The world’s great roses

IN Germany, Mathias Tantau jnr took over the Holstein nursery from his father, also Mathias, shortly after the Second World War. Tantau creations include ‘Fragrant Cloud’ and ‘Super Star’.

The other famous German breeder, Wilhelm Kordes, managed to get the pigment pelargonidin into the larger-flowered roses by crossing the floribunda ‘Baby Chateau’ with one of his own best hybrid teas, ‘Crimson Glory’. He called his cinnabar-red seedling ‘Sondermelding’ [‘Sondermeldung’], but it was renamed ‘Independence’ for the British and American market. Other famous Kordes roses are ‘Iceberg’ and ‘Marlena’ – a dwarf floribunda that seems almost to have started a sub-class of its own.

In France, the Meilland family are perhaps