Miniature and Miniflora Rose Suppliers - American Rose Society

Among the giants of this amateur uprising the solitary
woman, in what was a man’s world to date, was
an Australian born lady living in Southern California
by the name of Dee Bennett. From the very
beginning her goal was concentrated on producing
exhibition style miniature roses in all colors
in her own garden in Chula Vista. She quickly
gained the necessary expertise and soon the backyard
was transformed into her own commercial nursery
called “Tiny Petals”, a nucleus for keen exhibitors
from all over the United States. In the beginning, Dee
followed conventional wisdom depending on previous
selected parents by Moore, Williams, and others.
Eventually, with experience on her side, she
developed her own brand of miniature rose breeding
by using such seed parents as the deep mauve
floribunda ‘Deep Purple’, the light pink hybrid
tea ‘Electron’, and orange floribunda ‘Tiki’, all well
known for their exquisite hybrid tea form. However,
her discovery that the orange red hybrid tea,
‘Futura’, made an excellent seed parent was a stroke
of genius. Combined with pollen from an award winning
miniature bred by Harm Saville, called ‘Party Girl’,
Dee produced a record number of award winning
roses from this combination - ‘My Delight’, ‘Pink
Porcelain’, ‘Pucker Up’, ‘Sugar 'n' Spice’,’Jean Kenneally’,
‘Sweet Pickins’, ‘Mother's Love’, and
‘Naughty But Nice’. Her herculean efforts resulted
in a catalog of premier exhibition miniature roses covering
the complete alphabet! That’s a real legacy!
Table 15.
Miniature Roses bred by Dee Bennett
(1978-1983)
CULTIVAR COLOR YEAR PARENTAGE
‘Ada Perry’ op 1978 [‘Little Darling’ X ‘Coral Treasure seedling’]
‘Angel Dust’ w 1978 [‘Magic Carrousel’ X ‘Magic Carrousel’]
‘Plum Duffy’ m 1978 [‘Magic Carrousel’ X ‘Magic Carrousel’]
‘Cissie’ mp 1979 [‘Gene Boerner’ X ‘Elfinesque’]
‘Lelia Laird’ rb 1979 [‘Contempo’ X ‘Sheri Anne’]
‘Luvvie’ pb 1979 [‘Little Darling’ X ‘Over the Rainbow’]
‘Peachy Keen’ ab 1979 [‘Little Darling’ X ‘Sheri Anne’]
‘Sweet Sue’ lp 1979 [‘Pink Ribbon’ X ‘Pink Ribbon’] ‘
‘Tiffie’ lp 1979 [‘Little Darling’ X ‘Over the Rainbow’]
‘Tiny Tears’ mp 1979 [‘Pink Ribbon’ X ‘Pink Ribbon’]
‘Dominique’ lp 1981 [‘Electron’ X ‘Little Chief’]
‘Georgette’ mp 1981 [‘Electron’ X ‘Little Chief’]
‘Twinkle Twinkle’ ab 1981 [‘Contempo’ X ‘Sheri Anne’]
‘Fairest of Fair’ ly 1982 [‘Sunbonnet’ X ‘Rise 'n' Shine’]
‘Hot Shot’ or 1982 [‘Futura’ X ‘Orange Honey’]
‘Rosy Dawn’ yb 1982 [‘Magic Carrousel’ X ‘Magic Carrousel’]
The next giant that emerged from the group of amateur
breeders was Harm Saville. Living and gardening
in Gloucester, Massachusetts in 1965 his
house, shared with his wife Chip, was surrounded by
14
a white picket fence that called out for a rambling
rose to make the New England look complete!
His first purchase of a miniature rose grew quickly
into an obsession with his other hobbies taking a back
seat. Harm constructed his first indoor growing system
in his basement, complete with lights and misting capabilities.
Once he mastered the propagation of
miniature roses from cuttings, the obsession
turned to hybridizing. By 1971 Harm Saville
went completely commercial. He mailed his first
catalog of varieties, mostly developed by Ernest
Schwartz of Baltimore, Maryland, to 500 potential
customers. His company, Nor’East Miniature Roses
was born! Soon the greenhouses appeared on the
property. Realizing the need for more space Harm
and Chip moved to Rowley where he developed 18
acres allowing him to erect seven doublepoly greenhouses
for hybridizing. By 1975 he produced his
first color catalog. No longer just content with growing
and selling miniature roses, Harm ventured into
breeding. This soft spoken man, often wry and always
unassuming, went on to develop a long list of
prize winning miniatures.
Initially Harm Saville started off with a conventional
approach using such well established parents as
‘Sheri Anne’ and ‘Rise ‘n’ Shine’, both from
Moore, which resulted in 1979 with a spectacular
yellow blend miniature rose of exceptional form and
grace, namely ‘Party Girl’. He was not to know that
this variety would as seed parent in other hands
(Bennett, Taylor, Williams, Laver Jolly, Bridges, etc.)
yield a series of award winning cultivars. Saville only
introduced two cultivars with ‘Party Girl’ as seed
parent, ‘Winsome’ and ‘Glory Be’. And yet his persistent
crossing with ‘Sheri Anne’, ‘Yellow Jewel’, and
‘Rise ‘n’ Shine’ continued to be highly productive in
his breeding program. In particular, the cross of
‘Rise ‘n’ Shine’ with ‘Watercolor’, both by Moore,
gave him in 1984 the well loved yellow blend
‘Rainbow’s End’, still grown today all over the world.
Whatever his guiding principles Saville has been the
most successful at breeding exhibition type miniatures
in the widest range of colors and blends.
Two of Dee Bennett’s Later Creations
‘Irresistible’ 1990
^ ‘Luis Desamero’ ^
1990