'Hot Lips' The Mysterious History I wish that I could tell you exactly when this rose was introduced, who named it and why it was never given a proper 'new rose introduction'...but I can't. 'Hot Lips' was definitely one of those lipstick colors that Mom's had put into her Book of Potential Rose Names, but I seem to recall that I was the person who finally made the decision to use that 'sexy name' for this particular rose. I always did like the slightly risque rose names, and this rose definitely is a hot color. 'Hot Lips' has a patent issue date of 12-1-87, which means that it was probably registered in 1986 and sold for the first time in January of 1987; but it wasn't listed in the 1987 TPN catalog. In fact, it first appeared in the 1988 catalog and was only show as one of Mom's 'other roses' in the body of the book...and without a photo. There is no mention of 'Hot Lips' as a 'new introduction' in any TPN catalog. I can't imagine how that happened. All of the plant registration and patent information is in storage in Nevada right now, so I can't research it at this time. 1986 and 1987 were very strange and stressful years. That was the time, when I found out that Mom was dying. It was also the time, when I became an owner of TPN; but most importantly and tragically, this was during this time that Mom passed away. I guess, I'm allowed to have lapses of memory for those tough months in late '86 and early '87. Mom had three huge plants of 'Hot Lips', growing in the backyard. They were moved to large, wooden barrels, when the nursery over the rose beds to hold more benches. Those barrels turned out to be a horrible mistake. Within a year, several of the barrels developed a lethal case of wood rot. Two of the 'Hot Lips' stock plants fell victim to the fungus, which grew and attached itself to their root systems. Only the mother plant survived to later become a part of my front yard garden. There it grew beside my sundial, until it was dug up and moved with TPN to Silver Springs, Nevada. The most incredible part of 'Hot Lips' story has to do with the 'theft of its name'. In 1995, a Canadian nurseryman introduced a deep pink floribunda, calling it 'Hot Lips' in his catalog. That rose was never register...just sold through the Canadian nursery. I became aware of the second 'Hot Lips', when I found it listed in the Combined Rose List. It took me several phone calls, before I was able to reach the hybridizer, Mr. Williams. He was a southern gentleman and a customer of TPN who greatly admired Mom's work and understood the significance of registration and patent rights. Mr. Williams told me a remarkable story about his floribunda. It seems that he had sent a plant of his test rose to a nurseryman in Canada for evaluation only. The man had named and sold the test, without consulting Mr. Williams. At that point, he became the first victim of this unscrupulous Canadian nurseryman. Unfortunately, he was unable to correct damage had been done and had lost all control of his test rose. He was horrified to hear that the rose had been illegally named. My next step was to take my protests to the ARS and the Combined Rose List. That had very little affect. The editor of CRL initially insisted that he had to list 'all commercially available roses'. He finally agreed to stop listing the floribunda, when I informed him that the CRL might become part of a law suit, along with the Canadian nurseryman. Certainly, I had every right to sue this nurseryman, who had failed to follow legal registration procedures for this rose and was misusing a patented rose name. As the patent holder, I could have named CRL as a party to this illegal action, because they were the publication which was 'implying that the floribunda was legally named' by listing it in an international rose reference book, especially after the call from me. The editor accepted my argument. On the other hand, the ARS ran with the new rose. It became a part of every publication list from the ARS Handbook to the RIR from 1995 on to the present time. The worst insult came, when the ARS published Modern Roses XI with a companion CD-ROM of the roses. My gorgeous photo of Mom's orange-red mini was shown with the description of the Canadian floribunda. 'No photo available' was all that appeared with the description of Mom's mini. (Groan) You can only guess how angry that made me. I protested all the way to the top of the ARS, including the ARS President and editor of Modern Roses XI, and was informed that nothing could be done about this misinformation, until a new Modern Roses was released. They also refused to take the floribunda out of the ARS Handbook and RIR, "because it was already being sold under that name". The floribunda turned out to be a dud. So, rather than invest a great deal of money in an international law suit, I decided to let this rose reach it's own commercial death. Of course, Mr. Williams was the real loser in this situation. Now, let me tell you a bit more about the 'real' rose that is named 'Hot Lips'. This is fast growing plant that can easily attain waist height in only a few months. There are plenty of long stemmed blooms of bright orange-red are usual borne one-to-a-stem with nice hybrid tea form, but I wish that they had one more row of petals. That would make them better for exhibiting. 