''Rosa'' 'Precious Platinum' is a medium red

hybrid tea rose Hybrid tea is an informal horticultural classification for a group of garden roses. The first hybrid tea roses were created in France in the mid-1800s, by cross-breeding the large, floriferous Hybrid Perpetuals with the tall, elegant Tea roses. ...

. It was bred by

Patrick Dickson Patrick may refer to: *Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name *Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People *Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint * Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick o ...

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in 1974. The cultivar was introduced into Australia in 1977.

History

Dickson Roses was established in 1836 by Alexander Dickson, who migrated from

Perth Perth is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth most populous city in Aust ...

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. Alexander's son George and George's two sons Alexander II and George II began a rose breeding program at the company in 1879. Alexander Patrick (Patrick) Dickson (1926-2012), started working for Dickson Roses in 1957 and began breeding roses for the company in 1958. During his career he introduced many successful rose varieties, including ''Rosa'' 'Sea Pearl' (1964), ''Rosa'' 'Grandpa Dickson' (1966), ''Rosa'' 'Red Devil' and ''Rosa'' 'Red Gold' (1967). Dickson bred 'Precious Platinum' in 1974. The cultivar is a hybrid of ''Rosa'' 'Red Planet' and ''Rosa'' 'Franklin Engelmann'. It was introduced into Australia in 1977 as 'Precious Platinum'.

Description

'Precious Platinum is a medium tall, upright shrub which grows up to 5 ft (152 cm) and has ao 2 to 3 ft (30–60 cm) spread. The prolific, large flowers (35 petals) are fully double and high-centred in form. They have long, strong stems and are mildly fragrant. Flower colour ranges from red to deep crimson. Petals have an average diameter of 4.75 in (12 cm). The plant is well suited for cut flowers or garden. It blooms repeatedly from spring to fall. The dark green leathery foliage provides a good contrast to the flowers. The shrub has thorns, spines, prickles and teeth.

Cultivation

The cultivar is suitable for mass plantings, as a hedge or grown in containers. It is regarded as easy to grow, being disease-resistant and tolerant of poor soils. It prefers a position in full sun.

References

{{Rose, state=collapsed Precious Platinum 1974 introductions