Reverend Joseph Pemberton
did his hybridizing of the Hybrid Musk Roses in the early 1900's. He was a member of the English Clergy.
Many of his hybrids have shown amazing durability in the landscape and are hugely
popular today. I have several in my garden. When Pemberton first exhibited the
roses he called them Hybrid Tea Roses and later changed the name to Hybrid
Musk Roses. The
name has little connection to the musk rose R. moschata and any genetic connection to this
rose is limited at best. The 'classic' Hybrid Musk Roses include Clytemnestra, Cornelia,
Danae and Penelope.
Florence Pemberton, Joseph's sister released what may have become the
most famous of the Hybrid Musk Roses with Buff Beauty in 1928, three years after Joseph's
death.
There is still an active breeding program of the Hybrid
Musk Roses with 'Lyda Rose' and 'Doctor
Robert Korn's' being released in the mid 1990's by hybridizer Kleine Lettunich of
Corralitos, California.
As a group Hybrid Musk Roses tend to be strong growing roses. I use them either
as large shrub roses or as climbers. I prune them for both purposes as I would climbers,
attempting to keep the canes as long as possible. When the buds have shot out small
stems I cut them off one year and remove the cane to below where the side-shoots start the
next. The blooms tend to be very long lasting and the hips give great Fall
color. By repute hybrid musk roses are hardy to USDA zone 5 or lower. Some are better with
a bit of shade than the average rose. They definitely do better with all of the sun
that they can get, great mulch, plenty of moisture, and regular pruning, to keep them blooming
repeatedly from Spring to late Fall.
