Joseph Pemberton


Joseph Pemberton 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. 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.

Rose breeding

Using the climber 'Trier', 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.
Pemberton also bred a number of more conventional hybrid teas, and several Multiflora ramblers still worth growing.
Hybrid Musks reached their apogee well after Pemberton's death. Reimer Kordes' universally grown 'Schneewittchen' of 1958 was bred from Pemberton's 'Robin Hood'.

Surviving Pemberton Hybrid Musk 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. 'Ballerina' was likewise introduced by her in 1937.
NameDateColourPollen parentSeed parentPhoto
Aurora1923Golden YellowDanaeMiriam
Ballerina1937White-centered pinkUnknownUnknown
Buff Beauty1939Orange and yellowWilliam Allen RichardsonUnknown
Ceres1914Yellow and pinkUnknownUnknown
Clytemnestra1915ChamoisTrierLiberty
Cornelia1925Deep PinkUnknownUnknown
Danae1913Light yellowTrierGloire de Chédane-Guinoisseau
Daphne1912Light pinkUnknownUnknown
Daybreak1918Golden yellowTrierLiberty
Felicia1926Pink blendTrierOphelia
Fortuna1927Light pinkLady PirrieNur Mahal
Francesca1922ApricotDanaeSunburst
Kathleen1922BlushDaphnePerle des Jardins
Maid Marion1930Pink and whiteUnknownUnknown
Moonlight1913CreamTrierSulphurea
Nur Mahal1923CrimsonChâteau de Clos VougeotSeedling
Pax1918WhiteTrierSunburst
Penelope1924Seashell pinkOpheliaSeedling
Prosperity1919WhiteMarie-JeannePerle des Jardins
Robin Hood1927Cherry redSeedlingMiss Edith Cavell
Thisbe1918BuffMarie-JeannePerle des Jardins
Vanity1920Deep pink'Château de Clos Vougeot'Seedling