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• Virbright

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Red blend Shrub.
Registration name: Virbright
Exhibition name: Emina ™

Bred by M.S. Viraraghavan (India, 2006).
Introduced in United States by Roses Unlimited in 2006 as 'Emina'.

Shrub.  

Red blend.  Claret red uper; yellow reverse.  None to mild fragrance.  Average diameter 4".  Medium, double (17-25 petals), borne mostly solitary bloom form.  Blooms in flushes throughout the season.  

Medium, bushy.  Large, semi-glossy, dark green foliage.  

Height: up to 4' (up to 120cm).  

USDA zone 6b through 9b (default).  Can be used for cut flower or garden.  Remove spent blooms to encourage re-bloom.  Spring Pruning: Remove old canes and dead or diseased wood and cut back canes that cross. In warmer climates, cut back the remaining canes by about one-third. In colder areas, you'll probably find you'll have to prune a little more than that.  

One of the first brightly coloured hybrid giganteas;

This rose in named for our good friend Emina Darakjy of Pasadena, California. She is a volunteer in the rose garden at the Huntington Botanical Gardens and Library. When we came to Pasadena in January 2006 as recipients of the Great Rosarians of the World Award, Emina was put in charge of taking care of us for the time that we spent in Pasadena. From the first there was a spontaneous empathy among us. At our lecture presentation I had showed slides of some of my seedlings, and one was a gigantea hybrid, a shrub rose with colors very reminiscent of that old favorite ‘Forty-niner’. When she was escorting us back to our hotel, Emina remarked that ’49 was special to her as that was her birth year and she loved the look of the seedling I’d showed. I looked at Girija, and the same thought leapt from my mind to hers. This rose was as yet unnamed—why not call it ‘Emina’? We did not say anything then, but after Pat Henry, who also met Emina, and liked her, told us that this particular seedling was faring well, we decided to name it for our warm and loving friend.
An aside: Robert Rippetoe was able to make a few plants of ‘Emina’ and hand them over to Emina Darakjy.