a sideways growth to 10', which obstructs a path here. I seldom water and never spray.
Flowers are of medium size, not quite full, plant almost disease free, thorns are smaller and fewer than usual on a Tea. There are a great many in Spring, another in Fall, and the coloring is very attractive indeed, which the HMF photos fail to reproduce. Looking at the plant, in full sun, from a window 50' above, the petals are a dark cerise within, followed by a much lighter pink, and white core that in sum makes me think of strawberries & cream; I can honestly say that the flower seems to glow in the sun like no other in the garden. They seldom open completely but keep a V-shape, and probably are not good for exhibition. Their continual adolescent (not totally open) appearance, not a 'bud', is also very attractive, but they can be coaxed open & then resemble a kind of spiral of color down to a white interior. Since I don't normally like pink flowers, you can trust that this is an acceptable mix. Unfortunatley in Summer the RIchmond heat darkens the rose to a kind of burnt red, and it's then rather ugly, & stems as usual with Teas are always short, so that they're not the best for cut display.
Early this spring I made a mistake & fed 'blossom food', perhaps too strong. The flowers are many but too small & their best coloring not very clear. Not the rose's fault. But in general, taking into account the plant's outward spread, this is a fine bargain for a dependable, carefree rose.