A climbing floribunda, bred by Delbard of France in 1966.
In the very early 1970’s Ted Treloar of Portland, imported three plants of Altissimo from Delbard-Chabert of France. Three was the maximum number of growing plants the regulations allowed, and regulations being regulations, he was required to send them to the Plant Quarantine Station at South Yarra. The treatment they received there resulted in one dying, a second almost so, and the remaining plant barely surviving.
When the quarantine period was over, the plants, including the dead one, were returned to Portland. Ted decided that the only hope of rescuing anything would be from the sickly third plant. But he reasoned that it would need a warmer climate than Portland to have any chance of survival. Hence he sent it to David Ruston at Renmark with the request that David do his best to try and save it if at all possible. This David managed to do in a fashion, the plant throwing one small new shoot.
From this shoot, David was able to send Ted a piece of budwood about half a hand-span long. Ted took this and budded up some understocks from which all plants of Altissimo in Australia are descended. So all you Altissimo admirers and growers, give thanks to Ted and David.
