Alister Clark

Alister Clark (1864–1949) was the best known and most influential Australian rose breeder. His roses were the most widely planted in Australia between the World Wars and made an enduring difference to the appearance of Australian cities. His experiments hybridizing Rosa gigantea were in world class and have never been surpassed.

Alister Clark was the son of an immigrant Scottish tenant farmer who did well in Australia, leaving his family with several outback cattle stations and “Glenara,” a big property in a valley north of Melbourne. His gently brought up children knew Europe well: Alister was educated in Scotland and at Cambridge. He married a New Zealander with a fortune and never worked, giving himself over to the business of being a gentleman: huntsman, polo player, racehorse owner, golfer, photographer — and rose breeder. He began his rose breeding by ordering roses from Paul & Son in England; later they came from the Nabonnand nursery at Golfe-Juan on the Riviera. He released about 150 roses between 1912 and his death, usually through the garden and sporting clubs he gave the royalties to.

Clark was also a keen breeder of daffodils. In 1897 Clark had joined a syndicate, including Thomas Hanbury (creator of the famous Riviera garden of La Mortola) and Ellen Willmott (of Warley Place), which bought the stock of daffodil bulbs bred by Rev. G. H. Engleheart. He also bought half the stock of a bulb collection made by English Shakespearean actor, George Titheradge. According to Tommy Garnett, the best known of Clark’s daffodils is probably ‘Mabel Taylor’, still in commerce and used for breeding.

Clark's main aim as a breeder was to produce roses that were hardy in the hot dry climate of southern Australia. To this end he made original use of crosses to Rosa gigantea, which produced in the second generation some of the toughest and most freely blooming roses ever bred: 'Lorraine Lee' of 1924 and 'Nancy Hayward' of 1937 have never lost public favour. 'Black Boy' of 1919, 'Lady Huntingfield' of 1937 (named after the State Governor's wife) and 'Squatter's Dream' of 1923 (named after a racehorse) are roses which have been unknown or underrated outside Australia.

Soon after the First World War Clark's experiments with Rosa gigantea slowed down. He turned to creating what are essentially hybrid teas in a wide variety of forms: low shrubs ('Mab Grimwade'), high bushes ('Editor Stewart'), rampant climbers ('Mrs Richard Turnbull'), pillar roses ('Princeps'), roses for hedges ('Sunny South'), ramblers ('Gladsome') and dwarves ('Borderer'). He seems to have had no breeding plan beyond making as many crosses as possible at “Glenara” and seeing what came up. His grounds became “a vast nursery for the propagation of roses and daffodils.” Roses should be tested in the climate they were meant for, he said. And he insisted that a seedling (like a yearling) takes three years to show what it can do.

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