Book  (Jul 1993)  Page(s) 90.  
 
R. gigantea is the largest-flowered of all Climbing Species and is one of the main ancestors of our modern roses...

Book  (1990)  Page(s) 133.  
 
[Alister Clark used R. gigantea as one of the parents in his breeding program] He believed that this rose's great vigour was an essential attribute to pass on to his hybrids.

Book  (1988)  Page(s) 14.  
 
The ancestor that gave to the Tea roses their special character. This glossy-leaved species clambers vigorously through other plants in its natural environment … The flowers of R. gigantea are white, five-petalled, opening the size of your palm; but in the bud, before they open, they have the most exquisite form, high pointed and slender, a shape that future generations would value above all others.

Book  (1981)  Page(s) 98-99.  
 
R. gigantea Collett ex Crép.
synonyms: R. odorata var. gigantea (Crép.) Rehd. & Wils.;R. macrocarpa Watt ex Crép.; R. xanthocarpa Watt ex Baker [The follow excerpt shows why this book is such an invaluable reference for students of species roses]
A native of N.E. India, Upper Burma and Yunnan; discovered by Sir George Watt in Manipur in 1882 but described in 1888 from specimens collected by Sir Henry Collett in the Shan Hills of Upper Burma...and introduced by him (the seeds were distributed from the Calcutta Botanic Garden in 1889).
The largest flowered of all wild roses...R. gigantea was reintroduced by Frank Kingdon Ward in 1948 from Manipur, where he found it flowering....(Plant Hunter In Manipur (1952), pp. 45-6). The largest plants he saw had stems 'as thick as a man's forearm', but the original specimen at the Château Eléonore attained a girth of almost 5 ft at the base before it died.
R. gigantea, in its typical state, extends into the southern parts of the Chinese province of Yunnan. But of greater interest are the forms collected by Forrest in central and norther-western Yunnan, which are of smaller stature than R. gigantea of Burma, even shrubs no more than 5 ft high, with fragrant flowers in shades of pale yellow or rose....It is perhaps these Yunnan forms, which Forrest found both wild and cultivated, that gave rise to the tea-scented roses of Chinese gardens....

Book  (1978)  Page(s) 146.  
 
R. gigantea   Climber   White   Early  summer   P3   H2 
The  Giant Rose of north Burma  and  south-west China; so called from its great growth.  As Graham Thomas pointed out at a conference in 1968, it was as well no larger ones were subsequently discovered, for if so the name became nonsense. The flowers are creamy white and single, fairly large for a wild rose, but by no means gigantic. Outdoors in Britain, one can scarcely hope for more than the odd flower from  it. I once had a plant with shoots up to ten paces long, and having kept it a few years for very few flowers, hoped to see it in full bloom; but frost ended its life, always a likely fate of this rose in Britain. C. C. Hurst took it to be the pollen parent of three of his 'Stud Chinas', his main grounds being a comparison of characteristics. Nobody has disproved him as far as I know; and in that case R. gigantea is an important parent of  modern roses. Some rosarians believe it to be the source of the Tea scent. It has been known as R. odorata gigantea, which is calling it a variety of the non-existent wild Tea rose, a strange procedure. A pink variety exists, R. gigantea erubescens. 

Book  (1965)  Page(s) 93.  
 
