Sweet Pikins

My Mom had this pretty, soft pink test rose. It was a cross of her favorite seed parent...the orange-red, hybrid tea, 'Futura', and the yellow blend mini, 'Party Girl'. This was the same combination of parents that gave Mom her great mini, 'Jean Kenneally'.

This rose also produced an abundance of the same wonderful, long stemmed blooms with perfect show form and made a fast growing bush to rival 'Jean Kenneally'; but the color was a delicate baby pink. Unfortunately, it also had the same difficulty resisting the effects of powdery mildew; but I knew that, with proper care, this rose could be another Queen Machine.

Mom had selected the great name 'Sweet Pickins' from her book of possible rose names, many of which were just passing thoughts, ideas from friends and even Avon lipstick colors. Only Mom knew the original source of this rose name.

I had been taking photos of Mom's test roses for several years. She liked the way that I staged the flowers in my pictures. Those photos were needed, when submitting patents.

Up to that time, Tiny Petals had only put out one catalog with a color cover. Even the ARS ran only small photos of the minis in the Rose Magazine introduction issue. Most of the focus was on the new hybrid tea and floribunda introductions...but that situation was about to change.

The ARS Magazine staff had just decided to give the mini introductions their own, separate issue; and they would need a photo of a mini for that first 'all mini issue' in December of 1985. Without telling Mom, the editor had selected one of my photos for that cover.

It seems that she could not resist this photo of the new Dee Bennett mini, called 'Sweet Pickins'.