Written by:

Shirley Brennon

March 25, 2011

They were described by the London Times as “swirls of ice cream,” were received with great enthusiasm at the Chelsea Flower Show, and Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles grow them in their gardens. I’m referring to Caroline Victoria roses, hybrid teas that were just released for sale in the United States and Canada.

Elizabeth Coldicutt, president of the Caroline Victoria Coldicutt Arts Foundation (CVCAF), said, “Queen Elizabeth was given the first bouquet of these roses in 2006 and has planted some at Buckingham Palace. Prince Charles also loved them and ordered several for Highgrove. I have also asked Sen. (Dianne) Feinstein to assist us in getting the rose planted in the White House Rose Garden.”

They may not be in the White House Rose Garden yet, but I hope you will consider buying at least one for your desert garden, as all profits from the sale of this rose in the U.S. will go towards scholarships for student artists at Marywood-Palm Valley School and Idyllwild Arts Academy.

The goal, to fund the scholarships, is a $100,000 endowment for each of the three schools. More than 25 art scholarships have already been awarded.

The CVCAF was established in 2006 with Coldicutt as president and family and friends as directors, but none receive salaries. In addition to the sale of roses, Director Alexandre Renoir, the great-grandson of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, the famous French impressionist, creates paintings and donates them to schools to be used as fundraisers.

This Caroline Victoria rose, a hybrid tea, is being sold to memorialize Caroline Coldicutt, as well as raise funds for art students.

This story actually began in 2004 with the tragic death of Caroline Coldicutt at the age of 17. Her mother, Elizabeth, searched the Internet and found that Harkness, a family-run business since 1879, had a long history of charitable fundraising through the sale of roses. She felt this was the perfect answer, as it was a way to provide additional scholarships for art students as well as memorialize her daughter.

In July 2005 she flew to London, scrutinized a large selection of roses that had been hybridized and field tested for five years, and chose P-31-D, which has now become Caroline Victoria. Proceeds of 30 percent from the sale of roses in Europe are being donated to the Royal Theatrical Fund, a charity founded in 1839 by Charles Dickens and a group of actors.

“Our daughter’s love of all things creative and artistic encompasses the beauty of this rose,” Elizabeth said. “Her passion was fine art and painting, and Thomas, Caroline’s dad, and I felt that we had found the perfect rose to be associated with Caroline’s name.”

Rogue Valley Roses owner and rosarian, Janet Inada, said, “The Caroline Victoria Rose is the most beautiful white rose of its type that I have ever grown.”

Not surprising. It has an impeccable genealogical background, combining the grace of the Audrey Hepburn rose with the fragrant, award-winning New Zealand rose. It is described as being “classic and elegant, with blooms of pure ivory shading to amber-blush in a spiral bud formation, and a lingering perfume suggesting citrus and raspberry with subtle overtones of mint.” It offers season-long repeat flowering and holds highest ratings for hardiness, disease resistance, and fragrance.

This project of scholarships for art students has been built up piece by piece, as Elizabeth started out with the artwork, has now added the roses and it appears that there is no stopping her. She sends the roses out to friends in other states, is planning ways to expand the sale of Caroline Victoria roses to New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and China, and is already thinking about an online arts festival. All roses sold in Canada are being used for scholarships.

“This has not been a fast process, a little like pushing a rock uphill,” she said. “The rose finally arrived in the U.S. in 2008, was quarantined in Weeks Nursery in Wasco and Euro Desert in the high desert for two years and was test grown in Oregon and South Carolina, noting any issues with the environment. Once it was released it takes time to grow enough stock to sell, but we are finally there.”

