A China hybrid, striking for its pale centre and deep red outer petals, sometimes listed as a Bourbon. Flowers double, cupped, in small sprays, well scented; stems with few thorns. The origin of this rose is unknown, but similar ones are still found in western China, e.g. in the garden of a temple near Lijiang, where there is a rose which shows similar colour change. ‘Sophie’s Perpetual’ must have been planted before 1928, but was named in around 1960 by Humphrey Brooke, a great connoisseur of old roses, and named after Sophie, Countess Beckendorf, his wife’s grandmother, wife of the last czarist ambassador to London, who started the garden at Lime Kiln. The history of this garden is described in Michael Gibson’s ‘The Rose Gardens of England’, Collins, London 1988. Photographed at the Sangerhausen Rosarium Germany, and Mottisfont Garden Hampshire UK.