Lichterloh

Where to plant. Historic and wild gardens, groups of Hybrid Musks (Felicia, Cornelia, Buff Beauty), collection gardens; as a specimen against a dark stone wall for contrast.

Climate. To −20 °C — in Ukraine with light protection in the north.

Care. Minimal — selective pruning as for shrub roses; standard seasonal disease prevention.

Name. «Lichterloh» — German adverb «blazing with flames, burning brightly». A purely descriptive name conveying the intensity of the flower's red colour. Unusual for Tantau, where most varieties carry melodious women's names (Landora, Anna Pavlova, Heidetraum). Here it is a dramatic, poetic epithet.

Breeding. Raised by Mathias Tantau Jr. at Rosen Tantau (Uetersen, Germany), 1955. No patent code registered — the variety predates Tantau's modern code system (TANxxx). Parentage: Red Favorite (Tantau 1951) × New Dawn (Somerset Rose Nursery 1930) — a daughter of the legendary «New Dawn», the first patented plant in the USA (US PP1, 1931). Through New Dawn it carries R. multiflora blood — hence its place among the Hybrid Musks.

Significance. One of the early post-war red Hybrid Musk Tantau varieties, a transitional form between shrub roses and the floribundas of the 1950s. The 11th Hybrid Musk in our catalogue, alongside Felicia (1928), Cornelia (1925), Buff Beauty (1939), Ballerina (1937), Danaë (1913), Heavenly Pink (Lens 1989), Bouquet Parfait (Lens 1989), Guirlande d'Amour (Lens 1993), Grand-Duc Jean (Lens 2010), Heimatmelodie (Tantau 2000) — the largest «wild» family in the catalogue. The ARS officially reclassified it from Floribunda back to Hybrid Musk in 2007. The ADR 1957 is often cited but is not documented in HMF. It has historical value and is now rarely found in modern nurseries.