For more information, call (760) 773-0278 or go to www.carolinevictoriarose.com

The Caroline Victoria rose was commissioned as a perpetual commemoration of the life of artist Caroline Victoria Coldicutt, whose deep love for the arts inspired the founding of the Caroline Victoria Coldicutt Arts Foundation (CVCAF),  a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting student artists in need. Fittingly, the rose was initially sponsored by the Royal Theatrical Fund, London, a charitable institution established in 1839 by Charles Dickens and other actors to financially assist former theatrical arts professionals in need.  The Caroline Victoria Rose was introduced at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2006, with Queen Elizabeth, patron of the Royal Theatrical Fund, receiving the first bouquet. Since then, the Caroline Victoria Rose for the Arts has enjoyed increasing recognition and popularity, and has been planted in major gardens in France and England, including Buckingham Palace and Highgrove by request of Prince Charles. In addition, the rose has been made available in many countries across Europe, including Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy, with a portion of the proceeds being dedicated to the Royal Theatrical Fund. This year the Caroline Victoria is featured in the Royal Theatrical Fund’s 2011 Calendar, along with performers and actors Michael Ball, John Nettles, Samantha Bond, and Sir Donald Sinden. Although the Caroline Victoria Rose for the Arts has been grown in California since 2007 under the supervision of well-known rose expert Tom Carruth of Weeks Roses, one of the most prominent wholesale rose growers in the United States, it has not been offered for sale in North America until now.

We are thrilled to announce that the Caroline Victoria is now available in both the United States and Canada!

Planting this gorgeous rose, or giving it as a gift, will not only enliven and beautify your garden, but will be a constant reflection of your generous support for the arts. A substantial percentage of the proceeds from each rose sold will be contributed to the CVCAF, to bring hope, inspiration, and needed financial support to student artists at educational institutions in the US and Canada. One rose can make a difference!

Click here for more information about the Caroline Victoria Coldicutt Arts Foundation or to purchase the Caroline Victoria Rose for the Arts.

One rose can make a difference so please help our artists and beautify your world!

In memory of Caroline, we are proud to announce the Caroline Victoria Rose for the Arts.  Created by world-renowned rose breeder Robert Harkness of Harkness Roses, England, this stunning, pure ivory, hybrid-tea rose is a testament to the perfection of nature – from which all artistic inspiration springs.  Our cherished hope is that the Caroline Victoria Rose will bring fragrant beauty and tranquility to all who see it, and will stand as an enduring tribute to the profound power of art to touch our hearts, fire our imaginations and enrich our lives. For as Caroline knew first-hand: “As the sun colors flowers, so does art color life.”

We are so excited to be able to offer this magnificent Caroline Victoria Rose for purchase in January, 2011 (in the United States and Canada).  In keeping with Caroline’s unwavering love of the arts, a substantial percentage of each purchase will be directed towards ongoing support for student artists in need through the Caroline Victoria Coldicutt Arts Foundation.

Click here for more information to order your own Caroline Victoria Rose for the Arts.

“Oh Rose, Who Dares to Name Thee” – Perspectives on Naming a Rose

By Cliff Orent.

On a typical English spring day in May 2006, following the introduction by Harkness firm of the ‘Caroline Victoria’ rose at the Chelsea Flower Show, Elizabeth Coldicutt, of Rancho Mirage, California, was granted an audience with Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, at which she, along with Sir Donald Sinden, CBE, president of the Royal Theatrical Fund, presented a bouquet of ‘Caroline Victoria’ roses to Her Royal Highness.  Her meeting with the Queen was the high point in a whirlwind year for Coldicutt, during which she worked with steadfast determination to establish an appropriate memorial for her daughter, Caroline.

Caroline Victoria Coldicutt was a great lover of art and had a talent for depicting tranquil California landscapes.  When she died, tragically, in March 2004 at the age of 17, she had already won regional art awards for her landscapes, and her work had been shown at the Palm Springs Art Museum and in numerous galleries in California, London and Paris.

Caroline Victoria with actress Jane Seymour at an art gallery in Palm Desert, CA.

Born in La Jolla, California, she began at an early age to sketch scenes of her family’s summer home in Canada and her black standard poodle, Charlie.  Determined to create a living memorial for her daughter and to raise funds for charities important to the arts, Elizabeth Coldicutt conducted an extensive search for a rose, preferably an English rose, that she felt would be appropriate to carry her daughter’s name.