'Pink Porcelain' A Customer's Suggestion Yep. A customer named this rose. Mom liked to show her customers what test roses were blooming, when they visited Tiny Petals. During one of these walkabouts in the test area, a woman customer stopped to take a closer look at a pale pink bloom. Then, she touched it and said, "It just doesn't look real. It looks like it's been made of...pink porcelain." It was just as simple as that. Mom liked the idea, and the 'porcelain looking' test rose was registered as 'Pink Porcelain' in 1980. Surprisingly, this mini was not introduced as 'a new rose' in the TPN catalog, until 1983. In the early 80's, Mom had asked me to help her with some paperwork. To be exact, she had 12 patents that were all about to be declined or abandoned, because Mom's attempts to write patents were pathetic. Among those first patent applications was the rose 'Pink Porcelain'. I still remember writing the new patent papers for that rose. Mom had failed to keep any copies of her original applications and descriptions; so, I had to start from scratch. That including taking a new photo too. I remember staging the collection of blooms for the photo that Mom would use several years later in her 1987 color catalog. I also remember tearing those blooms apart to do the petal count and match the color to the Wilson Colour Charts. 'Pink Porcelain' has unbelievable parentage. It is the same cross of as 'Jean Kenneally'. The seed parent was 'Futura' (an orange-red hybrid tea), and the pollen parent was 'Avandel' (a yellow blend mini). It is hard to imagine either of those roses producing a seedling like 'Pink Porcelain'. This mini makes a knee-high plant with dark green foliage and tons of blooms in delicate pink that have only a slightly damask scent. The blooms which come one-to-a-stem or in small sprays are heavily petaled and take several days to fully open. Unfortunately, the flowers do have a tendency to show a hole in the middle of the bloom, when it opens past the 1/4 point. This can be discouraging to exhibitors, who are looking for a truly high center. 'Ultimate Pleasure' My Ultimate Favorite Mom nicknamed her greatest mini test rose 'Pink Jean', or maybe she meant 'Pink Gene'. You see, it's seed parent was the wonderful floribunda 'Gene Boerner'; and the pollen parent was the mini queen machine, 'Jean Kenneally'. I know that she was naming it for one of the parents...but which one...or both? I forgot to ask. Long before this rose was ever introduced to the public, I knew that it belonged at the top of my list of great roses. When people would ask me, "What is your favorite rose?", I would tell them "My #1 is 'My Sunshine', until Mom's pink test rose gets released." Of course, that would always leads to the big question, "When?" I held this rose back for a number of special reasons. Initially, I wanted to put it into the Award Of Excellence trials. That turned out badly, as the rose came in at #21, during the first year of testing, which bumped it out of consideration. I still don't understand how that happened. This is a truly extraordinary rose, and I thought that it would be a shoe in for the AOE Award. The fast growing plant reaches waist height in just a few months. The gorgeous, pink blooms with a paler pink reverse absolutely cover the plant for a breathtaking display. It is impossible to ignore in the garden. The flowers have wonderful form and come in both one-to-a-stem blooms, as well as bouquet like sprays. I knew that it was destined from the trophy table for the first time that I saw it. If that weren't enough, this is one of the most disease resistant roses that I have ever grown. Something must have really gone wrong, during the trials, for the evaluators to mark this rose so low. After that AOE disappointment, I decided to hold back the pink mini for just a bit longer. I had another idea in mind for 'my favorite rose'. I was only a couple of letters short of completing Mom's alphabet of mini roses. I wanted to finish the Dee Bennett ABC's with something special...a great rose...the pink. The remaining letters in the alphabet included 'K' and 'U'. When my granddaughter was born, my son, Brian said that she would have to be named 'Kay' or 'Ursula', in order to assure that I named one of the roses for her. Now, you know that isn't truly; but it did help to knock off one letter, when my new grandbaby was named 'Kay Denise'. That left the letter 'U' for the pink mini test, and I wasn't going to name it 'Ursula'. *lol* I felt that this rose was worthy of the 'Up Sisterhood' (i.e. 'Pucker Up', 'Cuddle Up' and 'Cheer Up'), but that would require the 'Up' to be at the front of the name. I considered 'Up, Up And Away'; but I wanted to save that name for a climbing rose. 'Upsy Daisy' wouldn't work, because you're not supposed to use the name of another plant, when naming a rose. For example, you can name a rose 'Petunia' or 'Marigold'. Of course, 'Up Chuck' and 'Up Yours' weren't appropriate either. The name 'Unforgettable' had already been used. I gave some consideration to 'Undercover', 'Unbelievable' and 'Uniquely Yours'; but they just didn't sound quite right. Finally, I decided to drag out my 'Oxford American Dictionary'. Yep. I went right to that my favorite reference book again. I opened it to pages full of 'un-this' and 'un-that'; then, I went back to the start of the U's and soon came across 'Ultimate'. Okay...'Ultimate...What'? After some pathetic options (i.e. 