R. gigantea, 'the giant rose' -- we might say the queen, the empress of wild roses -- ascends in nature to a height of 40 feet or more by means of its strong shoots and hooked prickles, with large elegant drooping leaves and great lemon-white silky flowers 5 inches across. They have lent their poise and length of petal, their texture and their fragrance, to the Old Tea roses of the last century, which became merged with the Hybrid Teas and are now seldom seen. It is scarcely surprising that this luxuriant inhabitant of south-west China and upper Burma, where the monsoon spends itself in the mountains, should not be taken kindly to the British climate. We can perhaps give it the rain it needs, but not the sun's ripening power, and in consequence its sappy stems get cut by the autumn frosts, and really cold winters will raze it to the ground or kill it outright. In greenhouses and on the Riviera the tale is different, and superb blooms have been picked under glass. For some years Mrs Nigel Law grew large plants in the open in her garden at Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, but they were killed in a cold winter; they flowered well in warm summers. There are records in the 1939 Annual of the National Rose Society, page 177, of its growing and flowering well in such varied districts as Chepstow, Monmouthshire; Hinckley, Leicestershire; Hayward's Heath, Sussex and in Suffolk. It is evidently worth trying in sheltered gardens.
    This regal rose was introduced from the Far East in 1888; there appears to be more than one form in cultivation in this country: a white flowered plant with rather small leaves and a much larger plant with large leaves and large lemon-white flowers. The former grows well on a sunny wall at the John Innes Institute, Hertfordshire; the latter was my first introduction to this species when it flowered in the corridor of the greenhouse range at the University Botanic Garden, Cambridge, in 1929. An account of this particular form is in The New Flora and Silva, vol. i. The smaller type would appear to be more hardy, but could certainly not be called 'regal'. It is possible that the larger type may be that which Collet called 'macrocarpa'.
    We must, I am afraid, write this rose off as a garden plant for general use in England. But if what Dr Hurst called his 'Four Stud Chinas' -- or at least two of them -- were descended from the China Rose and this species, it has had a profound influence on modern rose-breeding. 'Park's Yellow Tea-Scented China' in particular, and 'Hume's Blush Tea-Scented China' are both looked upon as of gigantean derivation, if only on account of their scent. They were, presumably, old roses in China before being bought over here. These China hybrids produced flowers throughout the summer and autumn, and R. gigantean gave them what yellow colouring they had, together with long petals and a silky texture.
    All this and more is fully explained in my two earlier books on roses. Here we are concerned with climbing roses, and unfortunately these two 'Stud Chinas' became linked with a species of the Musk Rose Section, and gave several roses of diverse characters which later became known as Tea-Noisettes or Climbing Teas. 
    It has been stated that the fragrance of the Tea Rose resembles that of the Tea plant (Thea sinensis), but I have not found this so. On the other hand , several of them smell exactly like a freshly opened packet of gentle China tea -- not the fully 'tarry' quality but 'slightly tarry'. This delicate and delicious aroma is found in several roses, one of the best known being 'Lady Hillingdon' and another 'Paul Lédé'.

Book  (1946)  Page(s) 34.  
 
Alister Clark.  Save The Roses.
My 40-year-old plant of Rosa Gigantea died, the largest plant I have had here, the growth being almost too rampant, going up to over 40 feet (see illustration page 64d). Gigantea has left behind with me some of my choicest seedlings, and I hope to still work with its offspring, as they all seem to inherit clear colouring and vigour.

Book  (1940)  
 
p31.  Photo.

p132.  Editor.  Historic Pictures.
The lower picture represents the trunk of Mr. Clark's original plant of Rosa Gigantea, and is famous because so many of his seedlings owe their vigour to the fact that their parentage may be traced back to this vigorous old plant. While on a visit to England about 43 years ago Mr. Clark purchased two plants of Rosa Gigantea from Mr. George Paul. They subsequently reached Australia and were planted out by Mr. W. Peers, then head gardener to Mr. Clark. One of these plants almost immediately succumbed, while the other had a more or less precarious existence until removed by Mr. Peers to its present position, close to some large trees, where it was soon established and became a picturesque figure in the garden. Using the trees for a support, it rapidly ran up to a height of 30 feet or more, while the length of its branches reached from 53 to 57 feet, and was a sight when covered with its cream coloured single flowers. A few years ago a severe storm blew down one of the supporting trees, bringing the plant down to its present more horizontal position. Some idea of the immensity of this plant may be formed by the size of the trunk shown in the illustration. 

Book  (1940)  Page(s) 449.  
 
R. odoràta Sweet ... R. o. gigantea (Coll.) Rehd. & Wils., var. Very vigorous, climbing to 10 m.; fls. creamy white, single, 10-15 cm. across; pedicels and receptacle smooth. B.M.7972(c). W.R.34(c). G.C.III.6:13;37:136;51:314. Gn.67:179.;71:67. (R. g. Collett.) S.W. China, Burma. Intr. 1889. Zone VII.

Magazine  (Dec 1936)  Page(s) 143.  
 
Déjà, en 1933, la « Societa Italiana Amici dei Fiori » (La Société Italienne des Amis des Fleurs), accueillant une de mes propositions, annonça un Concours International pour roses hybrides de la « R. Moyesii » et de la « R. Bracteata » ; ensuite l' « Ente Mostre Floreali » (L'Entité des Etalages Floraux) de San-Remo, annonça le concours, qu'on n'a pas oublié, pour des hybrides de « R. Gigantea », de « R. Banksiœ » et de « R. Odorata ». Le but principal de ces concours est de diriger le travail des chercheurs de « nouveautés » selon un but déterminé en primant ceux qui ont obtenu les meilleurs résultats.....Prof. Br. BRASCHI, Directeur des Jardins de la Ville de Rome.