Rose Breeder  

Listing last updated on Wed Aug 2024

Scotland

Robert Brown (ca. 1767 - September 21, 1845)
Not to be confused with Robert Brown (December 21, 1773 Montrose, Scotland - June 10, 1858 London), Scottish doctor and botanist ("R. Br.")

[From Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London, Vol. 4, 1822, p. 285:] The first appearance of the Double Scotch Roses was in the nursery of Messrs. Dickson and Brown (now Dickson and Turnbull) of Perth, between twenty and thirty years since. I am indebted to Mr. Robert Brown, one of the partners of the firm at the above period, for the following account of their origin. In the year 1793, he and his brother transplanted some of the wild Scotch Roses from the Hill of Kinnoul, in the neighbourhood of Perth, into their nursery garden....

[From Journal of a Horticultural Tour through some parts of Flanders, Holland, and the North of France, in the Autumn of 1817, by Patrick Neill, 1823, p. 529:] List of some New Roses, raised by Mr Brown of New Scone...Mr. Brown of Perth made Trials of the seeds of other [than Scots Roses] kinds of garden roses, about the year 1796, and procured several seedlings of great beauty...

[From The Rose Manual, by Robert Buist, pp. 37-38:] originally from Perth, Scotland... emigrated to the U.S., near Philadelphia... the first to grow roses from seed on a grand scale half a century ago [there's a quote from Brown relating some of his experiences.]

[From By Any Other Name, September 2017, p. 2:] Robert Brown (c.1767-1845) was a horticulturist and botanist who spent most of his life in Perthshire, Scotland but passed his last few years in Philadelphia, U.S.A. He was a partner in The Perth Nursery of Dickson and Brown and credited with being the breeder of the first ‘Double Coloured Scots Roses’ from wild Rosa spinosissima at the end of the 18th century.

Robert Brown immigrated to USA in 1837, at the age of 70. He died in September 21, 1845.