'Ultimately Yours', 'Ultimate Winner' and 'Ultimatum'), I realized that the second word should begin with 'P'. That would give the new rose the initials 'U.P.' and make it an 'Up Sister'. I really liked that idea. Now, the question was, "What words begin with 'P' and go along with 'Ultimate'?" 'Ultimate Pink' had been used already. Back to the dictionary. 'Partner'...'Pastry'...'Pastel'...'Pet'...'Perfection'? Hmmm? Nope...too obvious..."pretentious", as Digger Dave would say. : ) I was up to my arm Pits in P's, when I saw the word 'Pleasure'. Hmmm? "Kinda sexy sounding name...'Ultimate Pleasure'?" Yeah! I liked it immediately...an 'UP' and sexy to boot. The name had been chosen, and the rose that finished the Dee Bennett alphabet was introduced in 1999 with a photo that I had taken of the pink test rose way back in 1985, when Mom was still alive and calling it 'Pink Jean' or 'Pink Gene'. Think Pink A Short, Sweet History Few minis have a truly noticeable fragrance. That is why Mom was so pleased, when she discovered that one of her test roses had a wonderful, fruity scent. In fact, this rose smelled just like a freshly cut slice of a green apple. Surprisingly, Mom did not choose to acknowledge the remarkable fragrance, when she named this mini. Instead, she went back to her list of Avon lipstick colors for the name 'Think Pink'. Of course, she could have also given this rose a name that reflected it unique form. The blooms are extremely heavily petaled and quite often open with a center that is reminiscent of an Old Garden Rose...almost quartered. What amazes me is the fact that neither the unique flower form nor fragrance is present in the parents of 'Think Pink'. Its seed parent is the beautiful, deep pink, hybrid tea 'Electron'; and its pollen parent is the deep pink mini 'Little Chief'. 'Think Pink' makes about a knee-high size plant, and the flower are typically borne in tight bouquets of about 5 blooms. Unlike its deep pink parents, 'Think Pink' is medium pink with outer petals that are even paler pink. 'Sweet Pickins' My Mom had this pretty, soft pink test rose. It was a cross of her favorite seed parent...the orange-red, hybrid tea, 'Futura', and the yellow blend mini, 'Party Girl'. This was the same combination of parents that gave Mom her great mini, 'Jean Kenneally'. This rose also produced an abundance of the same wonderful, long stemmed blooms with perfect show form and made a fast growing bush to rival 'Jean Kenneally'; but the color was a delicate baby pink. Unfortunately, it also had the same difficulty resisting the effects of powdery mildew; but I knew that, with proper care, this rose could be another Queen Machine. Mom had selected the great name 'Sweet Pickins' from her book of possible rose names, many of which were just passing thoughts, ideas from friends and even Avon lipstick colors. Only Mom knew the original source of this rose name. I had been taking photos of Mom's test roses for several years. She liked the way that I staged the flowers in my pictures. Those photos were needed, when submitting patents. Up to that time, Tiny Petals had only put out one catalog with a color cover. Even the ARS ran only small photos of the minis in the Rose Magazine introduction issue. Most of the focus was on the new hybrid tea and floribunda introductions...but that situation was about to change. The ARS Magazine staff had just decided to give the mini introductions their own, separate issue; and they would need a photo of a mini for that first 'all mini issue' in December of 1985. Without telling Mom, the editor had selected one of my photos for that cover. It seems that she could not resist this photo of the new Dee Bennett mini, called 'Sweet Pickins'. 'Angel Dust' In 1978, Mom was still a newbie in the nursery business. This was the first year that she introduced her own creations. She began with 2 perfect little test roses, one in deep mauve that she called 'Plum Duffy' and another in white with a delicate pink blush on the edges of the petals. The second test rose had petals that could have been "wings for a fairy or better yet...an angel". Unfortunately, the name 'Angel Wings' had already been used. One day, she heard the words 'Angel Dust' used somewhere (probably on the news). She couldn't remember, where she had heard it. She certainly didn't make the connection between the 'beautiful name' and street slang for the horrible drug PCP. She just liked the name, and decided that it would be perfect for her little white and pink mini. Apparently, several people in the ARS also had no knowledge of drug slang, because no one questioned Mom's use of this name, when she registered her new rose. It wasn't, until the 1978 Tiny Petals catalog and the ARS Rose Magazine announced the new introduction with the name 'Angel Dust' that Mom started to get phone calls from her rose friends, asking about her sale of drugs through the Tiny Petals catalogue. Mom was absolutely mortified by her mistake. She refused to send out any more of her 1978 catalogs; and it was several years later, before this mini ever returned to a TPN catalog. Mom was always embarrassed to admit that one of her roses had the same name as a horrible street drug. 