[From The Book on Roses, 1931 by Dr. G. Griffin Lewis, p. 139:] Rev. J. H. Pemberton of Havering-atte-Bower, Romford, Essex, England, was born on October 4, 1854, and died on July 22, 1926.
[From Roses 1978 by Jack Harkness, page 131:]. The Rev. Joseph H. Pemberton was a curate at Romford in Essex from 1880-1903. Until 1914, he was diocesan inspector for St Albans, but resigned to spend his life growing roses. He lived in a round house at Havering-atte-Bower, and was an exhibitor at the 1877 National Rose Show in London. He said that he used to breed horses. His book, Roses Their History, Development and Cultivation, is a standard work. I have an edition dated 1908, in which the publishers advertise a gardening book by H. Rider Haggard. The impression one receives of Pemberton from reading him, and about him, is of an eager but practical enthusiast, sometimes too hasty in his reactions, insistent on achieving his object despite opposition, a slightly Gallic individual with English style. He served the rose and the National Rose Society with unusual flair and vigour. After he died, one of his gardeners took over his roses, and introduced some of them. His name was J. A. Bentall.
[From The Makers of Heavenly Roses, 1985 by Jack Harkness, p. 79:] Joseph Hardwick Pemberton was born on 5 October, 1852... in Essex... [When Joseph was twenty-one, his beloved father died,] The summer after his father died, that of 1874, Joseph made up his mind to enter some of the family roses in a rose show... He won second prize, and from that moment... he was an exhibitor of roses, with his sister [Florence] as his willing and enthusiastic helper... [by 1896] they were growing about 4,000 roses... he dearly loved the remnants of his grandmother's roses in the garden ['Aimee Vibert', 'De Meaux', 'Tuscany' and others]. In 1882, he took some of them to a National Rose Society Show in South Kensington, and asked permission to stage them 'Not for Competition.'... He labelled his exhibit 'Grandmother's Roses'. The onlookers thronged around it all day, their interest in old-fashioned roses thoroughly awakened... Ever mindful of his family home and the happiness of childhood, he cherished his 'Grandmother's Roses'. He set out to breed such varieties, with the intention that they should outbloom his grandmother's, most of which were finished for the season in July, by flowering as long as the winter allowed, even up to Christmas Day. He wanted roses which would survive and bloom after all around them had perished, rather than those cosseted and nursed through their sickly lives by the showmen... For the foundation of his breeding line, he choose 'Trier'... In 1913, [Pemberton introduced] 'Danae' and 'Moonlight'... In 1919, Pemberton adopted the term Hybrid Musk [to describe his roses]...
[From A Heritage of Roses, 1988 by Hazel le Rougetel, pp. 114-117:] Pemberton had first called his roses 'Hybrid Teas' and thus they were advertised in the 1916-17 catalogue... Scotchers was an additional 2 1/2 acres (1 hectare) of land with good topsoil and plenty of clay beneath, situated a quarter of a mile away from the original nursery, where some 35-40,000 roses were grown annually for sale... All the roses of the Pemberton Nursery were bequeathed to their gardeners, who set up their own, Bentall at Havering and Spruzen at Staplefod Abbotts... [Mrs. Ann Bentall budded] all the new seedlings and [had] success with 'Mermaid' (brought out by George Paul in 1917), a rose notoriously difficult to propagate and passed to the Pemberton Nursery for [Mrs. Bentall's] expert attention...
From Growing Old-Fashioned Roses, 1994 by Trevor Nottle, p. 21: Musk Roses are] a race of roses bred in England by the Reverend Joseph Pemberton between 1912 and 1939 with the expressed aim of obtaining roses which would provide a continuous and bountiful display of bloom for the garden on bushes that were free growing and healthy. The good Reverend also held fragrance to be of great import...
[From Peter Schneider on Roses, 1995 by Peter Schneider, p. 147:] Joseph Pemberton was an Anglican curate who originated the hybrid musk roses and lived all his life in a round house with his sister...
[Pemberton's sister Florence Pemberton died 1930.]
[From Fifty Favourite Roses, 1995 by Michael Gibson, p. 54: this is what Pemberton had written about himself and his nursery in his Select Rose List of 1916:] The Roses offered in this List are Dwarf or Bush Plants. They have been grown and cultivated by the Rev. Joseph Pemberton and Miss Florence Pemberton primarily for their own enjoyment. Friends, however, have desired plants, so the Roses are now offered to the general public.
[From The Old Rose Adventurer, 1999 by Brent Dickerson, p. 362:] The Reverend J.H. Pemberton, in England, originated a group of varieties which he called Hybird Musks. They are large bushes, in bloom more or less continuously, bearing flowers of varying size and doubleness, mostly white, pale pink, and pale yellow, in gigantic clusters.
[
[See also Breeders: Pemberton, Rev. Joseph J.]
