The Mysterious History

I wish that I could tell you exactly when this rose was introduced, who named it and why it was never given a proper 'new rose introduction'...but I can't.

'Hot Lips' was definitely one of those lipstick colors that Mom's had put into her Book of Potential Rose Names, but I seem to recall that I was the person who finally made the decision to use that 'sexy name' for this particular rose. I always did like the slightly risque rose names, and this rose definitely is a hot color.

'Hot Lips' has a patent issue date of 12-1-87, which means that it was probably registered in 1986 and sold for the first time in January of 1987; but it wasn't listed in the 1987 TPN catalog. In fact, it first appeared in the 1988 catalog and was only show as one of Mom's 'other roses' in the body of the book...and without a photo.

There is no mention of 'Hot Lips' as a 'new introduction' in any TPN catalog. I can't imagine how that happened. All of the plant registration and patent information is in storage in Nevada right now, so I can't research it at this time.

1986 and 1987 were very strange and stressful years. That was the time, when I found out that Mom was dying. It was also the time, when I became an owner of TPN; but most importantly and tragically, this was during this time that Mom passed away. I guess, I'm allowed to have lapses of memory for those tough months in late '86 and early '87.

Mom had three huge plants of 'Hot Lips', growing in the backyard. They were moved to large, wooden barrels, when the nursery over the rose beds to hold more benches. Those barrels turned out to be a horrible mistake.

Within a year, several of the barrels developed a lethal case of wood rot. Two of the 'Hot Lips' stock plants fell victim to the fungus, which grew and attached itself to their root systems. Only the mother plant survived to later become a part of my front yard garden. There it grew beside my sundial, until it was dug up and moved with TPN to Silver Springs, Nevada.

The most incredible part of 'Hot Lips' story has to do with the 'theft of its name'.

In 1995, a Canadian nurseryman introduced a deep pink floribunda, calling it 'Hot Lips' in his catalog. That rose was never register...just sold through the Canadian nursery.

I became aware of the second 'Hot Lips', when I found it listed in the Combined Rose List. It took me several phone calls, before I was able to reach the hybridizer, Mr. Williams. He was a southern gentleman and a customer of TPN who greatly admired Mom's work and understood the significance of registration and patent rights.

Mr. Williams told me a remarkable story about his floribunda. It seems that he had sent a plant of his test rose to a nurseryman in Canada for evaluation only. The man had named and sold the test, without consulting Mr. Williams. At that point, he became the first victim of this unscrupulous Canadian nurseryman. Unfortunately, he was unable to correct damage had been done and had lost all control of his test rose. He was horrified to hear that the rose had been illegally named.

My next step was to take my protests to the ARS and the Combined Rose List. That had very little affect.

The editor of CRL initially insisted that he had to list 'all commercially available roses'. He finally agreed to stop listing the floribunda, when I informed him that the CRL might become part of a law suit, along with the Canadian nurseryman.

Certainly, I had every right to sue this nurseryman, who had failed to follow legal registration procedures for this rose and was misusing a patented rose name. As the patent holder, I could have named CRL as a party to this illegal action, because they were the publication which was 'implying that the floribunda was legally named' by listing it in an international rose reference book, especially after the call from me. The editor accepted my argument.

On the other hand, the ARS ran with the new rose. It became a part of every publication list from the ARS Handbook to the RIR from 1995 on to the present time. The worst insult came, when the ARS published Modern Roses XI with a companion CD-ROM of the roses. My gorgeous photo of Mom's orange-red mini was shown with the description of the Canadian floribunda. 'No photo available' was all that appeared with the description of Mom's mini. (Groan)

You can only guess how angry that made me. I protested all the way to the top of the ARS, including the ARS President and editor of Modern Roses XI, and was informed that nothing could be done about this misinformation, until a new Modern Roses was released. They also refused to take the floribunda out of the ARS Handbook and RIR, "because it was already being sold under that name".

The floribunda turned out to be a dud. So, rather than invest a great deal of money in an international law suit, I decided to let this rose reach it's own commercial death. Of course, Mr. Williams was the real loser in this situation.

Now, let me tell you a bit more about the 'real' rose that is named 'Hot Lips'.

This is fast growing plant that can easily attain waist height in only a few months. There are plenty of long stemmed blooms of bright orange-red are usual borne one-to-a-stem with nice hybrid tea form, but I wish that they had one more row of petals. That would make them better for exhibiting.