Magazine  (2002)  Page(s) 18. Vol 24, No. 2.  
 
Joan Broadstock. Australian Bred Roses At the Victorian State Rose Garden. We have fifty cultivars in the collection: ...and ‘Cousin Essie’ 1975. Myrtle Robertson.

Book  (2001)  Page(s) 111.  Includes photo(s).
 
Myrtle Robertson. ‘Cousin Essie’. The editor fo the Australian Rose Annual Ian Spriggs, rang to tell me that a bed of my rose ‘Cousin Essie’ had been planted in the newly completed Australian bred section of Werribee Park Rose Garden which commemorates the Centenary of Federation in Australia. He requested that I write something for the annual, hence this article.
During my time in East Maitland in the Hunter Valley Rose Society, three of us were very interested in hybridising, Marguerite Parkes, who has three roses registered and still selling. Wilga Abrahams, who died at the age of 50 when she was just beginning to produce some fine roses, and myself. We moved to Bellingen in January, 1977 taking along four seedling roses .... and ‘Cousin Essie’, both seedlings of Honeyflow....
‘Cousin Essie’ was introduced in a catalogue in the Bicentenary year, 1988, as an Australian-raised rose. It was listed as a seedling of Alister Clark’s rose ‘Milkmaid’. This angered me as I knew it was a seedling of ‘Honeyflow’ and people were buying it under false pretences. However, they learned to love it. In hindsight I wonder how many people would have bought it as a seedling of ‘Honeyflow’. It is a white-clustered shrub rose with pink buds on arching canes, few thorns, and a perfume. It looks better on its own where it has room to spread and looks beautiful in spring after pruning.
As regards its name, I always knew I had a Cousin Essie but had never met her. Her parents were divorced and she was brought up outside the family. There was an Esther Clarke who used to write the Women’s Page in the Presbyterian Outlook. I happened to mention to a lady that my maiden name was Wicks. She said that Esther Clarke’s name had been Wicks and we might be related. I met her and asked her if she was my long lost Cousin Essie. We became like sisters as the people who had brought her up had passed on and she had no kinfolk. She was that much loved matron of a Presbyterian Home for the Aged in Oxley, Brisbane. After she passed away her husband asked me if I ever bred a white rose to call it after her – thus ‘Cousin Essie’.

p112 Photo. ‘Cousin Essie’ (Robertson) Transparency: Ian Kethel.

Website/Catalog  (2000)  Page(s) 4.  Includes photo(s).
 
‘Cousin Essie’. Polyantha. 1989. Australia. Hedging, Semi-double, stamens prominent, fragrant, prickles fewer, attractive leaves, small flowers, many blooms in clusters, recurrent. 1.4m x 1.4m. White.

Book  (1999)  Page(s) 37.  Includes photo(s).
 
‘Cousin Essie’ – 1989. ‘Honeyflow’ cross. Polyantha Bush rose. Small, double, white flowers, opening flat with prominent stamens, fully recurrent. Light to mid green foliage. Few prickles. Flower: 30 petals, 40mm. 8 to 30. Bush 1.5m x 1.5m.

Book  (1999)  Page(s) 32.  
 
Cousin Essie Shrub, white, 1996; Seedling of 'Honeyflow'; Robertson, Myrtle; Honeysuckle Cottage Nursery, 1988...

Website/Catalog  (1998)  Page(s) 8.  
 
‘Cousin Essie’. Polyantha. 1989. Australia. Semi-double, few or no prickles, fragrant, recurrent. 1.4m x 1.6m. White.

Book  (1998)  Page(s) 26.  
 
Cousin Essie Shrub, white, 1996; Seedling of 'Honeyflow'; Robertson, Myrtle. Description.

Book  (1997)  Page(s) 232.  
 
....from Myrtle Robertson, too, comes ‘Cousin Essie’ a seedling from Riethmuller’s ‘Honeyflow’. This makes her second generation Australian. Her pale pink buds open to white and the blooms, like those of ‘Honeyflow’ and ‘Carabella’ are borne in huge clusters. If given room, she will grow into a large attractive shrub which is almost perpetually in flower.

Book  (1996)  Page(s) 62.  
 
Symposium. Australian Raised Roses. Mrs. Dianne Ackland. ‘Cousin Essie’. Robertson, 1975. A vigorous healthy shrub about 1.5 metres high and wide which is always in flower. Has huge heads of lovely frilly semi-double white blooms which are slightly pink in the bud. The foliage is glossy and disease free.

Book  (1996)  Page(s) 35.  
 
‘Cousin Essie’. Myrtle Robertson, Australia, 1975. Shrub. White. [available from] Golden Vale, Gretchen, Hedgerow, Honeysuckle, Mistydown, Nieuwesteeg, Woodbrooke.