16TH CENTURY ROSE BREEDER

Henry Shailer, Little Chelsea, England 1788

Jenny Titcombe of Foxton chats with pride about her great-great-great-great-uncle Henry Shailer, a nurseryman who bred the ‘Shailer’s White Moss’ rose that was registered in Little Chelsea, London, in 1788.

Jenny tells me how Henry bred the highly scented rose from an underground shoot (sucker) of ‘Red Moss’. He then budded the result onto a ‘White Provence’ rose and, from this, the striped ‘White Moss’ was born. This rose was then budded onto the ‘White Provence’ rose that produced the rose bush that bears Jenny’s family name today.

The enchanting ‘Shailer’s White Moss’ rose has large, double, pure-white blooms that open from gorgeous buds covered in green ‘moss’ with an early pink blush. Sellers suggest this rose will perform best when protected from the hot afternoon sun and pruned immediately after summer flowering.

While Jenny is the first to admit she does not have a gardening bone in her body, she says finding the article about her great-great-great-great-uncle Henry through her genealogy research – and learning how he budded roses, along with the rose-breeding achievements of a long line of other green-fingered relatives – makes her feel quite proud of her family’s achievements. She says it’s nice to know her ancestor’s rose-breeding successes are still bringing joy to people so many generations on and is glad the ‘Shailer’s White Moss’ rose is still available to buy in New Zealand.