Souvenir de Marcel Proust™ – pharmaROSA® NEONATAL rooted cutting
fragrance and flower quality make Souvenir de Marcel Proust™ a distinctive option where You require an exclusive, premium-container hybrid tea with proven exhibition credentials and repeat value for thematic collections. Its yellow blooms combine semi-double, cup-shaped form with strong, citrusy scent, delivering a recognisable signature in retail and reseller channels while supporting curated ranges for dedicated rose gardens. On pharmaROSA® NEONATAL own-roots the bushy, compact habit and moderate height help You build homogeneous nursery beds and predictable 5–7 L crop timing, with roots in year one, structural shoots in year two, and full ornamental expression from year three. Reliable disease resistance and low intervention needs reduce crop loss risk, while the repeated flowering cycle supports extended sales windows for exhibition-style shrub or hybrid tea offers. The cultivar’s H6 hardiness and UK field performance align well with schemes where dependable winter and wind tolerance across northern regions matter. Its moderate vigour suits dense benching and container production logistics, and own-root stability underpins long-lived plantings and collection maintenance, especially where identity, renewal and consistent colour presentation are commercially critical.
Usage options
Finished-product ideas
- Premium 5–7 L scented hybrid tea – Bush-trained own-root plants in 5–7 L pots showcasing strong citrus fragrance and award-backed flower quality as an exclusive yellow hybrid tea line – retail garden centres / specialist resellers
- Commemorative “Souvenir de Marcel Proust” collection piece – Curated SKU within literary or French-breeder themed ranges, leveraging name story, colour purity and reliable disease resistance, raised from uniform NEONATAL propagation batches – public gardens / destination nurseries
- Cut-and-garden dual-purpose rose – Managed as a bushy shrub in containers then planted out for local cut-flower and garden use, capitalising on large semi-double blooms and repeat flowering – artisan growers / farm-shop suppliers
- Low-maintenance yellow feature rose – Positioned as a resilient, low-intervention yellow focal plant built on own-root longevity and strong disease resistance, offered in 7 L and 40–50 L formats – municipal and corporate landscape specifiers
- Pollinator-accent exhibition bed component – Semi-double, stamen-exposed blooms used as a pollinator-conscious element in formal exhibition beds, supported by NEONATAL-based uniformity and premium silver rating – show-garden and collection managers
Technical cultivar profile
| Parameter |
Data |
| Name and registration |
Hybrid tea shrub rose, registered as DELpapy, traded as Souvenir de Marcel Proust™ Les Souvenirs d’Amours® DELpapy; ARS exhibition name Souvenir de Marcel Proust, commercial type hybrid tea rose. |
| Origin and breeding |
Bred by Georges Delbard, France, from ‘Madame Antoine Meilland’ × ‘Marcelle Gret’ × pollen from a ‘Vélizy’ seedling; introduced and registered in 1992 by Georges Delbard SA. |
| Awards and recognition |
Gold Medal at Baden-Baden in 1992 plus fragrance awards at Monza in 1992 and Nantes in 1995, confirming both ornamental and scent performance in competitive trials. |
| Growth and structural characteristics |
Bushy, moderately vigorous habit reaching about 70–100 cm in height and 50–70 cm spread, with moderately dense, matt light-green foliage and a moderately thorny framework suitable for bush training. |
| Flower morphology |
Semi-double, cup-shaped blooms with 13–25 petals, large (approximately 2.75–3.95 inches) and mostly borne singly; repeats well with an abundant second flowering, though spent blooms require manual removal. |
| Colour data and phenology |
Pure, bright lemon-yellow flowers, RHS 9A outer and 11A inner; newly opened blooms intense and radiant, ageing toward creamy butter-yellow, with colour lightening in strong sun but staying vivid in cooler conditions. |
| Fragrance and aroma |
Very strong, garden-filling perfume with a fresh, citrusy character; scent intensity and distinctive profile are key features for scented-rose ranges and fragrance-led displays. |
| Hip characteristics |
Occasional ellipsoidal hips, around 8–12 mm diameter, orange-red when developed; hips are a minor feature and do not dominate ornamental effect in standard maintenance regimes. |
| Resistance and winter hardiness |
Classified resistant to powdery mildew, black spot and rust; hardy to approximately -15 to -12 °C (RHS H6, Swedish zone 2, USDA 7b), with moderate heat and drought tolerance requiring watering in prolonged dry spells. |
| Horticultural recommendations |
Suitable for flower beds, specimen use and cut flower production; best presented as a bush-trained plant with 3–5 strong canes in premium container formats, benefiting from low maintenance demands and good disease resistance. |
Souvenir de Marcel Proust™ combines award-backed fragrance, bright lemon-yellow flower quality and disease-resistant, own-root reliability to support predictable, long-lived professional plantings; please contact us to discuss scheduling and capacity for your programmes.