Joseph Pemberton (1852–1926) was a British rosarian, remembered for creating the hybrid musk class of cultivated roses.

Career

The Reverend Joseph Hardwick Pemberton was born in 1852 in The Round House, Havering-atte-Bower, Romford, Essex; he lived there with his sister Florence until his death in 1926. He was an Anglican clergyman for more than 30 years. A keen amateur rose grower, he joined the Royal National Rose Society shortly after its founding, and in 1911 served as its president.^[1] After his retirement in 1914, Pemberton turned to rose breeding in an attempt to recreate the "Grandmother's roses" he recalled from childhood. He set up Pemberton Nursery at Romford and nearby where eventually some 35–40,000 roses were grown annually for sale. All the roses of the Pemberton Nursery were bequeathed to their gardeners, who at Romford were Jack and Ann Bentall. They released several new roses after Pemberton's death.^[2]

Rose breeding

Using the climber 'Trier' (descended from 'Aglaia', itself an 1896 cross by Peter Lambert using Rosa multiflora), Pemberton crossed it with hybrid tea roses to produce a class of highly scented, generally cluster-flowered roses which remain popular garden material to this day. Initially he classed them also as hybrid teas, but later took to referring to them as 'hybrid musks', based upon a tenuous link between 'Trier' and Rosa moschata.^[1][3]

Pemberton also bred a number of more conventional hybrid teas, and several Multiflora ramblers still worth growing.^[1]

Hybrid Musks reached their apogee well after Pemberton's death. Reimer Kordes' universally grown 'Schneewittchen' ('Iceberg')^[4] of 1958 was bred from Pemberton's 'Robin Hood'.

Selected Pemberton roses

Of the roses on the following list, 'Buff Beauty' is thought to have been bred by Pemberton but was actually introduced by Ann Bentall in 1939, some 13 years after Pemberton's death.^[5] 'Ballerina' was likewise introduced by her in 1937.^[6][7][8]

Name	Date	Colour	Pollen parent	Seed parent	Photo
Aurora[9]	1923	Golden Yellow	Danae[10]	Miriam[11]
Ballerina[7]	1937	White-centered pink	Unknown	Unknown
'Buff Beauty'[5]	1939	Orange and yellow	William Allen Richardson[12]	Unknown
Ceres[13]	1914	Yellow and pink	Unknown	Unknown
Clytemnestra[14]	1915	Chamois	Trier[15]	Liberty[16]
Cornelia[17]	1925	Deep Pink	Unknown	Unknown
Danae[10]	1913	Light yellow	Trier[15]	Gloire de Chédane-Guinoisseau[18]
Daphne[19]	1912	Light pink	Unknown	Unknown
Daybreak[20]	1918	Golden yellow	Trier[15]	Liberty[16]
Felicia[21]	1926	Pink blend	Trier[15]	Ophelia[22]
Fortuna[23]	1927	Light pink	Lady Pirrie[24]	Nur Mahal[25]
Francesca[26]	1922	Apricot	Danae[10]	Sunburst[27]
Kathleen[28]	1922	Blush	Daphne[19]	Perle des Jardins[29]
Maid Marion[30]	1930	Pink and white	Unknown	Unknown
Moonlight[31]	1913	Cream	Trier[15]	Sulphurea[32]
Nur Mahal[25]	1923	Crimson	Château de Clos Vougeot[33]	Seedling
Pax[34]	1918	White	Trier[15]	Sunburst[27]
Pemberton's White Rambler[35]	1914	White	Unknown	Rosa multiflora[36]
Penelope[37]	1924	Seashell pink	Ophelia[22]	Seedling
Prosperity[38]	1919	White	Marie-Jeanne[39]	Perle des Jardins[29]
Robin Hood[40]	1927	Cherry red	Seedling	Miss Edith Cavell[41]
Sammy[42]	1921	Carmine-red	Gruss an Teplitz[43]	Trier[15]
Thisbe[44]	1918	Buff	Marie-Jeanne[39]	Perle des Jardins[29]
Vanity[45]	1920	Deep pink	'Château de Clos Vougeot'[33]	Seedling

References