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'Alfred K. Williams' rose Reviews & Comments
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One additional comment: The namesake of the rose appears to have been Schwartz's worker who raised it, referred to in the quote previously mentioned: “One of the best of the recently introduced Exhibition Roses is the one shown in our illustration. It is named ‘Alfred K. Williams’ after its raiser” (Gardening Illustrated, vol. 6, 1884, p. 145).
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#1 of 3 posted
7 SEP by
 jedmar
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The scan on Google is cut off on the left and somewhat confusing:
"One of the best of the recently introduced exhibition Roses is the one shown in our illustration. It is named Alfred K. Williams, after .... raiser. Its character has now been fully [proved?], and it is a Rose well calculated to sustain reputation of its fortunate raiser, whose name associated with such good and well tried Roses: Auguste Rigotard, one of the most beautiful of the cherry reds; Duchesse de Vallombrosa, a lovely pink, and one which in a dry, hot summer second to none; Egeria, an improvement in growth and flower on the Princess Mary of Cambridge."
Clearly, "its fortunate raiser" whose name is associated with the abovementioned roses is Joseph Schwartz, unless we have an Alfred K. Williams doing the breeding for Schwartz. I have some doubt that an Englishman would have been working in Schwartz's nursery. It seems also quite unusual that such a rose would be named after one of the workers. Hope to find more info on Alfred K. (Keith?) Williams.
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Accompanying (I hope) is the non cut off article.
Yes, the article had its moment of careless writing, with "raiser" varying in meaning between specifically the literal raiser who grew it from seed and the generic raiser as the term was customarily used meaning the person in charge of the business under whose name the roses were released; but I do think that the person A.K. Williams was employed by Schwartz. Going by my impression from the materials reviewed for my new edition of "Roll-Call: The Old Rose Breeder," young horticulturists would often seek employment at established/reputable/available nurseries in order to hone their craft--in effect, as apprentices; and yes, they would travel abroad sometimes to do so. It's not something I compiled a note on, so I don't have specific examples at hand to offer; but going by memory I believe an instance would be from a generation or two later young Poulsen of Denmark who worked for a time for established nurseries in other countries, England being one of them (I think my memory of this is from Harkness' "Makers of Heavenly Roses," where likely other such examples could be found as well).
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Concerning naming roses after workers at a nursery, an ample instance would be the Barbiers, who named at least the following after their workers/gardeners: 'Alexandre Trémouillet', 'Désiré Bergera', 'Émile Fortépaule', 'Ferdinand Roussel', 'François Poisson', 'Henri Barruet', and 'Jules Levacher' (this one for one of the gardeners at the Dauvesse nursery). This information primarily from Lloyd Chapman's fine book "The Barbiers and their Roses" (2021).
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Not sure how my initial post got deleted. Here it is again: That 'Alfred K. Williams' was "said to be" a sport of 'Général Jacqueminot' is stated in Harkness' book of 1978, deriving from what earlier source, I do not know; however, we have a much more certain statement on the origin of 'Alfred K. Williams': "Sent out by Schwartz, of Lyons, in 1877, and said by him to have been raised as a chance seedling by one of his men” (Gardeners’ Chronicle, vol. 16, 1881, p. 719).
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Initial post
6 SEP
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* This post deleted by user *
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#1 of 1 posted
6 SEP by
jedmar
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Harkness probably had the parentage from Modern Roses V. Where they had it from is unclear. We have removed the parentage. The quote from Gardeners Chronicle is also a bit of hearsay, unless we find a similar statement in A French publication.
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We come close with a mention in vol. 49 of the 1877 Revue Horticole, p. 380, in which we have the statement quoting Schwartz's "circulaire relative à deux Rosiers remontants dont il est d'obtenteur, et qu'il mettra au commerce pour la première fois le 1er novembre 1877. Ce sont les Rosiers Alfred K. Williams et Édouard Pynaert, qui est issu de la variété Antoine Ducher." The mentioned issuance from 'Antoine Ducher' clearly pertains only to 'Édouard Pynaert', as, had it referred to both, it would have been "qui sont" not "qui est." The fact that Schwartz thus did not give a parent for 'Alfred K. Williams' when he did so for the other rose supports, at least passively, the story that, for that rose, he did not know the parent.
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