Wow! 'Orange Smith' displays the same dramatic range of colors as 'Archduke.' Great save, Jeri! Don't get me started on cemetery rose care. It reminds me of old house remuddling, but it's deadly and irreversible.

Carol

very pretty!
thanks for posting this I'm always interested in a found rose, and have grown several.

Lux

Yes. The only apparent difference between this and 'Archduke Charles' is the petal count -- but it is consistent. So -- I figure it is likely a sport or seedling.

Jeri

I wonder which it is--sport or seedling. If he produces any random fuller-petalled blossoms, I guess you'll have an idea. It's exciting that there's an 'Archduke' almost look-alike that doesn't suffer any unfurling issues. That could make for great popularity. You take amazing photos, Jeri.

Carol

We've watched it here, and we've watched it in the Sacramento Cemetery. Thus far, it appears to be consistent.

Someone brought a separately-collected bloom to the Celebration Of Old Roses (in May, in the Bay Area) labeled as a Tea -- and it was consistent with what we have.

And yes, Carol. In my coastal conditions, A.C. can have "issues" with opening, in dank conditions -- "Orange Smith" is never troubled that way. I rather think the petals have more substance, but I could be imagining that. Yet, it is otherwise just like A.C.

Sport? Seedling? Not even sure DNA testing would tell us. But I'm glad to have it.

Jeri

Very special and pretty.

I love that the rose is named after the man buried there, Jeri.

I think about how tough life was then during those times and that a rose was something precious of fragrance and beauty when there was little of that, probably, in day to day life. It makes those cemetery roses really special.

Really nice rose, Jeri! Just another example of why some of us are so unapologetic about a bit of judicious 'trimming' of unknown roses in cemeteries and other places. All too often, that visit may be the only opportunity for a rose to be collected before it is destroyed. "Sumerduck Cemetery Polyantha" is my own example of this ... the mother plant is gone, but I have two of her cuttings growing here in my garden.

I feel somewhat conflicted about the business of collecting roses. For a long time, we went out to old locations, and did NOT take cuttings. We just took photos. We didn't begin to collect things until we were having some success here at home, with propagating.

I STILL hesitate to make cuttings if a rose is under great stress -- and many of them are, particularly in most recent years, out here, with increasing drought -- not to mention things like Roundup.

But this rose is a good argument in favor of it -- as is your Summerduck Cemetery Polyantha. The mother plants are now gone, so the propagated plants are what separates it from extinction.

Another good example is "Linsley Plot Quartered Pink."

Mel Hulse made the decision to take cuttings, even tho the plant was in very sad straits. It was gone entirely, a year later, when a group of folks began restoration of that cemetery. And, because it had been collected and propagated, they were able to re-plant it, in the original site, from which it had been lost.

Jeri

I share your conflict, Jeri. I find that even a rose under stress can generally offer a small snip or two without compromising its survival. I have good success with propagation from cuttings, so there is every expectation that at least one cutting will sprout roots and perpetuate a found rose for the future.

Oh, I know YOU do! Remind me, one day to tell you about the lady with the ice chest, and the beer. :-)

Jeri