Book  (5 Apr 2010)  
 
'Sheila Bellair'. HT, op, 1937, Clark, A.; bud long, pointed; flowers salmon-pink, large, semi-dbl., cupped, moderate fragrance; recurrent; foliage rich green, leathery; bushy (4 ft.) growth. [Miss Mocatta × unknown]. Introductions: NRS Victoria

Book  (2010)  Page(s) 158.  Includes photo(s).
 
Sheila Bellair was born on 18 December 1912 at ……

Magazine  (2008)  Page(s) 45. Vol 30, No. 1.  
 
Lois Roberts, Drillham, Queensland. Alister Clark Roses. More Alister Clarks, two of ‘Sheila Bellair’ were purchased 18 months ago, and were such a picture in early October, but are not nearly as dense a bush as.....

Book  (2002)  Page(s) 88.  
 
....I added two more Australian-bred roses to the General’s bed – both pink – that I find entrancing. Alister Clark’s ‘Sheila Bellair’ is one of my favourites among Clark’s roses – a glowing pink and semi-single.

Book  (1999)  Page(s) 15.  
 
Sheila Bellair – 1937. Large Flowered Bush rose, semi-double, salmon pink flowers. No longer available

Magazine  (1997)  Page(s) 28. Vol 19, No. 1.  
 
Elizabeth and Andrew Govanstone. The Women Behind the Roses. Alister’s love of horses, polo and racing was reflected also [in] Sheila Bellair (1937) and .....

Book  (1997)  Page(s) 210.  
 
.......continued
So I took cuttings - cuttings I did not need, for I had plenty of ‘Sunny South' - and I took some for Ellen, too, and showed her how to take them. I wrapped the cuttings carefully in wet newspaper and put them in plastic bags brought for the purpose.
It was just as we were leaving that I had a sudden flash of inspiration. "Did Sheila have any other roses in the garden, Ellen?" I asked. "Only two;' came the reply. "She really wasn't a gardener. There was one more just here and one outside the kitchen door: From the undersized bush beside 'Sunny South' I could get only three cuttings, so starved and neglected it was. And though I told myself it was hoping against hope, I could not dispel a lingering thought that perhaps Ellen had mixed them up. After all, she was over eighty. Sheila had been dead for many years. It is easy enough to mix up plants in one's own garden, let alone in someone else's. Especially when they are growing side by side.
When we got back to Echuca I helped Ellen plant her cuttings at the end of the vegetable garden, against a rickety paling fence. We put in ten and I am confident that by now she must have a perfectly splendid hedge of 'Sunny South~ for as a rule every piece strikes.
My own cuttings I put carefully in the glasshouse and, in due course, I had fifteen beautiful little plants of 'Sunny South'. We raffled them in aid of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute each time a group of visitors came to the garden.
The cuttings from the rose outside the kitchen door struck too, but when they flowered they turned out to be a rather ordinary red which I have never identified. Of the three taken from the poor little bush so dwarfed by 'Sunny South’, two pined away and died. The last I watched over with tender, loving care. It was my last hope. After long waiting roots did form and I potted it up in potting mix. And one morning months later I came out and found the dearest pink semi-single rose, the colour of a sun-ripened peach, revealing when open a trace of pale yellow round the golden stamens, and perfectly fitting the description of 'Sheila Bellair’..

p226-227. Picture ‘Sheila Bellair’

p253 ‘Sheila Bellair’ – HT. 1937. ‘Miss Mocatta’ x ?. Large, semi-double, open, mid to salmon-pink flowers with golden stamens. Our plant from her own garden.

Book  (1997)  Page(s) 208.  
 
