Rosen-Tantau in Uetersen/Germany (see) was established in 1906 by Mathias Tantau sen.
Roses bred since 1985 are from Hans-Jürgen Evers, who took over the nursery at the time.TANTAUTANTAU, M.TANTAU, MathTANTAU, Mathias (I): September 9, 1882 Uetersen -1953
TANTAU, Mathias (II): July 8, 1912 Uetersen - 2006
[From
Fifty Favourite Roses, by Michael Gibson, p. 56:] Mathias Tantau is a German hybridist who only rarely reveals the parentage of any of the roses he has raised...
[From The Makers of Heavenly Roses, by Jack Harkness, pp.114-115: The first Mathias Tantau, 1882-1953. His son, also Matthias Tantau, who was born in 1912, is] the most private and reserved of rose breeders... [>I>the first Mathias Tantau] started a nursery at Uetersen in 1906. His first interest was in trees... Mathias began to sow the seed of Polyantha roses, which caught his interest, because whereas the seeds of his trees grew true to their species, those of the roses were all different. By 1918, Mathias Tantau declared himself a specialist in rose growing and breeding. He introduced the first two varieties of his own origination in 1919... 'Schöne von Holstein' (pink) and 'Stadtrat Meyn' (red)... both seedlings of the Polyantha 'Orléans Rose'... neither was particularly successful... In 1928 he introduced a successful rose, 'Johanna Tantau', which he called a Polyantha, although we should see it as a Floribunda.
[From The Makers of Heavenly Roses, by Jack Harkness, p. 16:] In 1937, [Mathias, the elder] became interested in breeding with a wild rose from China... a rose with small, dainty leaves and clouds of little pink flowers, called R. multibracteata. He knew, for all rose breeders know it, that for such a project one should allow at least twenty years; in fact it was twenty-three years before his son reaped the reward of that initiative... 'Garnette' was a marvellous discovery for Mathias Tantau, a red rose with hard petals; it came out in Germany in 1947, and in 1951 was introduced by the Jackson & Perkins Co. in America. A most successful cut flower on account of its durability... Quite a cult arose around 'Garnette'... the growers of cut roses planted glasshouses full of it, and began to discover mutations, of which 'Pink Garnette', from Boerner in 1951, and 'Carol Amling', from Amling & Beltran in 1953, were fairly similar in deep pink. Some nurseries began to offer 'Garnette Roses' in other colours, but apart from having small flowers, most of these had little affinity to the original...
[From Roses: An Illustrated Encyclopaedia and Grower's Handbook, by Peter Beales, pp. 36-37: Mathias Tantau's] early work was largely with Polyanthas and Hybrid Polyanthas... It was not until his son, also Mathias, got to work that quality Hybrid Teas started to emerge from the Tantau nurseries. The first of these was 'Prima Ballerina' in 1957...
[From The Encyclopedia of Roses, by Robert Markley, p. 19-20:] Mathias Tantau Sr. founded a nursery on January 6, 1906... from about 1918, the queen of the flowers stood absolutely at the center of his work... In 1985, the firm's fortune and rose-breeding operations passed into the hands of long-time colleague Hans Jürgen Evers. Successful new introductions like 'Diadem' and 'Monica', which helped bring the moderately profitable field-growing of cutting roses in Germany to a renaissance in the 1980s, are his works.
