A note by Don Ballin hybridizer of the Catherine Graham Rose

THE CATHERINE GRAHAM ROSE 

A new hybrid tea variety, very fragrant, with pink and silvery white petals.

Registered in 2006 with the American Rose Society

A note by Don Ballin hybridizer of the Catherine Graham rose

About fifteen years ago, as I was cruising our garden,  I noticed a medium pink and white striped rose growing on a plant of Sheer Bliss.  Knowing this wasn’t what Sheer Bliss looked like, I marked the stem and  watched to see if the anomaly would repeat.  It did.  I took what eyes the stem allowed, budded them, and the following spring I had several plants of this new rose.  

I  kept  the plants, growing them in containers.  I knew, because the striping was not stable, this rose was not commercially valueable but because it was unusual and very fragrant I kept it.  Several years later, the striped rose produced a solid silvery pink bloom that was  very fragrant. 

A wonderful lady, Catherine Graham, for whom I did rose consulting, had a large rose garden at her lake front home along Lake Michigan. When Mr. Graham passed away, Mrs. Graham moved to downtown Chicago, regretting the necessity of leaving her beloved rose garden.  We kept in contact after the move and our friendship evolved  always talking roses. About 6 years ago in conversation with Mrs. Graham's daughter  Lili, she asked if there was some way to get a rose named for her mother in honor of her birthday.  I felt the sported rose could serve this purpose; I registered it as Catherine Graham with the American Rose Society (the international registrar for rose names) and arranged for Lili Gaubin to have the roses produced by Palatine Nurseries in Canada.  

The first crop of 150 was gifted to the Chicago Botanic Garden and the Grant Park Rose Garden in downtown Chicago.  A lovely party was held on July 31st 2009 at the Chicago  Botanic Garden to celebrate Mrs. Graham’s birthday and present her with the rose.

Since that time, more roses have been produced, some being sent to relatives of the family who reside in France, some  sent down to Argentina where Catherine  now shares  a second home with Lili and some to friends who are rose lovers that they have made over the years.  Lili and Catherine both decided they would love to see the Catherine Graham rose in more public gardens and gifted 12 plants to the American Rose Center in Shreveport Louisiana where they   are now planted and blooming in the Illinois-Indiana District Garden. Next year a large bed will be planted at Rose Hills in California, some will be in the Libertyville, Illinois Rose Garden, and other select locations.

Catherine Graham, the rose, a hybrid tea, has withstood our winters, producing a lot of intensely fragrant blooms with pink and silvery white petals. There is an ethereal beauty to the color and it honors a lady of gentle manner and grace.

Paula and Don Ballin

Don Ballin is past president of the American Rose Society (1985-1988), ARS Gold Honor Medal of 1980, and hybridizer of the Catherine Graham Rose. Don and Paula Ballin  have recently been honored with a most coveted award from the American Rose Federation, the Blake Hedrick Award for their long excellence and commitment to the principles of rose exhibiting.