• First Flight (hybrid tea, Perry 2004)

9 favorite votes.  

Medium red Hybrid Tea.

Bred by Astor Perry (United States, 2004).

Hybrid Tea.  

Red.  Blooms in flushes throughout the season.  

USDA zone 6b through 9b (default).  

The new hybrid First Flight Rose has its roots in
Raleigh, where Astor Perry first landed on the unique
tribute idea more than a year ago. In search of a
brilliant red Garden Tea rose, Perry hybridized this
particular flower in his home-based garden workshop.
The result of breeding a cross between a King of
Hearts and a Chrysler Imperial rose created a unique
seedling originally designated as "number 94-7." The
eventual namesake and tribute idea came from a phone
call Perry received one day. "The folks from the Outer
Banks called me and asked if I'd consider breeding a
rose as a special tribute to the 100th anniversary of
the Wright brothers' first flight," said Perry. "It
was good timing, because I had just successfully
completed hybridizing number 94-7 and it was an
exceptionally good seedling."

Astor Perry knows a good seedling when he sees one.
Now retired, he spent 34 years as a professor of
agronomy at North Carolina State University; and, in
his spare time over the past 37 years, Perry has been
propagating roses on his own at home. Of the thousands
and thousands of roses Perry has grown over the past
four decades, the First Flight Rose is definitely
among his favorites. "I'm very proud that they asked
me to produce the First Flight Rose," said Perry. "My
tribute is small compared to the magnitude of what the
Wright Brothers did, but I hope people are pleased
with this special rose."