If there actually was a "Mt. St. Helens Cemetery," I'm not finding anything on it.
The best way to find out might be to contact someone who is local to the area -- maybe a Historic Society close to the area?
There was a Klickitat Cemetery, and some others, but . . .

Do you recall where you obtained the rose to begin with?
=======================

In the earlier days of the Heritage Roses Group, one feature of the quarterly "Rose Letter" was an occasional column in which people were looking for roses they could not find.
If they didn't want to have their personal contact information out there, replies could be directed to the Editor.
I like that idea, and I'd like to reinstate it for the "Rose Letter."
If you'd like to be a "test case," email me privately, and we can include your query in the August issue.

Jeri Jennings
Editor,
Heritage Roses Group
"Rose Letter"

Your photo shows a very pretty rose, but it doesn't resemble any Tea I've ever grown.
There is a Grandiflora named
"Mt. St. Helens"
introduced in 1981
bred by Northwest Growers from a seedling X "Queen Elizabeth".

I only mention this because the pedicles, and growth habit, and foliage, of the rose in your photo in my h. opinion, more closely resemble a modern reproduction rose, rather like an Austin, than a rose of the Tea class. Do you still have the original label?

Luxrosa

That rose is beautiful, I really like the way that the center seems to glow. But the foliage does not strike me as typical tea foliage. Does it sprout new stems all over the plant or mainly form the base? The second photo seems to show most of the canes coming from the base. The teas I am famalar with tend to sprout from everywhere. Teas also tend to have nodding blooms, though there are exceptions.

Whatever it is, it is really beautiful and seems to be recovering nicely.

Thank you all for your replies! This is mostly a curiosity thing for me to see if anyone else is growing it.

The only thing I am sure of is that the rose was listed as a 'found rose' under the name of 'Mt. St. Helens Cemetery tea'. Luxrosa, I don't have the original tag, but made a plant tag when I received it.

My best guess is that I bought it from Ralph Moore's Sequoia Rose Nursery back when he mailed out a paper catalog. Remember the good ole days when he sold rooted cutting for six or seven dollars and a dollar or two for shipping? Well, I bought a lot of roses from him back then. This was well over ten years ago and the rose is not found in the list of roses that has been preserved online.

The only mention of it I could find online is on the Peaceful Habitations Rose Garden site under the list of found roses. P.H. is located not far from me here in Texas and I've visited there several times. I know the owner also bought a lot of roses from Ralph Moore. Unfortunately (as you see from the link below) the acres of stunning rose gardens are no longer open, but there is a wealth of information about old and found roses the site, some of them found locally.

I took some pictures at the beautiful gardens with my old 35 mm and presented a slide program to San Antonio Rose Society. But my point in all this is that he lists Mt. St. Helens Cemetery Tea and my guess is he bought it from Sequoia.

I was not able to find a Mt. St. Helens Cemetery either. My thought is that perhaps the 'finder' took cuttings from a cemetery in the vicinty of Mt. St. Helens but not necessarily from a cemetery bearing that name.

Jeri, I would love for you to put this question to the membership of the Heritage Roses Group. Perhaps someone might even have an old Sequoia catalog to see if it is listed. We do love a mystery, don't we? I will send you an email.

Colin, I just went and looked and I see that all the branches are coming off one trunk and there are rose bearing stems from those branches. The largest rose is three and a half in. in diameter.

Of course being a found rose who knows it's true history, whether an old tea or something else, or perhaps even a seedling of old and new? But it's a lovely rose and one I go to for fragrance, but apparently it was not popular enough to be offered by present day nurseries.

Thanks for your input and considerations!

Here is a link that might be useful: Peaceful Habitations Rose Gardens ...

Upon looking over the Peaceful Habitations site just now I think it was Sam Kedem that the owner bought roses from and not Ralph Moore. I remember we discussed where to buy Buck roses and I told him about Kedem's nursery as I had bought Bucks from him. So forget the possible link to Sequoia. But I didn't buy 'St. Helen's' from either P. H. or S. K.. Plus I remember it was just a little twig when I got it mail order.

Wow, what a wonderful collection. The website says that they are no longer open to the public but they are still taking mail orders. Do you know if this is accurate? I didn't see pricing information, but they do have roses marked as IN-STOCK.

