Rose ‘Mill’s Beauty’
On page 134 of volume 48 (dated August 24, 1895) of The Garden: An Illustrated Weekly Journal of Horticulture In All Its Branches, under the heading Rosa setigera, it says:
The numerous varieties in this group are at once specially distinguished by their leaves being rough to the touch, shining on the upper surface, downy and glaucous underneath, deeply toothed at the margin, and furnished with curved prickles on the mid-rib and principal veins. The flowers are borne, mostly in threes, in numerous corymb-like clusters.
It lists a few varieties and then under ‘Mill’s Beauty’ it has the following:
A very vigorous-growing and most noteworthy variety, producing a brilliant effect when its flowers, which are of a redder colour, but not so double as those of the preceding variety [R. s. var Beaute des Prairies], are in the full flush of their freshness. An extra fine kind.
This is a rare rose and in past years Nick, whose this one is, called it his ‘Great Unknown Setigera’ It has now been identified as the same rose growing in Roseraie du Val-de-Marne à l’Haÿ-les-roses in France. ‘Mill’s Beauty’ is also known as or ‘Miller’s Climber’ and is a R. setigera hybrid of somewhat unknown origin. According to volume 12 of Modern Roses it was bred before 1835 and may be a hybrid between R. setigera and R. arvensis. It also says that it is more likely of U.S. origin rather than the generally assumed England.
