adapted from "Art Coutts' Roses" by Paul G. Olsen, in
The Saskatchewan Rose Society Newsletter, Vol 10 No 3 (January 2007)
Art Coutts is known for his achievements in fruit development for the Prairie region. He worked with several fruits, including apple, pear, plum and strawberry. He also made a brief foray into rose breeding.
Mr. Coutts grew up on a farm near Unity, Saskatchewan. He had an early interest in gardening and fruit culture because his father was an avid gardener and orchardist.
In 1934 Mr. Coutts enrolled in the 2 year Associate Agriculture diploma program at the University of Saskatchewan. Percy Wright, who had developed a nursery at Wilkie and was beginning to breed roses, taught the English course he had to take.
When Mr. Coutts retired from farming in 1973, he concentrated on breeding fruits. He established a close relationship with Dr. Alec Hutchinson of the Ontario Department of Agriculture Vineland Research Station. From Dr. Hutchinson, he obtained pollen of non-hardy apple and pear cultivars to use in his breeding programs. His most successful apple breeding resulted from a breeding line of ‘Patterson’ x ‘Golden Delicious’.
Percy Wright visited Mr. Coutts on several occasions since he was keenly interested in his fruit breeding work. In the late l97O’s, Mr. Wright gave Mr. Coutts seeds of Rosa canina from a location 180 kilometres north of Oslo, Norway. In his notes, Mr. Coutts wrote: “I think it was a hybrid as it was a nice pink flowered rose with I7 petals.” From this seedling (Rose #1), he hybridized several roses.
Mr. Coutts lived to the age of 92. He was born in 1914 and died November 3, 2006. He was survived by two sons (Jim of Unity, SK and John of Saskatoon, SK) and a daughter, Louise (Calgary, AB).