Hi Collin! Unfortunately they are no longer selling roses either due to the 'draconian' water restrictions. I think those 'in-stock' designations were from 2007.

Some of the water districts in Texas are very strict about the use of well water, even though the wells are on private land, as so much of the aquifer water was being wasted at the height of the drought. One guy had a catfish farm and was pumping millions of gallons of water a day out of the aquifer while the rest of us couldn't water our lawns ... LOL.

Another nursery had to fight the courts for years to keep their nursery open and they were propagating nothing but drought tolerate plants.

It's a shame Peaceful Habitations is no longer open for tours as it was such a wonderful display garden as well as selling many wonderful roses. I wish I had the 35mm slides I took, but I gave the ones I had to the owner as he had some engagements at which he wanted to show them.

I think I do still have the 2nd best pictures somewhere. Does anyone how those can be converting into digital?

Does anyone how those can be converting into digital?

*** You might be able to have them done professionally, or you can scan them, if your scanner has that capability.
I even have a dedicated slide/film scanner, but the process isn't easy, and I've found that old slides require a LOT of re-touching.
Still, I'd do more of it -- if only I had the time!

Jeri

There are a lot of places on-line that will scan slides for you. Here is an example: http://www.digmypics.com/pricing.aspx

They charge $.39 a slide according to their website.

I have had Kinko's scan slides but I don't recall what they charged.

Many flatbed scanners have a slide attachment, but the best results are obtained by using a dedicated slide scanner, as Jeri mentions.

Here is a link that might be useful: link

Thanks so much for the information and the link. It would be wonderful if digital photos of Peaceful Habitations Rose Garden in full bloom could be made available for viewing. Before I search through what slides I have left of it I'll try to contact the owner and see what he might have.

Well, I should have looked before I wrote ... LOL. Some of the pictures I took are available to be viewed under the heading of 'Tour of the Gardens' on the Peaceful Habitations Rose Garden site.

Here is a link that might be useful: Check out Tour of the Gardens ...

It occured to me in the middle of the night that I still had an old Vintage Gardens catalog -- somewhere. I found it! It was the 1996 edition. I looked for the rose in question and found this listed:

-----

St. Helena Cemetery Very Double HT

HT rrr/fff/4 Unknown, found [Robinson, found]

An old and intriguing HT of soft straw-pink, opening wide
and full of petals. Very leafy sepals add to the beauty of buds.

------

Just for the record here's a couple of pictures taken yesterday:

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The rose is included in the Vintage Gardens Book of Roses, 2005 edition, but it no longer appears in Vintage's online catalog. There exists the possibility, I suppose, that the rose has since been identified as a named variety, and is no longer listed under the name it was assigned as a foundling. I encourage you to contact the folks at Vintage to inquire about that possibility. It's a lovely rose and appears to be thriving for you. Odd that such a fine rose would disappear from the Vintage collection. I expect there must be a logical explanation . . .

I had a vague recollection that this rose was discussed here a year or so ago. I'm posting a link to the previous thread, altho it doesn't solve the mystery.

Here is a link that might be useful: St Helena Cemetery Rose Thread

I just checked the Vintage site again and the rose IS still listed under its very long name, "St Helena Cemetery Very Full HT" (or something like that).

Thanks Windeaux, so it is. I had done a search on Vintage and came up with nothing, but just now found it by going down the list. It's listed under "Hybrid Teas - Custom Root".

Thank you also for linking the thread on the discussion of "St. Helena Cemetery Very Double HT". I was going to say that it answers my original question, that is IF "Arcadia Louisiana Tea" is the same rose. Evidently Vintage doesn't think they are the same as he still lists both roses separately. Also describes their bush sizes as different.

However, "Arcadia Louisiana Tea" is certainly close to the rose I have, especially if you allow for differences in climate. Plus roses can 'morph', so to speak. For instance, the Prairie Sunrise I got from Sam Kedem years ago has many more petals and tends to quarter where the specimen from Chamblees does not.

All in all I'm very glad to get this much information. Thank you all so much!