....I was checking through my cards for the hundredth time one evening, “Bellair”, I said, “Sheila Bellair. What an unusual name.” Bill, born and bred in Victoria, has an encyclopaedic knowledge of all things Victorian. It transpired that he knew a John Bellair.
"An old fellow, he'd be. Eighty at least:” That was just the age-group I was interested in. Alister Clark died in 1949 and most of those who had known him well were in their eighties.
So I rang John Bellair, now living at Upper Beaconsfield. He was, indeed, in in his eighties, but with all his faculties unimpaired. Yes, Alister Clark had named a rose after his sister, Sheila. She had been delighted. A pretty pink. it was, he said, with not many petals. This tallied with the description I had from an old Rose Annual which said: "Hybrid tea, released 1937. Large, semi-double, open, pink, bushy:'
The rose had been released just before Sheila was married, her brother said, and she had planted it in the garden of a house she and her husband had built at Balliang. Callendale it was called......
I did ring the owner of Callendale that evening and all my fears were confirmed. They had cleared out "all those old things" in their first year there and replaced them by modern roses which she would be very happy to show me if I cared to come back in the spring.
So that was the end of that lead. I rang John Bellair again. He was sorry and disappointed, but not vanquished. Sheila had moved later to a property outside Echuca and he was sure she would have taken cuttings of the rose with her. She had had a great friend in the town, the widow of a local solicitor, and she was still there. John was sure that she would be able to help.
I made my initial contact that same evening. Ellen was more than happy to talk about old times, the days she had spent with Sheila, and the pride Sheila had taken in the rose named after her. Ellen knew exactly where it grew behind the house, near the swimming pool. She could see it now, and the lovely arrangements of pink roses in a silver rose bowl that Sheila had always had on the dining-room table.
The property was owned now, she said, somewhat disparagingly, by "horse people". They would know nothing of roses, but she, Ellen, would go out and see them and find out whether the rose was still there. I expressed my warm appreciation and forebore to mention that Alister Clark, too, had been something of a "horse person".
Next week she rang back, full of excitement. The rose was there. It was not in flower, but the "horse people" had no objection to our taking a few cuttings. It took me six months and untold phone calls to arrange a suitable day. Either it was too cold, or it was too hot, or the roses weren't out, or it was bushfire weather, or Ellen had a cough, or the "horse people" were too busy.
Finally we made it. I picked Ellen up in Echuca and we drove out together. It didn't look promising. The drive was lined with horse floats. It was dusty and unkempt, the garden overgrown and the house needing paint. Still, I argued, this did not mean that the rose was not there. Alister's roses were notoriously tough. And Ellen was undaunted. Round the back of the house we went, and down to the swimming pool. "There;' cried Ellen, flinging out her arm in a gesture of triumph, "There it is! 'Sheila Bellair'!"
My heart sank. Rising tall and majestic out of a sea of nettles and docks, crowned with at least a dozen clear pink blooms, was a perfectly splendid bush of 'Sunny South’. There is no mistaking 'Sunny South' once you have seen it. Of all the roses he bred or grew at Glenara it was Alister's favourite. At the time of its release it had achieved tremendous popularity. Growing to over two metres, it made a fine hedge, with its large, semi-double pink flowers "flushed carmine" as the catalogues said.
I could not bring myself to tell Ellen she was wrong, that all our planning had been for nothing. She was so sure, and so happy to have been able to help. So I took cuttings - cuttings I did not need, for I had plenty ...

Newsletter  (1995)  Page(s) 19. Vol 4, No. 2.  
 
Sheila Bellair. HT 1937. Alister Clark. Miss Mocatta sdlg.

Book  (1994)  Page(s) 82, 85, 121.  
 
Page 82: Sheila Bellair Alister Clark 1937. Hybrid Tea. Large, semi-double, open, pink, bushy... The rose had been released just before Sheila was married... and she had planted it in the garden of a house she and her husband had built at Balliang. Callendale it was called.
Page 85: Sheila Bellair the dearest pink semi-single rose, the colour of a sun-ripened peach, revealing when open a trace of pale yellow around the golden stamens.
Page 121: Sheila Bellair Hybrid Tea. Clark 1937. 'Miss Mocatta' x ?... Large, semi-double, open, mid- to salmon-pink flowers with golden stamens...