Joseph Pemberton

Joseph Pemberton (1852–1926) was a British rosarian, remembered for creating the hybrid musk class of cultivated roses.

The Reverend Joseph Hardwick Pemberton was born in 1852 in The Round House, Havering-atte-Bower, Romford, Essex; he lived there with his sister Florence until his death in 1926. He was an Anglican clergyman for more than 30 years. A keen amateur rose grower, he joined the Royal National Rose Society shortly after its founding, and in 1911 served as its president. After his retirement in 1914, Pemberton turned to rose breeding in an attempt to recreate the "Grandmother's roses" he recalled from childhood. He set up Pemberton Nursery at Romford and nearby where eventually some 35–40,000 roses were grown annually for sale. All the roses of the Pemberton Nursery were bequeathed to their gardeners, who at Romford were Jack and Ann Bentall. They released several new roses after Pemberton's death.

Using the climber 'Trier' (descended from 'Aglaia', itself an 1896 cross by Peter Lambert using Rosa multiflora), Pemberton crossed it with hybrid tea roses to produce a class of highly scented, generally cluster-flowered roses which remain popular garden material to this day. Initially he classed them also as hybrid teas, but later took to referring to them as 'hybrid musks', based upon a tenuous link between 'Trier' and Rosa moschata.

Pemberton also bred a number of more conventional hybrid teas, and several Multiflora ramblers still worth growing.

Hybrid Musks reached their apogee well after Pemberton's death. Reimer Kordes' universally grown 'Schneewittchen' ('Iceberg') of 1958 was bred from Pemberton's 'Robin Hood'.

Surviving Pemberton Hybrid Musk roses

Of the roses on the following list, 'Buff Beauty' is thought to have been bred by Pemberton but was actually introduced by Ann Bentall in 1939, some 13 years after Pemberton's death. 'Ballerina' was likewise introduced by her in 1937.

Name	Date	Colour	Pollen parent	Seed parent	Photo
Aurora	1923	Golden Yellow	Danae	Miriam
Ballerina	1937	White-centered pink	Unknown	Unknown
Buff Beauty	1939	Orange and yellow	William Allen Richardson	Unknown
Ceres	1914	Yellow and pink	Unknown	Unknown
Clytemnestra	1915	Chamois	Trier	Liberty
Cornelia	1925	Deep Pink	Unknown	Unknown
Danae	1913	Light yellow	Trier	Gloire de Chédane-Guinoisseau
Daphne	1912	Light pink	Unknown	Unknown
Daybreak	1918	Golden yellow	Trier	Liberty
Felicia	1926	Pink blend	Trier	Ophelia
Fortuna	1927	Light pink	Lady Pirrie	Nur Mahal
Francesca	1922	Apricot	Danae	Sunburst
Kathleen	1922	Blush	Daphne	Perle des Jardins
Maid Marion	1930	Pink and white	Unknown	Unknown
Moonlight	1913	Cream	Trier	Sulphurea
Nur Mahal	1923	Crimson	Château de Clos Vougeot	Seedling
Pax	1918	White	Trier	Sunburst
Penelope	1924	Seashell pink	Ophelia	Seedling
Prosperity	1919	White	Marie-Jeanne	Perle des Jardins
Robin Hood	1927	Cherry red	Seedling	Miss Edith Cavell
Thisbe	1918	Buff	Marie-Jeanne	Perle des Jardins
Vanity	1920	Deep pink	'Château de Clos Vougeot'	Seedling