Anyone know the story behind the English Rose tomato?

[jennifer28]

I've been looking around online but I haven't had too much luck, just that it originated in the 1800s with a family in England, which as you can see isn't much to go on...

[ContainerTed]

This is from a listing in the SSE yearbook.

"80 days, indet., potato leaf plant with good yield of 8-12 oz. pink fruit with excel. sweet flavor"

Might be a good one.

[jennifer28]

Thanks Ted.

I have 5 seeds of this variety from a friend of mine in Canada. I'm going to try them this year in my own garden and see how they do.

[goodwin]

Tatiana has some information on it. Her database is amazing. http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/English_Rose

[carolyn137]

Jennifer, I was going to post earlier that I doubted it was from England in the 1800's b'c there weren't many PL varieties around, anywhere, at that time. So now it looks like it was a much more recent variety, although I suppose since we donj't have a full history that someone could have broguht it back from England after WWII, but that's theorizing on probabilities.

patty B has a picture at that page and she's here at Tomatoville. So is Neil whose report Tania posted, but Neil rarely posts here. He's one of the guys who did some seed production for me in 2011 and I've known NEil for almsot 20 years now.

When you started the thread I did Google it and found a place or two that made the same claim as to its being and older English variety to the 1800's, but with no documantation at all.

[jennifer28]

Thanks Carolyn, Ted, and everyone... Carolyn I was suspicious about its origins... and I thank you for taking time to look it up also - I think I will just try it and see how it does. I suppose if it tastes really good, the provenance doesn't matter that much. But I don't like it when people fib and "confabulate" tales to sell tomatoes, either. oh well.

[carolyn137]

Every time I go down through the Forums here at Tville I keep thinking about the name English Rose, b'c that's the name that was given to Princess Diana after her death in 1997.

Is it any coincidence that Tania's info says the variety was first introduced in 1998? And if there is a connection it wouldn't be the first time that someone has kinda, well, invented a back ground story.

I don't know if that's true or not, but...

http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/princess_of_wales/