Family : Rosaceae
Class : Old Rose – Bourbon
Text and pictures © Giuseppe Mazza
English translation by Mario Beltramini
The rose ‘Catherine Guullot’ is born in Lion, France, in the nurseries of Jean-Baptiste André Guillot son, the well known hybridizer of the famous rose ‘La France’, who in 1860 dedicated this variety to his lady.
It belongs to the group of the roses Bourbon, born casually on the island of Bourbon, nowadays Réunion, from the crossing of a Rosa chinensis, probably the variety ‘Old Blush’, with an autumn Damascena, possibly the Rosa x damascena ‘Quatre Saisons’.
Introduced in France in 1823 by Henri Antoine Jacques, they were at once used by various hybridizers due their fragrance and especially due to their remontancy.
‘Catherine Guillot’, known also as ‘Michael Bonnet’ and ‘Michel Bonnet’, forms a tuft well ramified, 150-185 cm tall on a base of about 120 cm with medium green leaves slightly glossy.
The flowers, very perfumed, with notes of raspberry, have even 55 petals arranged as a flat cup. They stand between the purple pink and the Indian pink, isolated or in groups of 3, and may reach the 12 cm of diametre.
It blooms at cycles during the whole vegetative season, resists well to cold, up to about -15 °C, and is good for elegant fences or for decorating the house as a romantic cut flower.
Unluckily, it fears the powdery mildew and the black spots, that must be prevented with suitable treatments; but basically even without treatment it gets along, seen that has reached, unharmed, our days.
→ History of the rose : from the Wild Roses towards a perfect rose.
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