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Henry Bennett (1823–1890) was a pioneer in the systematic, deliberate hybridisation of roses. The tenant farmer from Stapleford in the Wylye Valley near Salisbury, Wiltshire (United Kingdom) applied the systematic breeding used in raising cattle to roses and emphasised that his roses were raised scientifically from known parents. His hybrids, between Teas and Hybrid Perpetuals, were called Pedigree Hybrids of the Tea Rose. He is considered the father of the Hybrid Tea class. Important cultivars are the Hybrid Tea 'Lady Mary Fitzwilliam' (1882), a parent of 'Mme. Caroline Testout' and the Hybrid Perpetuals 'Captain Hayward' (1893) and 'Mrs. John Laing' (1887). ==Biography== Henry Bennett was a cattle and wheat farmer in Stapleford in the mid-1800s. He married Emma Rebbeck in July 1852, and they had 8 children: John, Charles, Maria, Francis, Mary, Arthur, Charlotte Emma, and Edmund. Charlotte Emma died in infancy. Henry Bennett decided that the future was not in cattle and wheat, but a new source of income was going to be necessary, and that would be roses. In 1865, he bought his first roses and planted them on the farm, to propagate for sale. His knowledge of cattle breeding suggested to him that he might be able to make great advances in rose cultivation by applying the same principles to rose breeding – that of using known parents, selected for the qualities desired in the progeny. His first efforts were unsuccessful, so from 1870 to 1872 he visited successful rose hybridizers in France.〔 In France, Bennett was surprised to find that the masters of rose hybridisation did not practice deliberate hybridisation through controlled pollination, but rather raised the seeds resulting from natural pollination, which meant that while the seed parent might be known, the pollen parent never was. He also saw that he was fighting an uphill battle with the cool damp English climate, which did not provide enough summer heat to ripen rose hips.〔 On returning home, he built a heated glass house for his roses. He also kept his parent plants in pots. This system allowed him to work nearly year-round with Tea roses, and gave him a much longer bloom season with the Hybrid Perpetuals. Where other British rose hybridizers worked primarily in summer, Bennett's system allowed him to begin cross-pollination in March. While developing his own roses, he introduced and sold roses acquired from other breeders.〔 Emma Bennett, an avid hunter, died in 1875 from a horseback riding accident. The two surviving daughters Maria and Mary, then 16 and 11, took over running the household.〔 Bennett moved operations in 1880 from Stapleford to Shepperton in Middlesex. From then on, he was no longer a farmer, but a rose hybridiser. He travelled to the US in 1888 to study rose growing in America. He was introducing some of his roses in the US before introducing them in the UK.〔 Bennett died from cirrhosis of the liver in 1890. His youngest son Edmund introduced the rose Captain Hayward posthumously, in 1893.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Henry Bennett (rose hybridizer)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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