Monticello Gardens

Common name: Champneys Pink Cluster Rose, Noisette Rose

Family: Rosaceae (Rose)

Distribution: Garden Origin

Hardiness: USDA Zone 6

Life form: Deciduous shrub

Usage: Ornamental

Comments: ‘Champneys Pink Cluster’, considered America’s first hybrid rose, originated in Charleston, South Carolina sometime between 1802 and 1811. The cross occurred at the plantation garden of John Champneys, an early 19th-century rice grower, who selected this fragrant, abundantly-flowering rose by crossing the ever-blooming ‘Old Blush’ China and the Musk Rose (Rosa moschata plena). Champneys shared seedlings with his neighbor Philippe Noisette, a French immigrant, who sent them on to his brother Louis, a rose breeder in Paris. It is now part of a class of roses known as Noisettes, thanks to Louis’ success in selecting and introducing many new forms. Cuttings for this plant were taken from a rose that once grew at a private Virginia plantation on the James River.