There is no question in my own mind about whether Jack Harkness knew how to breed good roses: he did. Any breeder who could release twenty percent as many good roses in a lifetime could be proud of his achievement. Still, I will occasionally consider a rose that has fallen into obscurity and discover that it has to its name a long list of awards. When this happens I cannot help but wonder whether he also had a considerable skill at gaming the award system.
I have heard it said that Harkness awarded 'Jersey Beauty' two stars. Since it was rare for him to award any rose so much as a single star, and Jersey Beauty's qualities are fairly difficult for many who study roses to distinguish from those of other roses, one wonders whether Harkness was this far out in front of everyone else in his tastes or whether he simply had a playful capacity to make us think he was.
I have planted Mountbatten, Savoy Hotel, and Margaret Merril in terrible soil and they perished promptly. This is the limit of my personal experience in growing his roses. I have seen Livin' Easy and was impressed by its luminous color when being lit by the clear San Jose sun, but I did not like the rose much. Elizabeth Harkness I saw also in San Jose and liked it much. It reminded me of Catherine Mermet. It had ever so slightly more color and was ever so slightly smaller in size. Rose gardeners who would like to grow the Tea rose but who live in zones too cold to do so might find Harkness' introduction a reasonable substitute. I saw Paul Shirville once and it was a great disappointment, bearing only a cursory resemblance to the trio of flowers in the single good photo I have ever seen depicting the cultvar in every trade offering.
The magic of Jack Harkness has gone on to infect the aura of his roses: many of his roses have very special and unique sets of qualities yet I would be hard pressed to identify a single rose that has convincingly impressed me in my own garden or in someone elses. The images, several of them, wow conistently. Savoy Hotel may not be a big rose, but it is one of a dozen or so roses that seems never to take a bad picture. In the garden that may not be worth much. In the business of promoting roses it is everything. Maybe Harkness is spending eternity hanging out with Dali and laughing at the image-making machine whose inner workings they simultaneously exploited and tried to undermine. Who can say?
Plant some of his roses and tell me the results; Compassion and Jacqueline du Pre seem promising.
| Name | Color | Class | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alexander | Vermilion | Large Flowered | 7.0 |
| Anna Zinkeisen | Primrose | Modern Shrub | |
| Armada | Candy Pink | Modern Shrub | |
| Basildon Bond | Apricot | Large Flowered | |
| Betty Harkness | Orange | Cluster Flowered | |
| Cardinal Hume | Cerise | Modern Shrub | 7.7 |
| City of London | White | Cluster Flowered | 7.6 |
| Compassion | Pink/Orange Blend | Large Flower Climber | 8.5 |
| Conqueror’s Gold | Red/Yellow Blend | Cluster Flowered | |
| Cosette | Candy Pink | Cluster Flowered | |
| Easy Going | Apricot | Cluster Flowered | 8.0 |
| Elizabeth Harkness | Buff | Large Flowered | 7.6 |
| Escapade | White/Pink Blend | Cluster Flowered | 8.6 |
| Fragrant Surprise | Apricot | Large Flowered | |
| Greensleeves | Green | Cluster Flowered | |
| Harold MacMillan | Vermilion | Cluster Flowered | |
| Jacqueline du Pre | White | Cluster Flowered | 7.8 |
| Julie Y | Scarlet | Large Flowered | 7.1 |
| L’Oreal Trophy | Orange | Large Flowered | |
| Livin’ Easy | Orange | Cluster Flowered | 8.1 |
| Margaret Merril | White | Cluster Flowered | 8.3 |
| Marjorie Fair | White/Pink Blend | Modern Shrub | 6.4 |
| Mountbatten | Yellow | Cluster Flowered | 7.0 |
| Octavia Hill | Shell Pink | Modern Shrub | |
| Pandora | Primrose | Miniature | |
| Paul Shirville | Shell Pink | Large Flowered | 7.5 |
| Peacekeeper | Coral/Gold Blend | Cluster Flowered | |
| Poetry in Motion | Pale Apricot | Large Flowered | |
| Pride of Maldon | Copper | Cluster Flowered | |
| Princess Alice | Chrome Yellow | Cluster Flowered | 7.5 |
| Queen Charlotte | Pink/Orange Blend | Large Flowered | 7.9 |
| Radox Bouquet | Pink | Cluster Flowered | |
| Rosemary Harkness | Apricot | Large Flowered | 8.2 |
| Savoy Hotel | Pale Pink | Large Flowered | 7.7 |
| Scabrosa | Rose | Hybrid Rugosa | 7.5 |
| Southampton | Apricot | Cluster Flowered | |
| Sue Ryder | Vermilion | Large Flowered | |
| Sunset Boulevard | Orange | Cluster Flowered | |
| Victorian Spice | Candy Pink | Cluster Flowered | 7.8 |
| Yesterday | Pink | Polyantha | 7.4 |