Alister Clark
His roses were the most widely planted in Australia between the World Wars and made an enduring difference to the appearance of Australian cities.
[1] Alister Clark was the son of an immigrant Scottish tenant farmer who did well in Australia, leaving his family with several outback cattle stations, as well as "Glenara", a big property in a valley at Bulla, north of Melbourne.
[3] He married a New Zealander with a fortune and never worked, giving himself over to the business of being a gentleman: huntsman, polo player, racehorse owner, golfer, photographer — and rose breeder.
In 1897 Clark had joined a syndicate, including Thomas Hanbury (creator of the famous Riviera garden of La Mortola) and Ellen Willmott (of Warley Place), which bought the stock of daffodil bulbs bred by Rev.
[7] He also bought half the stock of a bulb collection made by English Shakespearean actor, George Titheradge.
[7] Clark's main aim as a breeder was to produce roses that were hardy in the hot dry climate of southern Australia.
To this end he made original use of crosses to Rosa gigantea, which produced in the second generation some of the toughest and most freely blooming roses ever bred: 'Lorraine Lee'[8] of 1924 and 'Nancy Hayward'[9] of 1937 have never lost public favour.
He turned to creating what are essentially hybrid teas in a wide variety of forms: low shrubs ('Mab Grimwade'),[15] high bushes ('Editor Stewart'),[16] rampant climbers ('Mrs Richard Turnbull'),[17] pillar roses ('Princeps'),[18] roses for hedges ('Sunny South'),[19] ramblers ('Gladsome')[20] and dwarves ('Borderer').
[24] Perhaps it is surprising for a man who wore a bowler hat and wing collar to the races in 1920, but his roses have the bright pinks, creamy apricots and hard reds of between-the-wars taste.
[13] Twenty years after his death in 1949 Alister Clark remained the most important Australian rose breeder.
[30][page needed] Most women in his own family and all wives of Victorian Governors and Australian Governors-General had roses named for them.
