Harkness Roses

John and Robert soon realized that Yorkshire's climate was too cold for an expanding rose growing business.

Neither brother wanted to leave Yorkshire, so it was decided by a coin toss that Robert would move to Hitchin, Hertfordshire to establish the new branch of Harkness and Sons.

[2] Early varieties of Harkness Roses include a sport of hybrid perpetual, 'Heinrich Schultheis', introduced in 1893 as 'Mrs.

[6] In the 1970s he began breeding with Rosa persica, an unusual rose species with simple leaves.

Poet, Ted Hughes, worked at the nursery during the summer of 1955: "The job is following round the expert as he grafts expensive rose-buds onto common bushes, and doing all the trimming and tying-up-with-raffia—a back-breaking job apparently, but outside, and with roses, and with good employers.