Discovered by M.S. Viraraghavan (India, 2021).

Shrub.  

Red blend, white reverse.  None to mild fragrance.  26 to 40 petals.  Average diameter 4".  Medium, full (26-40 petals), cluster-flowered, in small clusters, fluted petals, ruffled, scalloped bloom form.  Occasional repeat later in the season.  Medium buds.  

Medium, bushy.  Medium, semi-glossy, dark green foliage.  

Height: up to 42" (up to 105cm).  

Can be used for beds and borders, cut flower, garden or hedge.  

Dense, healthy, shrubby growth, very free flowering.

We had been very taken, fascinated, with Tipu Sultan, a king of the southern kingdom of Mysore ( which is now in the State of Karnataka) in the 1700’s. Tipu Sultan fought very bravely against the encroaching British, who, first as the East India Company which later morphed into the Government of Britain, had imperial designs upon the whole of India. The British extended their dominions by a series of wars against local Indian rulers and annexing of their kingdoms. Tipu was killed in 1799 in the last of the Anglo-Mysore wars. Called ‘Tippoo Saib’ by the British, he was in touch with Napoleon, whose help he sought to fight the British.

Tipu was a great lover of roses, and created two huge rose gardens in his capital Srirangapatna (called Seringapatam by the British) and in nearby Bangalore, calling them ‘Lal Baghs’ which translates as ‘Red Gardens’, because he had so many red roses planted in them.

Despite vanquishing and killing him, the British obviously looked on him as a romantic figure. In 1844 a ‘rosy crimson beautiful’ rose called ‘Tippoo Saib’ was listed in the ‘Gardeners Magazine of Botany and Horticulture’. Ranunculus, tulips and gladiolus too were named for him!!

We had always wanted to name one of our roses for this historical figure who shared our love for roses and when we had a variety which has bright red flowers with a white reverse, and which is a prolific bloomer with clusters of flowers, we thought ‘Tipu’s Flame’ would be an apt tribute.

When, in 2021, one of our plants of Tipu’s Flame sported to a different looking bloom, quite un-rose like, but interesting nonetheless, we decided to propagate it and make more plants , all of which had blooms different from Tipu’s Flame. So we decided to call it ‘Tiger of Mysore’.

Why was Tipu called “Tiger of Mysore”? He had a great love for tigers, indeed for all animals and birds, but especially tigers. He had many tigers in his grounds and he loved tiger stripes. His soldiers uniforms, on his swords and guns, in the carpets in his palaces, and the turbans he wore on his head – all had black and yellow stripes. And to this day the cloth covering his tomb in the Lal Bagh garden in Srirangapatnam is of black velvet with yellow stripes.

Also, of course his bravery as a warrior, a small kingdom taking on the might of the British Empire, has been eulogized by the title that history has conferred upon him, that of a ‘Tiger’ .