Origin: “Queen Marie Henriette”
Flowers: 15 cm
Height: 10m
Also known as "Beautiful Portuguese" or "Beauty of Portugal”, this was the first Hybrid Rose of Gigantea cultivated in the West. It was created by Henri Cayeux, a French botanist, who was head of the Botanical Garden of Lisbon. In 1896 François Crépin, sent to Portugal a plan of "Rose Gigantea” and when it bloomed, with beautiful flowers around 13 cm in diameter, Cayeux started to perform hybridizations with tea roses and hybrid perpetual.
His ambition was to achieve beautiful and vigorous rosebushes that could withstand the Parisian winter. From his meticulous work resulted five roses: "Beautiful Portuguese" and "Star of Portugal" in 1903, "Amateur Lopes", "Lusitania" and "Beans Palmira" in 1905. Unfortunately, with the exception of "Beautiful Portuguese", they all disappeared.
"Beautiful Portuguese" is one of the first garden roses to bloom early in spring. Its flowers, exceptionally large ones, can reach 15 cm in diameter and they exude a slight scent of tea. The crimson buttons, thin and elegant, give places to beautiful flowers, rosy cream colored. The outer petals of a pale rose color on the back are huge. As for the ones on the inside, they are of a light pink, smaller and more concentrated around the heart of the flower, keeping it closed slightly, which produces a very unique effect.
The leaves are wide and of a thin light green, typical of “Rose Gigantea”.
Extremely vigorous and resistant, this rosebush can reach considerable heights, and is now a very popular rose in almost all the world, particularly in southern Europe, California, Australia, New Zealand and India.
After more than a century and in the "age of globalization" the "Beautiful Portuguese" remains the only Portuguese Rose, whose success is undeniably universal.
His ambition was to achieve beautiful and vigorous rosebushes that could withstand the Parisian winter. From his meticulous work resulted five roses: "Beautiful Portuguese" and "Star of Portugal" in 1903, "Amateur Lopes", "Lusitania" and "Beans Palmira" in 1905. Unfortunately, with the exception of "Beautiful Portuguese", they all disappeared.
"Beautiful Portuguese" is one of the first garden roses to bloom early in spring. Its flowers, exceptionally large ones, can reach 15 cm in diameter and they exude a slight scent of tea. The crimson buttons, thin and elegant, give places to beautiful flowers, rosy cream colored. The outer petals of a pale rose color on the back are huge. As for the ones on the inside, they are of a light pink, smaller and more concentrated around the heart of the flower, keeping it closed slightly, which produces a very unique effect.
The leaves are wide and of a thin light green, typical of “Rose Gigantea”.
Extremely vigorous and resistant, this rosebush can reach considerable heights, and is now a very popular rose in almost all the world, particularly in southern Europe, California, Australia, New Zealand and India.
After more than a century and in the "age of globalization" the "Beautiful Portuguese" remains the only Portuguese Rose, whose success is undeniably universal.