"St. Helena Cemetery Very Double HT" on HMF:

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.58345&tab=36

Here is a link that might be useful: Arcadia Louisiana Tea on HMF

Just wanted to show you all some recent photos of the rose. It has bloomed in flushes all summer and now has over three dozen blooms and buds while still in the pot. The fragrance is wonderful and the foliage is very clean without even a hint of disease. I don't spray with anything and am amazed that since I went organic the roses don't have thrips anymore.
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{{gwi:276809}}

What a luscious, gorgeous rose! I'm surprised it's not more well-known, especially since it seems to be so healthy. I know this post wasn't written to enable anyone, but must you show such beautiful photographs with dozens of blooms in a pot? I don't have dozens of blooms on ANYTHING right now. Sigh, will have to go on the Vintage site now....

Ingrid

A month ago i visited Petal Pusher's Nursery in Cedar Hill, TX. They had all of their plants 50% to 75% off since they were going out of business. They had this rose for sale- the lady I spoke to did not know about it, but thought they may have purchased it from Antique Rose Emporium in the past. I was curious about this rose, but could find no info on it. It looks like a nice one-- I ended up buying: Monsieur Tiller, Reve d'or, natchitoches noisette, champney's pink cluster, maggie, rubens and mrs. br cant.

Not to enable anyone or anything like that ;-) but it was noticed that this rose doesn't hold on to it's petals, but drops them cleanly making a nice show of growing up out of a skirt of dropped petals. However, the blossom lasts several days even in the hot climate of Texas

Sabalmatt, it's nice to know that a few nurseries carry it, or did. Sounds like you got some nice deals from Petal Pusher's going out of business sale.

Also noticed that Hartwood roses has it listed under the tab 'Our Gardens'.

When it gets a little bigger I'd be happy to share cuttings.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hartwood Roses

Roselee - What are the blue flowers you have planted around it?

Laurie

Laurie, the blue flowers are the last of this spring's larkspurs. We had an abundance of them this year because of the ample winter rains.

Incidentally I made a couple of observations that might be of interest. One is that the canes are very smooth and thornless above where they branch. There are a few thorns near the base of the bush. And there are no prickles under the leaves.
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The other observation is in comparing it to the photos of Arcadia Louisiana Tea on HMF it doesn't appear as if Arcadia has leafy sepals where St. Helena does.
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I was looking at Arcadia again wondering if St. Helena was the same rose and was going to grow to the same height. Right now I have the feeling it is going to stay a smaller bush since it hasn't put up any long canes, but time will tell.

When I saw this thread the other day, it had a vague ring of familiarity to it ... couldn't put my finger on it, though. After reading it this morning, it all became clear. I DO grow this rose, but I couldn't bring up any sort of mental image of it ... weird, but true.

I looked it up in my database, and I immediately realized why it's not familiar. St. Helena is planted in a prime spot in my front Hybrid Tea bed. Right next to it is a rose that was supposed to be "Schultheis' American Beauty" ... it's actually 'Schoener's Nutkana', and it practically ate all of the roses adjacent to it. On the other side is "Wagon Wheel Bright Pink HT", another vigorous grower.

SN has been cut back, and I will move it to a more appropriate spot in a few weeks. I'll see what I can do about keeping Wagon Wheel a bit more in bounds. St. Helena looks a bit sparce and lanky from having to compete with such a vigorous neighbor, though it has a few really nice flowers right now. Once it has space, I am sure it will recover and be beautiful next year.

Connie

Yes, indeed -- I got my "St Helena Cemetery Very Double Hybrid Tea" from the Vintage Friends sale three years ago. It is vigorous on its own roots and the flowers are delightful and well-scented. I am so glad it was saved just-in-the-nick-of-time by Phillip Robinson, as the plant in the cemetery from which he collected it disappeared soon after. To my eyes, it does look a lot like the photos on HMF of 'Mlle Helene Cambier', an HT introduced in 1910 that was listed in the catalogs of local rose sellers at the time (so, available in this area, which is where I grew up -- St. Helena is a town in the heart of Napa Valley), and which has been mentioned as a possible ID. (ETA that the town of St. Helena is named after Mount Saint Helena, which is nearby, and probably how the name got confounded with "Mount Saint Helens" at the beginning of the thread.)