American Pillar?

11 years ago

Hullo there!

This rose bush has been puzzling me for years now. It's a great sprawling thing, with arching light green canes 6+ feet long, acting like it wants to climb on something. The thorns are reddish-brown and rather large. Foliage is glossy, fine, and medium-dark green. The bush is remarkably disease-resistant and stays healthy even when every other rose in my garden has black spot. It suckers vigorously. It blooms heavily in mid-late spring and then sporadically until fall.

The flowers are what confuse me. They are borne in clusters, hot pink, and are occasionally single but almost always semi-double, with the innermost petals often withered-looking. They don't have a white eye so much as a white splotch that sometimes carries over onto most of the petal. If they were single with a neat white eye, I would think this bush was 'American Pillar,' but I've never seen one with blossoms like this.

Another striking characteristic is that the blossoms smell strongly of pepper.

The bush is around 30 years old (has been cut back and transplanted several times, so I imagine it could get huge if let go).

Thanks in advance for the help!

Featured Answer

stillanntn6b

11 years ago

I think it's American Pillar. I have one AP that climbs thirty feet up a walnut tree (with no problem with juglans) and another massive along a fence line.

Some folks on Gardenweb have off spring of these and they are growing well, albeit smaller as far west as Montana.

I've seen other APs with major Powdery Mildew problems here, and mine have none...so there are some variables in populations out there. AP has been grown and shared so long and there is so much potential just in the size of single plants that it has a 'look' and the greener leaves that harken back to wichurana rather than the paler green that go to multiflora.

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Comments (8)

jacqueline9CA
11 years ago
Have you looked at pictures of Dorothy Perkins on HMF?

Jackie
Morel C
Original Author
11 years ago
Oh, pretty! That's not the one, though... Dorothy looks middle-light pink as opposed to hot, and has much fuller flowers.
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professorroush
11 years ago
My American Pillar never has semi-double blooms, and it is thornier than that one appears. Additionally, it has no scent. Here are two links that might be useful: Garden Musings post on American Pillar, Helpmefind post on American Pillar. Lots of pictures available on the photo tag on the latter site.
centifolia67
11 years ago
I have never seen semi-double flowers on 'American Pillar'.
Morel C
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you all! Professorroush, thank you for the links. Mine blooms on both new and old wood. I almost wonder if mine might be some sort of hybrid, some cross between American Pillar and a wild rose of some sort (if that's even possible). I had always assumed it had been planted on purpose at the house where I first dug it up. It was in a landscaped area at the edge of the woods, beside some camellias and Lady Banks. Now it occurs to me that it could've planted itself there-- somehow. It just doesn't look, smell, or behave enough like any kind of rose that would've been commonly sold in NC in the 1980s, and planted by a middling-mediocre landscaping service.
User
11 years ago
Not 'American Pillar', since that one has only five (or sometimes six) petals per bloom. I don't recognize your rose from those two photos, however.
User
11 years ago
..your rose reminds me of one I used to grow called 'William Baffin' a Canadian Explorer rose.... and your description of its growth and flowering habits would compare to mine.... see what you think of that one...