Newsletter  (2016)  Page(s) 18. vol 27, No. 3.  
 
Nimet Monasterly-Gilbert. On the mountain above the river is the town of Shingu.... It was on the walk back to the bus that one of our group identified several Hume’s Blush Tea Scented China growing in a hedge behind the market stalls.

Article (magazine)  (Nov 2015)  Page(s) 1621.  
 
....three samples of R. odorata (R. sect. Chinenses, sample no. 31–33) formed an inner clade with R. brunonii (sample no. 20), R. helenae (sample no. 21), and R. weisiensis (sample no. 27) of R. sect. Synstylae, is similar to two recent studies (Fougere-Danezan et al., 2015; Zhu et al., 2015).

Newsletter  (Nov 2013)  Page(s) 24-25.  Includes photo(s).
 
[From "Rosa odorata", by Gwen Fagan]
....Babette [Taute] told me about Mill River Farm where she was born, the most beautiful farm in the Langkloof valley, bought by her great-great grandfather in 1815.....towards the edge of the garden a large shrub displayed a wealth of light pink blooms which I had never seen before. The fl owers were globular, bending over slightly to welcome the visitor. The outer petals were loosely arranged around the inner more crinkly and smaller ones. Each petal was wide and dented at the middle of its edge. The stamens had long pale fi laments surrounding a group of slightly pale stigmas at their attachment. The cup-shaped calyx was slightly rough with a few glands near the attachment. But the fragrance was what distinguished this rose from all others, for it had the smell of a freshly-opened tin of Earl Grey tea. It had to be a Tea rose! Perhaps one of the early China teas?
As her great-great grandfather had been a mariner, Babette wondered whether he had offl oaded some of the roses perhaps brought from the East, to plant in his garden. My research led me to Redoute’s painting and Thory’s description of Rosa odorata. This rose, I learnt, had been discovered by one of the agents of the English East India Company in the Fa Tee nurseries in Canton and had been sent out to Sir Abraham Hume in England in 1809. The rose was considered to be so important, because of its remontancy and particular fragrance, that plants were shipped out across the Channel to Josephine at Malmaison even though Britain and France were then at war. I was very excited at the discovery of a rose said to be extinct, and to make sure, I sent fresh flowers to Chris Brickell at Wisley for identification. Graham Thomas examined the blooms and agreed that this could possibly be Rosa odorata.

Article (magazine)  (2011)  Page(s) 158.  
 
Rosa odorata is one of the three members of Rosa sect. Chinenses (Ku and Robertson 2003) and was first described as a variety of R. indica (Andrews 1810). Sweet (1818) subsequently treated it as a separate species. Four varieties of this species are currently recognized: R. odorata var. gignatea, var. odorata, var. erubescens (Focke) T. T. Yu & T. C. Ku, var. pseudindica (Lindley) Rehder (Table 1: Ku and Robertson 2003).

Table 1 The main morphological characters, distribution information, and chromosome number of varieties of R. odorata and R. chinensis, with respective names taken from Hurst's (1941) descriptions
R. odorata var. odorata; 2n = 2x =14; Double or semi-double; White or pinkish; Widely cultivated elsewhere; Hume's Blush Tea-scented China

Article (magazine)  (2009)  Page(s) 31.  
 
R. x odorata  Source RJBM [Réal Jardin Botanico Madrid] Chromosome Number 14

Book  (May 2003)  
 
Rosa odorata (Andrews) Sweet in Hort. Suburb. Lond. 119. 1818
var. odorata xiang shui yue ji (yuan bian zhong)
Flora of China classifies four varieties of Rosa odorata: erubescens, gigantea, odorata, and pseudoindica.
Synonyms include:
Rosa indica Linnaeus var. odorata Andrews, Roses 2: t.77.1810. R. gechouitangensis H. Léveillé; R. indica var. fragrans Thory; R. odoratissima Sweet ex Lindley; R. oulengensis H. Léveillé; R. thea Savi; R. tongtchouanensis H. Léveillé.
Flowers double or semi-double, 5-8 cm, petals white or pinkish, of cultivated origin.
Cultivated. Jiangsu, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [widely cultivated elsewhere; of cultivated origin].

Book  (2001)  Page(s) 449.  
 
Rosa odorata (Andrews) Sweet, Hort. Suburb. Lond. (1818) 119.
Rosa indica odorata Andrews, Roses 2 (1810) t. 77; R. odorata (Andrews) Sweet var. gigantea (Crépin) Rehder & Wilson in Sarg., Pl. Wils. 2 (1915) 338; R. gigantea Collett ex Crépin in Bull. Soc. Belg. 27, 2 (1888) 14.
Origin completely unknown.
In S China and E India since old times cultivated for the apple-like fruits. They are common on the markets in India.
Ref.: Ghora & Paniraghi 1995, 481 pp.; Saakov 1976, 432 pp.

Book  (Dec 2000)  Page(s) 83.  
 
Hume's Blush Tea-Scented China
China
China [country] [with Hume, Colville] 1810

Book  (May 1998)  Page(s) 42, 43.  Includes photo(s).
 
Page 42: Rosa indica fragrans (Thory) ('Tea-scented China', "Scented Rose of India") Description... Flowers 7 cm or more in diameter... petals flesh-white, as if transparent... This is remarkable among the many China roses by the size and transparency of the petals and the perfume, especially at the time of anthesis. Introduced from the East Indies to England in 1809, it flowered for the first time in the nursery of Colville who distributed it under the imprecise name of tea-scented rose...
Page 43: [ILLUSTRATION]

Book  (1997)  Page(s) 17.  Includes photo(s).