Book  (1971)  Page(s) 22.  
 
[Describing a trip in 1947] One of the rarest roses in her [Mrs Louis Fleischmann of Chetwode Manor, Buckinghamshire] garden was the Autumn Damask, a precious heirloom from the days when a few late blooms were greatly treasured. I described her garden at some length in Gardening Illustrated for July 1951.

Book  (1967)  Page(s) 129-30.  
 
Autumn Damask or Quatre Saisons Rose
Supreme among all fragrant roses is the patriarchal Autumn Damask, Rosa damascena bifera. Virgil wrote of the Roses of Paestum, that "bear twice in the year" and Pliny of "the most esteemed" Rose of Praeneste, "that goes off the very latest of all". In the twelfth century, the Arabs brought it to Spain from the Middle East, and Spaniards carried it to the western hemisphere. Every land they settled- South America, the West Indies, Mexico, our own West Coast- came to know this old beauty by new names: the Alexandrian Rose, Mission Rose, Rose of Castile, Castilian. Much later, the French called it Quatre Saisons and the English, Rose of Four Seasons, or Monthly.

While England had the once-blooming Damask by mid-sixteenth century, the Autumn Damask must have remained a stranger until the late 1700's, when that famous rose historian, Miss Mary Lawrance, described three Roses of Four Seasons. Neither Gerard nor Parkinson mention it, and Bacon could not very well have castigated Damasks as "fast flowers of their smells" had he known this one. The scent is supreme. Francis Lester, who loved this classic flower, described it as "divinely fragrant... the perfect example of a fragrance with the power to create visions that somehow seems to be the essence of all the romances of a thousand years".

To the modern rosarian, the flowers appear wholly "unimproved", a delicate pink semidouble with sometimes enough petals to have a button eye. The buds, three or seven, pointed and enclosed by slender winged sepals that extend far beyond, are on such short pedicels that the central flower cannot open wide. But this does not reduce the production of a perfume so amazing that it blinds us to the muddled flowers. William Paul appreciated the "old group of Autumnal Roses... which are more remarkable for the delicious fragrance of their flowers, than for their size or symmetry of form. How delightful it is to wander through a plantation of Damask Perpetuals on a still moist morning in autumn, when the flowers are just expanding! It is not necessary to pluck them to inhale the perfume they inherit, for the very air is laden with their fragrance". In recent years 'Quatre Saisons' has undergone much improvement: by wise bud selection, grafted plants have been produced that bloom all summer without other care than adequate water and annual fertilizing. Some will reach 5 feet or more, but relatively new sorts seldom grow beyond 3 feet.

Website/Catalog  (Nov 1959)  Page(s) 34.  
 
(R. damascena bifera) This very ancient damask rose, much prized in the past on account of its producing autumnal blooms, is a sturdy bush with soft leaces and rather muddled pink flowers, very fragrant, borne well aloft. The 'Perpetual White Moss' is a sport from this. 4 ft. x 3 ft.

Article (magazine)  (Sep 1959)  Page(s) 206-207.  
 
Rosa damascena Mill. var. semperflorens Rowley comb. nov. This interesting Autumn Damask rose was re-introduced to cultivation by Graham S. Thomas within the past few years. It appeared spontaneously as a sport on a plant of the Perpetual White Moss Rose (Rosier des Quatre Saisons Blanc Mousseau) from which it differs in having rich pink instead of white flowers and a complete absence of moss on sepals, receptacle and pedicels. Both are pure Damask roses and both flower sporadically in the autumn as well as in early summer...The sporting takes place not infrequently and is illustrated on a colour plate showing both types of flowers on a single shoot in Carrière. Here we are told that "This variety (i.e. the Perpetual White Moss) is the result of an accident which apparently occurred for the first time at Thionville around 1835".

Book  (1936)  Page(s) 557.  
 
Perpétuelle semi-double (Portland) ? ? ; light pink = du Calendrier.

Book  (1936)  Page(s) 133.  
 
Castilla, Rosa de (?) Philippnes ? ; light pink, striped deep pink, small, dahlia-form, small foliage, bushy Habit.

Book  (1936)  Page(s) 484.  
 
Tous Mois, R. de tous les (Portland) Vibert ca. 1835; light pink, medium size, semi-double.

Book  (1935)  Page(s) 157.  
 
Somewhere, sometime, the June-blooming Rosa damascena became remontant, with a certain physical change, noted by the old authorities on roses, from an oval calyx to one of a long pear-shape, narrowing at the base so that it slopes off into the stem. This is interesting to note about these remontant Damasks, the old monthlies, as this peculiar feature has come down in a line of Hybrid Perpetuals, while, lingering on and persisting, is the distinctive fragrance of the Damask rose.

Book  (1912)  Page(s) 50.  
 
Catalogue des Roses exposées
24. Rosier des Quatre Saisons.—Damas.
C'est le Red Monthly Rose de Miss Lawrance, et le Bifera Semperflorens du Nouveau Duhamel; apprecié pour sa floraison prolongée, ce rosier était aussi nommé: Rosier de tous les mois, Rosier de deux fois l'an, Bouquet tout fait, etc.

Magazine  (26 Jun 1897)  Page(s) 231.  
 
M. Charles Baltet, l'horticulteur et pomologue bien connue de Troyes, a adressé à la Société Nationale d'Horticulture  de France un mémoire..."Étude comparative des différents sujets propres au greffage des Rosiers". ...
Nous avons passé sous silence le Rosier des Quatre-Saisons, s'épuisant par ses rejets, populaire autrefois et qui était la base du greffage forcé des Rosiers inédits ou nouveaux, multipliés dans la serre et livrés à la clientèle rosiériste. Aujourd’hui, il est remplacé avec avantage.