Rosa ‘Robert Marnock’

Horticulture

3 May

This rose was bred in the nursery of Messrs Paul & Son, of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire and featured in the gardening press from the 1870s. It was a hybrid perpetual, a seedling of Rosa ‘Duke of Edinburgh’, and described as a rich brownish-crimson, with large, double, imbricated (overlapping) flowers.

The Paul family came to London from Aberdeenshire towards the end of the eighteenth century and purchased the Cheshunt nursery in 1806. The name is best-known today for rose varieties such as ‘Paul’s Lemon Pillar’ and ‘Paul’s Scarlet Climber.’

Rosa ‘Robert Marnock’ was one of a group of repeat-flowering Portland x China hybrids that originated around 1835 and enjoyed some seventy years of popularity. Other well-known examples included ‘Doctor Hooker’, ‘Duke of Connaught’, ‘Duke of Teck’, ‘Sultan of Zanzibar’ and ’S. Reynolds Hole’. Very few of the nineteenth century cultivars survive today. Sadly not even an image seems to exist of ‘Robert Marnock’.

The ‘Duke of Edinburgh’ rose, parent of ‘Robert Marnock.’ *The Floral magazine*, vol. 7 (1868). Image from Flickr.

The rose was not alone in celebrating Marnock. A rhododendron named ‘Robert Marnock’ was listed in The Horticultural Exhibitors' Handbook of 1892 as ‘among the best hardy kinds suitable for exhibition specimens.’

Anne Marnock also seems to have had new varieties named after her, some perhaps bred by her husband. These included a cineraria, a pansy, a pink and a pelargonium, all named ‘Mrs Marnock.’ Introduced around 1862, the pelargonium was described in Shirley Hibberd’s Floral World of that year as ‘rich rose, thin white margin, very cheerful and effective.’

We’d be delighted to hear from anyone who knows more about any of these flowers.

Featured

Marnock-Themed Plant Tour

Chris Beevers of the Yorkshire Gardens Trust reports on a guided tour of plants used by Marnock.

Plant Histories 3

Tracing the story of how one of the conifers planted by Marnock came into cultivation in Britain.

Marnock’s Plantation

Many thanks to Paul Rabbitts for these photos of conifers planted by Marnock in Leighton Buzzard over 150 years ago.

Plant Histories 2

Marnock used many exotic horticultural species in his designs. Garden historian Jill Sinclair traces the history of one of them.

Marnock in Canada

Marnock researcher Kay Keeton has alerted us to a Canadian garden that is a copy of a lost Marnock design.

Plant Histories

Students Hannah Baber and Robert Curtis, both at the University of Sheffield, have been researching the history of plants that Marnock used in Sheffield Botanical Gardens.