Website/Catalog  (1897)  Page(s) 65.  
 
Tea-Scented Roses and Their Hybrids
Waban. A deep-coloured sport from Catherine Mermet which originated with Messrs. E. M. Wood & Co. at the Waban Conservatories, Mass., U.S.A.  The flowers are carmine pink, shaded with deeper red, quite distinct from Catherine Mermet:  blooms that were exhibited in England last spring were much admired.  It has received an award of Merit.

Website/Catalog  (1894)  Page(s) 3.  
 
Novelties and Recent Introductions.
Dwarf or Bush. Tea and Hybrid Tea Varieties. 
Waban. A sport from Catherine Mermet, which it follows in form and habit; colour soft carmine pink, the edges of the outer petals more deeply tinted; will probably prove as fine a show variety as the original.   s. Exhibition.  b. Fine buds.  g. Garden.  d. Decorative. 

Book  (1894)  Page(s) 307.  
 
Teas and Noisettes.
Waban (Wood and Co., 1891). — Another sport from Catherine Mermet, also from America. Not yet sufficiently tested, but at present it does not often come good. The Bride being so successful, we expect much from the two other American sports from the same Rose, Waban and Bridesmaid, but the one under notice has not hitherto been often seen to advantage.

Magazine  (1894)  Page(s) 83.  
 
The Bride is now regarded equivalent in merit to its parent, but Waban and Bridesmaid do not possess such great distinction.

Book  (1893)  Page(s) 644.  
 
Waban is a sport from the same source, and is now just being offered for sale. It has sported in an opposite direction, producing fine flowers of a deep carmine shade.

Magazine  (1892)  Page(s) 241.  
 
Very interesting sport variants have been obtained in America during the propagation of the popular forcing rose Catherine Mermet.... This year the sport Waban (E.M. Wood) will be introduced, pure carmine-red, shaded soft red....

Magazine  (1891)  Page(s) 51.  
 
Mr. Strong:
...I mean the Waban rose. The facts were told to me by Mr. Montgomery, who was the originator of the rose. It is a sport from the Catharine Mermet rose. Mr. Montgomery told me that the plant which had been planted in their conservatory, after two or three years had become an old stunted plant and they were about to throw it away, until he noticed one day that it had produced a large deeper colored rose than the normal type, and it had been in such a state of neglect that he ascribed the change in color to the condition—environment. He preserved the shoots of that rose, noticing it as so marked. He propagated the rose, and it has retained its characteristics.

Magazine  (1891)  Page(s) 91.  
 
A Rose grower of New Jersey secured a sport from Catherine Mermet Rose, identical, he says, with Montgomery's Waban, and he proposed giving his sport the name Hugh Waban, to distinguish it from the Massachusetts plant; but before doing so he had the laudable courtesy to submit the question to this committee. We advised him of the impropriety of using the name he proposed, and that he should adopt for his plant the first published name, Waban, and as a precedent quoted to him the case of the Bride Rose, which originated at two different places at the same time. Nor was this a solitary case. In acknowledging our letter, he replied: "I wish to thank you for your explicit and carefully considered verdict regarding my sport from the Mermet. . . . Your recommendation will be followed out as far as practicable. My chief concern had been to avoid imposing or infringing upon the originators of the rose Waban."