In Floribunda Rose.

2ft-3ft. 1989

GANflo Created by Douglas Gandy.

This beautiful rose will always hold a place in our affections as it was bred by the late Douglas Gandy who bred so many famous roses during his lifetime and supplied us with much of our stock over the years. A great Rosearian, many of the roses he bred are still popular today, including ‘Memories Are Made Of This’Father’s Favourite’ and the climbing ‘Creme Brulee’. During the last half century, he produced the beautiful luminous pink ‘David Whitfield’ named after the famous singer, and ‘Jimmy Greaves’, a deep cherry Hybrid Tea named after the famous footballer, plus the yellow climber’ All Gold’ which is still very popular today.

In 1989 he introduced ‘Florence Nightingale’ which we still consider to be one of the best roses he has ever bred. It produces clusters of shaded beige flowers flecked with pink, which open to a silvery white.

It blooms continuously through the summer and will produce many more blooms if deadheading is done regularly.

Very attractive and striking, as well as good resistance to diseases.

It can be grown in the garden or in a container.

Plant in full sun for the best flower show, but can cope with a little shade. It is not a powerful perfume but it has a nice fresh fragrance.

A very beautiful floribunda that does not receive the recognition it deserves.

Named after Florence Nightingale, the world famous nurse who helped so many soldiers during the Crimean War.

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE

(The woman with the lamp)

1820-1910

Florence Nightingale was born in 1820 into a wealthy English family and was the apple of her father’s eye. A very intelligent girl, her father took charge of her education and taught her Greek, Latin, French, German, Italian, history, philosophy and mathematics. As a result, she was much better prepared academically for life than most of the women in her class, as women were not expected to study and join any of the professions. Her expected role in her life was simply to be a wife and mother.

When she announced that she wanted to study nursing, her family was horrified because nursing was associated with the lower classes. However, her father finally relented on her and sent her to Germany to study nursing. With that experience behind her, she returned to England in 1853 to take up a post as superintendent of a ladies’ hospital in Harley Street. London.

About a year later, the Crimean War began, and reports of a lack of adequate medical facilities for British soldiers who were wounded at the front began to come in. Sidney Herbert, the War Secretary at the time, and a friend of Miss Nightingale’s asked her to take a team of nurses to Turkey to try and improve the situation. In those days not much was known about disease and good sanitation and soldiers were dying by the thousands while being treated in such filthy conditions. Even Miss Nightingale and her team of nurses were unaware that poor hygiene was responsible for so many deaths, not just poor nursing. However, as time passed, they realized the importance of hygiene and good sanitation and greatly improved the facilities, greatly reducing the death rate among wounded soldiers.

After the war, she returned to England and established The Nightingale Training School For Nurses at St Thomas’ Hospital in London. (now called the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery and part of King’s College London) In 1883, Queen Victoria awarded Miss Nightingale the Royal Red Cross. In 1904 she was made a Lady of Grace of the Order of Saint John. And in 1907 she became the first woman to receive the Order of Merit. In 1908 she was awarded the Honorary Freedom of the City of London.

During the Crimean War, she earned the nickname ‘The Lady with the Lamp’ due to a war report in The Times newspaper.

“She is a ‘ministering angel’ without any exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her slender form slips silently down every corridor, every poor man’s face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical officers have retired to pass the night and the silence and the darkness have settled on those kilometers of the prostrate patient, she can be seen alone, with a small lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds”.

After a long and eventful life, he died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 90 at his home on Park Lane. London.