r. davidii. Father David’s Rose. Father Armand David (1826 – 1900) was a French missionary, zoologist and botanist. He was one of many missionaries to China who collected plants (and other specimens, including Pere David’s deer)and sent them back to Europe. (We don’t have it)
r. forrestiana. The Scot, George Forrest, (1873-1932) was responsible for the introduction of many Chinese plants, including a goodly number of rhododendrons. The rose that bears his name is one he collected from the wilds of West Yunnan in 1818. He also collected r. mulliganii from the same area in 1817, but we do not know who Mulligan was, for sure. (We don’t have it)
r. fedtschenkoana. Named for Russian botanist, Olga Fedtschenko who discovered it in 1875 in Turkistan. The Fedtschenko were a remarkable family. Alexis was born in Irkutsk on Lake Baikal and made a three year collecting expedition with his wife Olga. After he was killed climbing in the Alps, she brought up their infant son, Boris to be a botanist and together they pioneered the botanical exploration of Central Asia and the Pamirs. (It is in the Heritage near the second small gate)
r. fortuniana. The Englishman, Robert Fortune (1813-1880) was sent to China by the Royal Horticultural Society to “plunder the nursery gardens that protected their plants behind high walls and locked gates”. The rose named after him was found in a garden, near Shanghai, in 1850 – supposedly a cross between r. banksiae and r. laevigata. (It is in the Heritage near the turnstile)
r. helenae. Ernest Henry ‘Chinese’ Wilson (1876 – 1930) was sent to China in 1899 by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew but they had no money so his trip was paid for by Vietch & Sons, one of the greatest Nurseries in Britain. In 1906, he was sent again by Arnold Arboretum a part of Harvard University in Boston to Central China. In 1907, he discovered and named after his wife the rose we know as rosa helenae.. (It is on the fence in the Heritage to the left of the Turnstile)
r. hugonis. Named after Reverend Hugh Scallan (Father Hugo) (1851-1928) an Irish Catholic missionary in China, who sent seed of the rose to Kew Gardens in England in 1899. Plants from that original sowing still bloom there today. (It is in the Heritage near the second gate)
r. moyesii. It was discovered in China in 1890 by Ernest Wilson and he named it after his friend Reverend James Moyes,(1876-1930) a missionary with the China Inland Mission. It is believed that the Rev Moyes accompanied Wilson on some of his plant hunting trips. (Moyesii Geranium is in the Heritage along the far side)
rosa soulieana. Named after Father Jean Andre Soulie (1858-1905) a missionary and botanist with the Paris Foreign Missions Society to China and Tibet. He found it on the rocky hillsides of western Sichuan and sent seeds back to France in 1896. He was murdered in Tibet. (It is on the fence in the Heritage to the left of the turnstile)
r.wichuraiana. Named after Dr. Max Ernst Wichura, (1817-1866) German lawyer and botanist, who discovered the rose in Japan in 1861 and sent a living plant back to Berlin. ( It is on the fence to the left of the turnstile)
