Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
robyn_beagle

Help identify this rose please?

RobynB
8 years ago

Saw this rose in Cambria, California upon a trip. It reminded me of roses my grandmother grew 40+ years ago. She called them baby roses. Like a miniature rose but a little bigger, on a huge bush. Can anyone help me with identifying this rose as I would love to plant one. Thanks!

Comments (21)

  • RobynB
    Original Author
    8 years ago

    Just saw that I put this in the wrong place - sorry!! Is there a way to move it?

  • Prettypetals_GA_7-8
    8 years ago

    Wow I love it. I hope you find out its name. Judy

  • jim1961 / Central Pennsylvania / Zone 6
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    Nice! Hope you find out what rose it is RobynB...

  • ozmelodye
    8 years ago

    RobynB, it looks like the polyantha rose, The Fairy ( Bentall 1932). You can read about it and look at photos on helpmefind.com

    RobynB thanked ozmelodye
  • nanadollZ7 SWIdaho
    8 years ago

    Ho, I grew a hedge of The Fairy many years ago, and didn't even think of this rose as being a Fairy rose. Mine looked so faded and awful most of the time--the only rose that consistently ever got powdery mildew that I've grown, and it didn't like my alkaline soil, so was thus chlorotic a lot. How large across are the blooms on this mystery rose, Robyn? They aren't massed together as much as mine were, and this bush's blooms look larger, but it's hard to tell in a photo. Diane

  • roseseek
    8 years ago

    It almost looks like The Fawn, too, which was bred from The Fairy. I know what you mean, Diane, The Fairy was never good for me anywhere I tried it, either. It hates dry, arid, alkaline heat. Mildew, terribly faded, mummified-gray blooms with almost guaranteed crown gall. It holds the record for all of that with Ballerina, another which hates my old climate.

  • nanadollZ7 SWIdaho
    8 years ago

    Amen, Kim. The Fairy blooms always looked dried up and half dead on that long ago small hedge of six plants that I had. I've had better luck with Ballerina as far as PM, but it has a definite chlorosis problem around here in our alkaline soil. Diane

  • ozmelodye
    8 years ago

    I'm not familiar with The Fawn, but I grew The Fairy in a large planter for years and it looked very similar to the posted photo....never faded dramatically and never displayed any fungal problems. Was sorry to leave it behind, but it was too big to move. I took cuttings but none grew and somehow have never got around to ordering another and now I have no room. Nanadol and roseseek, what a pity it was such a dog of a rose for you.

  • RobynB
    Original Author
    8 years ago

    It does look like The Fairy, from what I can see online. The only thing that gives me pause is that the descriptions all say Fairy stays small, no more than 2-3 feet high. The bush in my photos was taller than I am at 5'2". Any thoughts?

  • ozmelodye
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    There is a climbing sport which is listed as 8'- 12'. Mine was the bush form and (including the planter) was about 51/2' so I guess it would have been around 4'....not as tall as the bush you saw, though. Mine was about 4'-5' wide.

  • roseseek
    8 years ago

    The Fairy has sported multiple times, so anything is possible. It could also easily be it is happy where you have it and is just stretching its wings. Supposedly Ballerina can grow to 6', though I know of one in Redondo Beach that used to eat a three story pine tree. Where they're happy, they're GOING to grow. If the climate doesn't inhibit it, the thing can continue expanding to the limits of the available resources.

  • RobynB
    Original Author
    8 years ago

    Diane: Small blooms, maybe 3"? Small but a bit bigger than those of a miniature rose.

  • roseseek
    8 years ago

    HMF reports The Fairy's blooms as 1.5" and The Fawn (The Faun) blooms at 3".

  • nanadollZ7 SWIdaho
    8 years ago

    Yes, Kim, The Fairy's blooms are much smaller than 3" . I doubt mine were even 1.5" because of their being so dried up all the time. Diane

  • Anne Zone 7a Northern CA
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    It's not Lavender Lassie is it?

  • Anne Zone 7a Northern CA
    8 years ago

    Or Weeping China Doll?

  • Prettypetals_GA_7-8
    8 years ago

    I was gonna say it's color is similar to my Lovely Fairy but the blooms are much smaller than 3 in. I don't remember it's foliage being shiny either.

  • Patty W. zone 5a Illinois
    8 years ago

    Robyn, I like you have also searched for a pink rose with a double bloom of about the same size. It was grown by my mother who passed away when I was 11. Long before I cared about the name of a rose or when we might have discussed such things. Would have been some 50+ years ago.

    I ordered the fairy first as it had been hybridized before 1960. But alas the flower was too small. After a few other failed attempts. I tried for a lookalike and ordered Forever Friends and The Fawn while I know these are not the rose of my childhood they were very close and satisfied my need to have that rose in my life. All thou I've never exactly quit looking.

  • nanadollZ7 SWIdaho
    8 years ago

    I have heard Cecile Brunner called the Sweetheart Rose, and perhaps, a baby rose, but this rose doesn't look like CB, does it? Diane

  • roseseek
    8 years ago

    No ma'am, everything about it is wrong for Cecile Brunner. It is right for a Fairy offspring.