“I searched the internet and found one produced by Harkness Roses,” she said.  “At that time I also learned that Harkness, a family run business since 1879, had a long history of charitable fundraising through the sale of roses.  Roses can be used to honor someone while they are alive or used as a living memorial.  If the person is well known or if a portion of the proceeds are donated to charity, then the commission may be reduced.  I was so excited to discover this as I was looking for a way of memorializing my daughter’s life, in addition to raising funds for the Caroline Victoria Arts Foundation, which will provide scholarships for art students.”  Family-owned and run Harkness has already raised over $250,000 for charity through the sale of roses, primarily with top earners “Samaritan’, ‘Princess of Wales’, chosen by Princess Diana for the British Lung Foundation and ‘Mountbatten’.

During a trip to London in the summer of 2005, Elizabeth reviewed a selection of roses that Harkness had already field tested for five years and, with the input from her family and the directors of the Royal Theatrical Fund, a London-based charity, she chose an ivory-white hybrid tea.

“Our daughter’s love of all things creative and artistic encompasses the beauty of this rose,” she said.  “Her passion was fine art and painting, and Thomas, Caroline’s dad, and I felt that we had found the perfect rose to be associated with Caroline’s name.”  With ‘Audrey Hepburn’ rose as the seed parent (its “mother”) and ‘New Zealand’ rose as its pollen parent (its “father”), the ‘Caroline Victoria’ rose is ivory-white in color, produced by two well-loved light pink parents and the bloom has inherited its parents’ serenity and grace.  The high center of this hybrid tea rose takes on shades of gold as it opens, depending upon heat and light, and the bloom receives the highest marks for fragrance and disease resistance, both of which are outstanding.  Its fragrance is strong and long-lasting, distinct and complex, with a foundation of tropical citrus with raspberry overtones infused by a hint of mint.  The plant forms a well-branched bush, suitable for planting in beds, borders or as a low hedge.  It is an excellent rose for the garden, and supreme as a cut flower for the vase.  And it has the additional attribute of rapid rebloom.

The Caroline Victoria Rose

Received with great enthusiasm at the Chelsea Flower Show and described by the London Times as “swirls of ice cream,” the rose will commercially introduced by Harkness first in the U.K. and then throughout Europe, with the hope that it will be available in North America.  Proceeds of 10 percent to 30 percent from the sale of the rose will be donated to the Royal Theatrical Fund, a charity founded in 1839 by Charles Dickens and a group of actors.  Elizabeth Coldicutt explains, “The ‘Caroline Victoria’ rose was commissioned to honor Caroline’s passion for the arts.  What better way to represent this passion than through a lovely rose used in support of the Royal Theatrical Fund which lends its efforts in assisting those in need in the theatrical arts and other creative media.”

“We are extremely grateful to Caroline’s mother for pledging the money raised by this beautiful rose to the RTF so that we can help people in need,” said Sir Donald Sinden, CBE, the fund’s president.  “It will be a lasting reminder of Caroline’s beautiful work as well as being a practical help for many people.”

Elizabeth Coldicutt stands behind an arrangement of 'Caroline Victoria' roses at the Chelsea Flower Show.

To help celebrate the Queen’s official 80^th birthday in June 2006, two ‘Caroline Victorias’ were to be planted at Buckingham Palace rose gardens as a fitting tribute to a loving monarch whose great-grandmother reigned as Queen Victoria and to honor a young woman named Caroline.  So Shakespeare’s ‘rose by any other name would smell as sweet” bears particular meaning for this lovely hybrid tea.

Actor Michael Ball, Paul Gane, chairman of the Royal Theatrical Fund, Elizabeth Coldicutt, Sir Donald Sinden, president of the Royal Theatrical Fund & Robert Harkness.

Elizabeth Coldicutt and Sir Donald Sinden greet the Queen at the Chelsea Flower Show.

Elizabeth Coldicutt and Sir Donald Sinden present a bouquet of 'Caroline Victoria' roses to Queen Elizabeth.

For more information about the ‘Caroline Victoria’ rose or to follow its progress, visit the Caroline Victoria Arts Foundation website at www.cvcartsfoundation.org.

Click here to download full article featured in American Rose Society.

This article is reprinted with permission from the American Rose Society. Cliff Orent is owner of Desert EuroRoses, Morongo Valley, CA.  Please contact him at http://www.eurodesertroses.com.