Welcome to Rosegarth! We are a small hobby cattery located in
a village in England - just outside London. We breed rare chocolate and lilac persians and we also love beautiful pure
bred black red tortie and tabby/white persian colours both for their own sake and for the contribution these lines make to
our chocolates.
All of our kitties are raised in the family as much loved pets, whatever their destiny, and for
this reason they are not suited to very large or caged catteries where they will not receive attention. We are always delighted
with offers to adopt a kitty as a show neuter . They are very chatty and loving and love to play and snooze on the sofa- (their
sofa! ) and watch TV - as you can see!
We began over 25 years ago with colorbred blues and whites from
the UK - Cirrus and Schirana lines. but fell in love along the way with the lilac and chocolate series. Our aim is to
breed chocolates and lilacs that are every bit as beautiful and as well-bred as the best solid persians in the world.
Each year we add several new top international breedlines for continous improvement. Our friends in CFA Europe usually
say " Oh, Chocolate-that's difficult!! " and they are right! But we find it gets easier every year with the help of wonderful
lines we have been lucky to receive from our many international cat friends over the years
This is the story
of our programme. All of our chocs/lilacs have our original UK colorbred blues as a foundation along with our
wonderful first USA import - our GrCh
Marhei Sundown -a fabulous prepotent black
persian boy out of Gr Ch Marhei Epitome and GrCh Marhei Chasin Sunbeams-with GrCh Mystichill on the Marque and GrCh BarB VIC
as grandsires. We went to Florida to see these legendary cats and choose a kitty - we actually wanted a blue as black cats
were then not popular in the UK- but we were completely stunned to kitties like GrCH Marhei Toe the Marque - truly they were
the most beautiful cats in the world with huge eyes like mangos, wonderful heads and flowing, perfectly sound deep black coats.
We had our inspiration! We were hooked on the beautiful US cats!
After this we discovered a lovely black cpc boy Desertwinds Braveheart whom
we imported along with two other girls from Janet Moyer in California. He combined the huge coat of his father Gone
to Extremes ( Sulltans,Southpaw and Fullmoon ) with the beautiful solid lines of his Cinema mother.
Jolees Belle, a lovely blue cpc girl with a Marcus mother, has also made a big difference as has Degentilly Sorciere-who also carries Sandypaws lines. Bastis
Second hand Rose, out of Gr
Ch Jadon Jeffrey Beene, was a pure persian girl whose grandson R. Persimmon lies behind many of our chocolate lines
We then had the opportunity to add Teahs, Callyn and
Brigantina to the cp programme ( Brigantina Millenium a wonderful tabbypoint,actually went back double to Marhei Toe the Marque)
These new lines come together in our lovely lilac tabby girl R Mulberry Blonde.
When visiting Marlen Konrad of Caithness Cattery in Bavaria we had wonderful barbecue parties where we met some of
Germany's nicest breeders and that is how the lovely German chocolate tabby Cherry Lady von McLane came to live with us, bringing all our favourite Degentilly lines plus new chocolate ones. From Israel
came, via Marlen our pretty Gitkits Splendid who added GrCh Aftabi Sierra with Sandypaws/Purrpals
A million thanks also to Marlen for, our chocolate point Caithness X-Le-Poo the
father of Zanzibar and our lovely lilac creampoint Caithness Temptation, mother to Ch Rosegarth
Isfahan and GrCh Rosegarth Creme de Violettes of Westpoint. And a bigger thankyou for her friendship and hospitality.
One day surfing the internet I turned up a stunning little
chocolate kitten-in Arizona - with gorgeous extreme type, huge eyes and the sweetest expression, I couldnt believe she was
available. Then I also found she went back on both sides to chocolate carriers and kitties descended from Sundown that I had
exported to Sweden and the USA years before but with lovely new solid lines like Eddores and Artemis, Australian Daycara and
Chancery lines added.
So huge thanks to Trish Simmes who made it through all the paperwork for
the then-new 'pet passpor't so our little Az
Fancyface Sugar Britches, could join us in the
UK without quarantine. She has been a very significant
kitty in our programme, contributing huge eyes and great doming.
Our programe of black, red and tortie pure persians got
a boost when by chance I visited a CFA show in Belgium (where a judge made me coffee and fetched me a chair ! A big shock
for a GCCF exhibitor ! ) I saw the fabulous-and irresistible- kitties from 13 countries CFA Europe attracted to its
shows. We later welcomed some gorgeous newcomers; from Germany CFA Ch Delindars Daniel
(black) and CFA Ch Delindars Fiona (tortie) - and then after a long
long wait we finally realised one of our dreams when we received from Randy and Bob in Iowa our wonderful Boberan Night Moves-a boy who also goes back directly several times over to those fabulous Marhei kitties we fell in love with twenty years ago.
Since then we have had the good luck not only to be made very welcome in CFA and make some wonderful friends
but to add beautiful complementary lines for a serious black red and tortie programme from the wonderful Vareda and Kuorii
catteries.
We said we would never breed bicolors - because they reminded us of housecats!- but that was before
we met the adorable Kuorii 69 - a fabulous tabby/white
boy and a CFA divisional winner who gave me a kiss on the nose whilst waiting for his call. The huge bone and size and
lovely perfectly balanced head was just what we wanted As
69's mother is Blueskyeyes Black Pearls he fits perfectly into our programme.
He came with
our lovely little black girl Kuorii Vampire who has already given us wonderful
babies to Vareda Run for the Roses a super boy from GrCh Boberan
Red Ragtop from Diane Trinka. Our lovely red girl Vareda
Paprika (litter sister to Nutmeg) brings us more
of the lines we love and did her quarantine in Denmark with our friend Maiken Christiansen, which perfectly illustrates the
international nature of this great hobby. Our sweet little UK tortie Cloverhill Love Potion brought in lots
of Artemis, InStyle and Scrimshaw lines.
We were fortunate to have the contribution of CFA CH High Emotions Ice Cube
for a season and the Bocasanas Pajean and Magratheas lines added excellent outcrossing lovely doming and huge eyes. We already
have lilac/white babies descended from this very fertile line. Not forgetting the contribution from Havellandcats Yara
- a lovely - and huge- German lilac/white who joined us recently.
However, we decided at this point that
we can't go in so many directions and that the chocolate and lilac programme must reduce and follow solid and tabby bicolour
directions only that can fit in with the pure persian solid/tabbywhites. We needed better eye colour in solid choc/lilac and
therefore we decided that we must cut for now the himalayan programme, even though we love them, when we have incorporated
all the chocolate lines.
We are still chasing the dream of of lilacs and chocolates with the looks
of those gorgeous Florida kitties that inspired us 20 years ago .....and with the quality of the beautiful solid and
bicolor persian stars we are fortunate to share our home with today.. And a huge thankyou -and lots of hugs! to the many friends
all over the world we have made in our quest and who have trusted us not only with their precious babies but with the many
years of hard work they have invested themselves.
They have shown us through good and
not so good times that this wonderful hobby is not just about the joy of cats but so much also about the company of good friends!
