(7 Nov 2007)  
 
Alice Flores chatted with Joyce Demits on November 7, 2006 concerning the origin of 'The Gift'...

"It's interesting. Joyce had in her garden, some 30 years ago, a small hedge that was made up of a group of little China roses that her sister had gotten as seeds from a catalog offer. She and I agreed that they were probably the type that is still offered as "Angel Roses" -- James Delahanty asked me about these a while ago. She seemed to think that they were actually a species -- they were all single and about 18" high. And pink.

"Right behind this hedge, and towering over it, was a rambler that she had bought from Roses of Yesterday and Today as R. souleiana. It clearly was NOT. She said it had all the Multiflora characteristics, but was very double!! In its lifetime in her garden it dropped lots of seeds (located between the rambler and the China hedge) and she grew out several of them.

"She selected 'The Gift' as the most vigorous and with the best bloom characteristics -- i.e. big white clusters that had individual flowers that didn't brown as the subsequent blossoms opened. She is as certain as one of the foremost rose experts in this country can be that the pollen parent was the little China and the seed parent was the Multiflora -- she calls it a Polyantha. Sounds about right. She added that the Multiflora was much too big and rampant, and after a few years she got rid of it.

"Her method amused me. Since it was so huge, she simply created a hole in the plant and set a fire inside it! She burned it on site and then still spent years grubbing out all the root sprouts that followed. It's gone now.

"Joyce is interested in the seedlings that come from 'The Gift' and she has grown several of them. She agreed that many of them resemble the original plant -- but not all. She is growing a seedling at this time that is pink, double, and about 3' tall and spreading."

Website/Catalog  (2006)  Page(s) 96.  
 
R. multiflora var. nana (hort.) comb. nov. = R. polyantha Sieb. et Zucc. var. nana hort. = 'Nana' = R. carteri hort.

Website/Catalog  (2006)  Page(s) 96.  
 
R. multiflora var. nana (hort.) comb. nov. = R. polyantha Sieb. et Zucc. var. nana hort. = 'Nana' = R. carteri hort. - not in ERS [Europa-Rosarium Sangerhausen!

Article (website)  (Mar 2005)  Includes photo(s).
 
Rosa 'Multiflora Nana'
D'après des informations qui m'ont été communiquées par Fred Boutin en provenance d'un article de Gisèle de la Roche sur les premiers rosiers polyanthas (* de la Roche, G., "The Earliest Polyantha Roses", International Dendrology Society Year Book, 1969, pp 78-96) Léonard Lille, horticulteur à Villeurbanne (Lyon, France) reçut en 1879 des graines envoyées du japon par un certain Dr. Hénon. Ces graines étaient issues d'un cultivar de la forme japonaise de R. multiflora. Les plantes qu'il en obtint se croisèrent dans ses plantations avec des roses de Chine et des roses thé (voire probablement des chinois nains), et Lille en sélectionna une série de rosiers nains remontants à fleurs souvent doubles, blanches, roses ou "rouges" à partir desquels il produisit de la graine qu'il mit au commerce en 1887 sous le nom de 'Plate Bande' ou de 'Polyantha nana perpetua'.
Quelques années plus tard, en 1891, Lille commercialisa des graines d'une autre lignée de rosiers nains sour l'appellation de 'Multiflora Nana'. Des articles parurent à leur sujet dans La Revue horticole, N° 12, juin 1892, p. 281 et Le Journal des Roses, N° 7, juillet 1892. Ces derniers aux caractères nettement multiflores étaient peut-être dérivés plus directement du rosier multiflore dont il avait reçu des graines du Japon.

Book  (2005)  Page(s) 141.  
 
location I:I/7; J:II/10, Multiflore nana pérpetuelle, Lille 1893, Pol., light pink to white, small, single

Book  (2001)  Page(s) 185-186.  
 
Multiflore Nain Remontant (Lille, 1893) syn., 'Multiflora Nana Pérpetuelle'. [The author cites from the Journal des Roses 1900] This variety is so floriferous that I have seen bloom on seedlings having no more foliage than their cotyledons. ...In their fourth year, they make little spreading bushes varying from 3-4 dm [30-40 cm]...blossom is usually white, small, full or semi-double, sometimes nearly single....grown, in the fourth year, over 80 dm tall...

Book  (Dec 2000)  Page(s) 316.  
 
Multiflore Nain Remontant Polyantha. Leonard Lille 1893

Book  (19 Apr 2000)  Page(s) 485.  
 
Rosa multiflora 'Nana' is a horticultural cultivar of the species with recurrent bloom and dwarf, bushy habit.

Book  (1996)  Page(s) 76.  
 
R. multiflora 'Nana' perhaps a hybrid of R. mult. x R. chinensis, or perhaps a mutation of R. multiflora. The seeds which are supplied under the name 'Kussröschen' [Little Kiss roses] or 'Engelsröschen' [Little Angel roses] are obtained from R. mult. 'Nana' and not from R. chinensis 'Minima'. White to light pink, single to semi-double, floriferous and long-blooming. Short habit. Own root.

Book  (1988)  Page(s) 37.  
 
Rosa multiflora var. nana A dwarf form of R. multiflora, making a low bush up to 0.8m high, perpetual flowering, either pale pink or white, Graham Thomas records that this rose can flower in two months from seed. It is possibly a dwarf, recurrent-flowering mutant of R multiflora, in the same way that the perpetual China roses are dwarf mutants of the wild climber.