The eye-catching new rose that is helping The Huntington celebrate its centennial year was unveiled

The eye-catching new rose that is helping The Huntington celebrate its centennial year was unveiled just a few months ago. But ‘Huntington’s 100th’ got its start a decade ago, through a painstaking hybridization process that is as much art as science.

Tom Carruth has been The Huntington’s E.L. and Ruth B. Shannon Curator of the Rose Collection since 2012. Before that, he spent 25 years as a rose hybridizer, working as director of research and marketing for Weeks Roses, a wholesale rose grower, and becoming one of the nation’s leading creators of new roses. Over his career, he has introduced more than 150 new roses, including 11 All-America Rose Selections winners and four recipients of James Alexander Gamble awards, bestowed by the American Rose Society, for outstanding new and very fragrant roses.

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‘Huntington’s 100th’, the newly hybridized rose chosen to help celebrate The Huntington’s centennial year, is a large-flowered, multi-colored rose with an intense fragrance. Photo by Gene Sasse.

During hybridization, Anthers are clipped from a blooming rose to collect pollen and carefully applied using a camel hair brush. Photos by Gene Sasse.