'Fat 'n Sassy' My Mom had a number of expressions in her vocabulary that seemed to be uniquely her own. Certainly, no other people that I knew called their child a 'wigwam from a goosey's bridal', when they were acting silly. As I grew older, I discovered that some of Mom's strange terms of 'endearment' (?) were probably the result of her upbringing in Australia or something left over from her teenage slang of the late 30's and early 40's. After all, her youth was filled with such classic song lyrics as "Hot sot ralston on a rilara and a so on so on so forth" and "Mares e dotes and does e dotes and little lams e ivy". Now, mix in a touch of Aussie silliness, and you get Mom-ology. In 1886, Mom introduced one of her test roses with the name 'Fat 'n Sassy'. I realized immediately that Mom had gone back to her youth for this strange combination of words. Yes, the test rose was 'Fat'. The heavily petaled blooms of white, blush deep red in the sun. The bush was even tall , standing about knee to hip high in her garden. As for the 'Sassy' part of the name, it had several meanings to me. Sassy, when used alone, could mean that you were "talking back" (like to an elder). You know..."Don't give me any of your sass, young lady!"; or "Don't you be sassy with me. You'll find yourself in the bathroom." (Note: That's where Mom sent us kids for a time out. Talk about a boring room. *lol*) However, when the words fat and sassy were used together, the phrase carried another meaning as well. If Mom said it, she meant "prideful", "showing off" or "all puffed up with yourself". Today's kids would say, "You think that you are all THAT." So, this name told more about the characteristics of this rose, than just size. Mom meant that 'Fat 'n Sassy' liked to show off in the garden. It was a rose that would not be ignored. It acted like it "was all THAT" in the garden. By the way, I think that Mom used 'n instead of and in the name, because she like that way Mr. Moore used 'n in rose names like 'Rise 'n Shine'. 'YANTAI' To Red China With Love Among the test roses that Mom left to me was soft yellow rose with great show form and tons of petals that always opened with several rows of deeper yellow in the middle. In warmer weather, the blooms would even show a subtle blush of pink. I remembered that Mom had nicknamed it ‘Heart Of Gold’; so, that was the name that I saved for it. I was holding off on the introduction of this test rose, because I was concerned that this really beautiful rose would not be fully appreciated as a mini. You see this test had a problem. It was one of those “mini roses that was just a bit too big to be a mini”. It broke my heart to see all these great mini roses get introduced, only to receive poor ratings and criticism, based on their ‘plump’ size. The mini flora class had not been established yet. The overly large size of these roses was caused by their genetic makeup. Most of them had a hybrid tea or floribunda for a seed parent or grandparent. Hybridizers, like my Mom, were trying to bring the form and color of the great show roses to the mini class, creating many minis that were bigger than the traditional mini rose. Though Mom’s plump test rose had ‘Party Girl’ (a small, yellow mini) as its pollen parent, the seed parent was ‘Portrait’ (a large, pink hybrid tea). That particular seed parent was a cross of ‘Pink Parfait’ and ‘Pink Peace’. Talk about a BIG rose gene pool; this poor mini was predestined to be a ‘fat flower’. By 1987, there was already a humor that a new classification for the ‘big minis’ was going to be created in the near future. That yellow test rose probably would have remained a test for another 12 years, if I had waited for that ‘new class’. However, a friend of mine in the San Diego Rose Society asked me for a special favor. Patty Howell was a world traveler and had the opportunity to visit Red China and meet with several rose lovers from a city called Yantai. She arranged for their rose society to become the sister society to the San Diego Rose Society. She also decided to help the new ‘sister city’ establish their first, public, rose garden. 2,000 roses were going to be shipped from Southern California to Yantai, China in the next year. Patty was surprised to discover that no one in Red China was growing mini roses. Wanting to give Yantai a real ‘claim to fame’, she asked me to name one of Mom’s roses for that city and donate 50 plants of that variety for large planting in the new public garden. Patty had her heart set on the soft yellow test with the ‘heart of gold’ for the city's namesake plant. I agreed. ‘Yantai’ was introduced in 1988, and the 50 plants were a part of the huge rose shipment that was transported to Red China that same year. Patty was there for the planting and dedication of the new public garden. There is plaque at the front of the garden that acknowledges Mom and Tiny Petals for the gift of the roses that were named for the city of 'Yantai'. As I expected, the new mini was given a mediocre rating and criticism for its ‘oversized blooms’ by the ARS members. Only the non-exhibitors could truly appreciate the vigor, beauty and generosity of this wonderful rose that seemed to never stop blooming. The heavily petaled blooms lasted for days as cut flowers and for weeks on the bush, but ‘Yantai’ would not have a place in show for a quite a while. When the mini flora classification was established, 'Yantai' was one of the first of Mom's creations that I had reclassified. That has given 'Yantai' a chance to become one of the great show roses, already winning many trophies, including some Best of Show.