2010 Australian Rose Annual page 48.Obituary. Frank Benardella (July 5, 1932 - January 30, 2010)
Code = BEN---
[From
Frank Benardella: Earning His Stripes as a Hybridizer,
American Rose Annual 1994, by John Mattia, pp. 55-6:] Benardella's approach to creating Miniature roses involved making at least 50 crosses with the pollen from a parent plant, using a Hybrid Tea with excellent bloom form, into a proven Miniature seed parent that readily sets hips... The crosses are made in the greenhouse over a four-month period between April and July. The Kordes cut flower
'Laguna', an orange-red Hybrid Tea, is one of his favorite pollen plants, since it readily passes on its desirable traits of good form and a panorama of pleasing bloom colors...
Benardella, drawing on his background as an exhibitor, has achieved his hybridizing fame by consistently creating Miniature roses with classic Hybrid Tea form. It is the prime characteristic of nearly all his commercial successes. Indeed, the success of Benardella's roses abroad revolves around the demand for picture-perfect Miniature roses for the cut flower trade...
In the past few years he has gained acclaim in such areas as Japan, South Africa, Europe and New Zealand for creating commercially viable striped Hybrid Tea roses...
'Tinseltown',
'Zebra'...
[From
Botanica's Roses, p. 677:] Benardella has been raising roses since the 1980s. He is a specialist in Miniatures... In recent years, he has concentrated on developing Large-flowered Hybrid Teas...
