Magazine  (2007)  Page(s) 24. Vol 29, No. 3.  
 
Susan Irvine. Alister Clark Roses at Forest Hall. Top of my list are two of the smallest of all – Border and Suitor..... ‘Suitor’ is just as low growing, with bright pink flowers fading to white, very recurrent and strongly perfumed. It grows and flowers profusely in Tid Alston’s garden. It is possible that it was never formally released, although it is listed in Modern Roses, the world encyclopedia of roses, under Alister’s name, with the date 1942. It deserves to be much more widely planted, and as I like things growing in groups rather than singly, I ordered three.

Website/Catalog  (2003)  Page(s) 75.  
 
Suitor. Polyantha. Medium Pink. Clark, A. 1930

Website/Catalog  (2000)  Page(s) 11.  
 
Suitor. Polyantha. 1942. Clark / Aust. Semi-groundcover. Double. Fragrant. Small flowers. Many blooms in clusters. Recurrent. 0.7m x 1.1m. Medium pink.

Book  (1999)  Page(s) 17.  Includes photo(s).
 
‘Suitor’ – 1942. Unknown breeding. Polyantha Bush rose. Small, short stemmed bud. Double, fragrant, mid-pink flowers, fading lighter and flecked darker pink, in large clusters, fully recurrent. Light to mid green foliage, small leaflets. Few prickles. Flower 35 petals, 40 mm 14 to 45. Spreading bush 6m [0.6m?] x 1m.

Book  (Dec 1998)  Page(s) 569.  Includes photo(s).
 
‘Suitor’. Modern. Polyantha, Medium pink, repeat-flowering. This dwarf Polyantha produces rose pink flowers of over 24 petals, and are borne in clusters of 10-20 that are small and strongly perfumed – unusual in a Polyantha. The flower production is good and repeat-bloom is rapid, and the foliage is matt mid-green with few prickles. There is very little mildew. ‘Suitor’ makes a nice little dwarf hedge as the flowers keep their color well and last a long time. Zones 5-10. Clark, Australia, 1942. ‘Alice Amos’ x unknown.

Website/Catalog  (1998)  Page(s) 11.  
 
Suitor. Polyantha. 1942. A. Clark / Aust. Semi-groundcover. Double. Fragrant. Recurrent. 0.6m x 1.0m. medium pink.

Magazine  (1998)  Page(s) 12. Vol 21, No. 2.  
 
Betty Kruger. Darling Downs Region. As well as the continuously flowering borders of the pink polyanthas Suitor and ......

Book  (1997)  
 
p117 Alister Clark’s ‘Borderer’, bred as the name suggests for this express purpose, is equally effective. So is ‘Suitor’, whose mid-pink blooms, borne in huge clusters, fade slowly to almost white, all shades of pink being on the bush at the same time. If dead-headed regularly all three roses will flower steadily from spring till the end of autumn and offer an attractive alternative to box or nepeta as a border for the rose garden. They are all effective also as container-grown plants.

p183. Carrick Hill. ....Several of them are bordered by some of Clark’s lower-growing roses; the mid-pink constantly flowering ‘Suitor’ .....

p235 Suitor. Alister Clark rose. Bright pink, fading with age, double. 30 x 50 cm. Flowers continuously.

Book  (1997)  Includes photo(s).
 
p89. [with Eve Murray, Langley Vale] …..There was a large, low bush, simply covered with clusters of the most cheerful bright pink flowers. “That’s ‘Cherub’,” said Eve. “Alister loved it.” From the cuttings of ‘Cherub’, I had a hundred percent strike and when it bloomed in the garden at Bleak House the following year everyone loved it. But by then I had gleaned more scraps of information about Alister’s roses and ‘Cherub’ was described in 1923 by Brundrett, who marketed it, as “a very vigorous climber with profuse, non recurrent bloom”. Clearly this was not the low-growing, tireless performer I had got from Eve. I put it on ‘hold’, pending more information. But in the meantime it was in constant demand since it flowered incessantly. Finally I persuaded John Nieuwesteeg to propagate it for me and we called it simply “Not Cherub”!

p93. It was my husband .....who suggested I go to see Tid Alston. Tid has a property at Oaklands Junction not far from Glenara and her parents had been great friends of a Alister and Edie. So this was the next step. In her rambling, country garden, full of rare treasures, I did indeed find some of Alister’s roses. ....And here was the same little bright pink Floribunda which Mrs. Murray had given me and called ‘Cherub’. Tid called it ‘Suitor’ and said Alister had given it to her mother who had been particularly fond of it. This posed another problem. According to available descriptions, Tid’s mother had had all of the other names correct, but nowhere in old nursery catalogues or Rose Annuals or in lists of Alister’s roses had I found any mention of a rose called ‘Suitor’. Perhaps Tid’s mother, like Eve Murray, had been wrong? It was not until seven years later that I found, in one of Alister’s articles a brief account of it. He spoke of a little Floribunda which pleased him greatly and which he planned to release next year under the name of ‘The Little Visitor’ “and another, similar, which I plan to call ‘Suitor’.” So Tid’s mother had been right, as she had been in every other case, but Alister had, in fact, never got round to releasing it. It has become one of my favourites. Cheerful and ever-blooming, it is just right in the front of a border.

p95. You would look a long way to find better border roses than ‘Borderer’ and ‘Suitor’.

p206 So I filled the whole long bed between the big pots and the standards with Alister Clark’s delightful little low-growing border rose, ‘Suitor’. It grows to not much more than thirty centimetres and it is in flower from spring until it is hit by the first frosts in June. The little double roses are borne in huge clusters, opening bright pink (he was certainly a man for bright colours)and fading to almost white.

p226-227. Picture. ‘Suitor’.

p247 ‘Suitor’ – Good for edging a bed. Tiny, rich pink, double blooms in big trusses. Hardly ever out of flower.

p253 ‘Suitor’ – No date of release. Probably 1940s and possibly never officially released. Small bright pink flowers which fade to nearly white on a very low-growing bush. In flower from early spring to onset of winter. Our plant from Alston’s garden.

Book  (1996)  Page(s) 143.  
 
Suitor. Clark, Australia, 1942. Polyantha. Pink. [Available from] Bleak, Cottage, Country Farm, Duncan, Golden Vale, Hedgerow, Hilltop, John’s World.