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| From the clues below, I hand-colored Lillian Moore, 2015. This is not necessarily correct! |
In the American Florist in 1912, there is a small note that George Roeding announced a $1000 prize for a rose contest for the PPIE:
"San Francisco Calif - Geo. C. Roeding, chief of the department of horticulture of the Panama Pacific International Exposition, has been authorized to make the announcement that a prize of $1,000 will be offered for a new rose to be named in honor of the exposition."
In Volume 4 of The Story of the Exposition, Frank Morton Todd reported the results of the rose contest.
"The International Rose Contest excited much interest by reason of the $1,000 prize offered. Entries of many new seedling roses, hitherto unexhibited, were made by Hugh Dickson, Ltd., of Belfast, Ireland; S. Bide and Son, Ltd., of Farnham, England; Dobbie & Son of Edinburgh, Scotland; E. Pernet-Ducher of Lyons, France; Peter Lambert of Trier, Germany; E. G. Hill of Richmond, Indiana; the Brant-Hentz Company of Madison, New Jersey; Howard & Smith of Los Angeles, California; and Samuel McGredy & Son of Portadown, Ireland.
"The jury covered the entire season in its scoring, making its decision in favor of Hugh Dickson Ltd's No. 1596, on November 27th, the week before Closing Day. This was a yellow rose with a long and very perfect bud. A condition of the contest was that the winning rose should be named by the Directors, and Director Hellman suggested the name "Lillian Moore" in honor of the wife of the President of the Exposition, which was directly adopted.
That's it, in black and white in The American Florist.
The rose was more widely available in 1917. The American Florist, July 28, 1917 describes the Lillian Moore rose:
"Hugh Dickson's New Roses
"Among the new roses for 1917 being offered by Messrs. Hugh Dickson, Ltd., Belfast, Ire. is Lillian Moore winner of the $1,000 prize at the Panama-Paciflc exposition. This rose is described as follows: No rose ever raised has been offered to the public with the same credentials, having won in strenuous open competition with roses from all countries of the world the much coveted $1,000 trophy for the best new seedling rose not in commerce. This competition, the most exacting as regards the merit of the individual roses competing was conducted on novel lines all the plants competing, having been established in the exposition grounds a year previous to its opening and thoroughly acclimatized, were judged monthly on points, by different groups of judges composed of the principal rose growers of America, and at the close of the exposition the points awarded to each competing variety by the various sets of judges were aggregated, with the result that the trophy was awarded to this seedling, which was named "The Lillian Moore Rose" in honor of the wife of the president of the exposition, Charles C. Moore.
"The Lillian Moore rose is a garden gem with flowers of exquisite form and delightful fragrance. It is a deep pure Indian yellow in color with slightly deeper center. The flowers are large and very full, of perfect camellia shape, carried on stiff erect stems with handsome, clean, deep, olive green foliage. The buds are very long and pointed, opening freely in all weathers and lasting a long time in good condition. The habit of the plant is all that could be desired, free, vigorous and branching making a strong bush about 2 1/2 feet in height. It is thoroughly perpetual in habit: from early season until the close it produces in abundance a wealth of blooms of glowing color and perfect shape. A malformed flower is a rarity. A superb rose for every purpose. Awarded silver medal of the American Rose Society.
With this previous description, I decided to colorize that black and white photo. The color was described as "Indian Yellow". I didn't know what that color is, so I checked Wikipedia. Indian yellow is a pigment that was originally made from the urine of cows that have been fed on mango leaves. Okay, then. Mango color, it is. I used that color as my guide for creating the colorized photo at the top of the blog.
The California Nursery Company may have later propagated this rose in the hopes that its prize would make it popular. However, I couldn't find it until 1920 (not exhaustive search!) when 'Lillian Moore' was listed on page 58 with another Hugh Dickson variety introduced the same year - 'Gorgeous' - on the next page. Did Hugh enter both into the competition? All the records would be in the Bancroft library if they exist.
The sad ending is that even with all that hooferaw, the Lillian Moore rose is not available today. HelpMeFind is no help for this rose. I'm still checking around at some of our old rose gardens to see if someone has it. As a rose buddy said, maybe it was susceptible to leaf spot.
Note that one thing that the rose sellers may have learned is that one must have an exposition rose selected before the exposition in order to cash in on the fuss. The 'Golden State' rose was already selected as the 1939-1940 Golden Gate International Exposition rose, giving the California Nursery (and others?) time to propagate roses while demand was hot. Even then, its popularity dwindled in the catalogs over time and once the 'Peace' rose hit the scene, who wants a special yellow rose when you can have a color changing rose. Plus there was that war which must have dampened demand for roses.
Note that one thing that the rose sellers may have learned is that one must have an exposition rose selected before the exposition in order to cash in on the fuss. The 'Golden State' rose was already selected as the 1939-1940 Golden Gate International Exposition rose, giving the California Nursery (and others?) time to propagate roses while demand was hot. Even then, its popularity dwindled in the catalogs over time and once the 'Peace' rose hit the scene, who wants a special yellow rose when you can have a color changing rose. Plus there was that war which must have dampened demand for roses.
References:
- Journal of the International Garden Club, volume 2, number 2, page 239, 1918; Mention of Lillian Moore's introduction last year and the black and while photo, first picture in this blog..
- The 1917 Rose Annual has an advertisement for sale by Charles Totty. Wasn't Totty exhibiting at the PPIE?
- Maybe there's a picture in Bancroft.
- Mention of being propagated in France in the American Rose Journal. 1919
- Page 4 of The Woman Florist, Miss Ella V. Baines, 1921, lists Lillian Moore.
- The Dingee Guide to Rose Culture sells it in 1920.
- The California Nursery Company in 1920
- HelpMeFind website lists Lillian Moore, but not much more.
- American Florist, volume 39, number 1281, page 1328, Dec. 28, 1912; This page has George Roeding's announcement of the contest and a biography of George Dickson, whose son eventually won the contest.
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| Here is the page in The American Florist with the article announcing the PPIE Rose contest. Funny coincidence: on that same page is a small biography of George Dickson who is the father of the man who eventually won the prize, Hugh Dickson. |
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| California Magazine, volume 1, issue 1, 1915 |
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