[From Miniature Roses: Their Care and Cultivation, by Sean McCann, p. 8:] Miniature roses may be small in stature, but they are big in popularity -- they have been called 'nature's over-achievers'. In the United States of America the boom began in the 1970s. The trend was picked up in Europe and spread from there, and today there is hardly a country without a nursery specializing in miniatures and offering hundreds from catalogues that bring the little roses from all around the world.

[Ibid, p.11:] The increase in miniature breeding has been such that in 1969 only seven miniatures were registered; within 10 years the total was 50 a year; another 10 years on and the annual registration for miniature reached almost 70.

[Ibid, p. 18:] McCann appreciates their versatility -- they can be grown in containers, borders, hanging baskets, rockeries, or beds... Some will tumble down walls or cover a bank, some can be trained up a fence or to cover garden eyesore... They are also, in most cases, even hardier than ordinary roses... [some are] sold on budded or grafted stock [as bare roots]... but the great majority [in pots] are grown from finger-length cuttings that can be sold as tiny plants within a year and often within six months...

[From Gardening with Roses, by Judith McKeon, p. 32:] Miniature roses are a fascinating, diverse class that represents the rose world in microcosm. Typically, the tiny flowers resemble many-petaled hybrid tea or floribunda roses; however, old-fashioned styles of flowers are also represented, with single, semidouble, and mossy buds that open to full, old rose blooms... Miniature roses also display a wide range of habits.

[From The Quest for the Rose, by Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix, p. 226:] A few Miniatures have been around since before the nineteenth century. 'Centifolia Parvifolia' or 'Pompon de Bourgogne', a dwarf Centifolia, has been grown since 1664.

[From Cut-flower Roses, by Rayford Reddell, p. 48:] Miniature roses are among the best of all cut flowers. In general, they outlast their full-size relatives for days. None outperforms 'Jean Kenneally'.

[From Roses: An Illustrated Encyclopaedia & Grower's Handbook, by Peter Peales, p. 55:] the distinction of breeding the first popular hybrid Miniature goes to the Dutchman de Vink. He crossed 'Rouletii' with the Dwarf Polyantha 'Gloria Mundi' to bring forth 'Peon', a small Miniature whose red flowers each have a white eye.