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'Ophelia' rose Reviews & Comments
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I'm a little surprised that there aren't any member reviews of 'Ophelia'. I bought a bagged bare-root plant today on impulse and I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes. Does anyone have feedback/reviews on their personal experience of growing 'Ophelia'?
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In my cool-ish acid soil garden over the years, I have planted the following own-root plants with ‘Ophelia’ as one of the parents: Columbia, Comtesse Vandal, Felicia, Phoebe, a foundling with the distinctive wide-spreading stamens, Talisman, Ophelia, Golden Ophelia and Dainty Bess (on fort rootstock), All were sickly and died. I’ve come to the conclusion that the Ophelia family might like more alkaline conditions.
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Reply
#2 of 3 posted
31 MAY 20 by
 HubertG
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Thanks Patricia. When I saw Asakombu's photos from 8 Jan 20 of such a beautiful plant I thought it might prefer a coolish climate, but perhaps not. I also read in an old Australian newspaper that it did well on own roots and in sandy soil too, lol, so maybe not so either. The plant I bought was under $10 so if it doesn't do well for me for whatever reason, no great loss. I look forward to experiencing the fragrance at least.
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I've grown the climbing form for many years. The blooms are exquisite and exquisitely fragrant. Wine-red coloured stamens and substantial petals that unfold in a lovely spiral. Makes a big hip for every bloom left on the plant so you get a lot more blooms if you have time to take the spent blooms off. Strong-wooded.
It's as tough as old boots (sandy soil, Fortuniana rootstock).
I've had a couple of goes at growing the shrub form and have lost it each time but cannot say whether it was because of some inherent weakness in the plant or if it just needed more TLC during its early, vulnerable years.
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1977 New Zealand Rose Annual
p89. An excerpt from a talk given by Jack Harkness to the second Australian Rose Convention, Melbourne, April 1975.
Ophelia is still grown and loved in England, after more than sixty years, which is a long time for a hybrid tea. In a Masters Memorial Lecture in 1954, Ann Wylie enumerated the sports introduced from 'Ophelia'. There were twenty-three; but one of them 'Mme. Butterfly' gave eight more, and her sports some more, making thirty-six. The tendency to sport appears to be hereditary, as witness the following.
'Ophelia' x 'Mrs. George Shawyer' gave 'Columbia' which had over sixty sports. 'Ophelia' x 'Souvenir de Claudius Pernet' gave 'Talisman' which had thirty nine sports. Altogether Ann Wylie recorded 206 sports from 'Ophelia' and her offspring and in 1954 that accounted for over half the recorded sports from hybrid teas.
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Transactions Iowa State Horticultural Society - 1940 p. 268
THE PRODIGIOUS OPHELIA ROSE*
CLARK D. PARIS AND T. J. MANEY
Much has been written about Ophelia since it was introduced by William Paul of Waltham Cross, Herts, England in 1912. This salmon-flushed Hybrid Tea Rose is very well known to every rose grower, although, at present, it is not grown to the extent that was in past years. Unfortunately, there is very little definitely known about its origin. The whole situation was reviewed in an unsigned article in Horticulture, January 15, 1934 issue, part of which we quote:
“Much has been written about the origin of the Ophelia rose, which, when first exhibited in London at the great International Show of 1912, aroused no undue comment. I have learned from Walter Easlea that prior to his leaving the non-extinct [sic] firm of William Paul to start on his own account, he was making numerous crosses with Antoine Rivoire, Pharisaer and Prince de Bulgarie; he has not the least doubt that Ophelia had either the first-named or the last as its seed parent.
“Not having flowered his latest crosses before he left the firm in 1910 and not knowing its seedling number, he is unable to say from which cross Ophelia arose. Its closeness to Prince de Bulgarie is fairly obvious. Incidentally, the late E. G. Hill, writing in the Rose Annual for 1919, expressed interest at the reported haphazard origin of Ophelia inasmuch as he had learned previously while in England that it was a seedling of Antoine Rivoire. In his opinion, everything in Ophelia pointed to that variety.
“When one dips back into history, one finds that Pernet-Ducher sent out Antoine Rivoire in 1896, Prince de Bulgarie coming from the same raiser in 1902. Pharisaer, a seedling of Mrs. W. J. Grant sent out by Hinner in 1903, may have been one of the parents of Ophelia but for a certainty either Antoine Rivoire or Prince de Bulgarie was the seed parent and in all probability one or the other was the pollen parent. The family connection between these latter varieties need not be doubted as Pernet-Ducher closely inbred, often using undisseminated seedlings. Indeed, it is not unlikely that some of his later Pernetianas, including Souv. de Claudius Pernet, containing the blood of Antoine Rivoire and the bringing together of Ophelia and Souv. de Claudius Pernet, was the probable cause of the remarkable coloring that was attained in Talisman.”
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The American Rose Annual 1919
page 35
Article heading is-The Pedigree of Ophelia.
Excerpts...
E.G. Hill who introduced the rose into America confessed himself ingorant of the parentage.
Inquiry was therefore made to the originator, and a letter from Mr A.W. Paul in England, gives all the information in the following paragraph;
"We have no pedigree of the rose Ophelia, which was not raised from artificially fertilized seed, but came from a pod gathered at hazard in the nursery."
When the above information was transmitted to Mr E.G. Hill, there came the following reply;
"I was told, when in England last, that Ophelia was seeded from Antoine Rivoire. Everything points to the presence of Rivoire blood in Ophelia. Perhaps I can later throw additional light on the subject, but of course we must credit the Pauls with their statement of its parentage."
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Thanks Sandie. it is now in the references.
There is another great article in the 1942 Australian Rose Annual, page 20 on the hundreds of Ophelia descendants.
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