I wonder if it might be R. fortuneana.

So did I, Ingrid, but all of the pictures of r. fortuneana on HMF are MUCH more double than the blooms on my rose, and appear to have a yellow tint, not a pink one. The blooms on mine are consistently semi-double, as in the first picture above. I also tried Odorata, but could not find any pictures on HMF that looked like mine either.

Hoping that someone will recognize it, or have info that fort or Odorata sometimes puts out semi-double blooms with a pink flush. (Kim?) When it stops raining (just heard a weather report that it is supposed to rain for 5 out of the next 6 days), I will take more pics, and try for some of the leaves. It will take a while to make sure I am getting this rose, as it is tangled up with so many others.

Jackie

OK, it stopped raining for 10 minutes, so I ran out and took more pictures. The first one shows a young cane with buds - they start out showing white, but then turn to solid dark pink before they open. There is a fully blown bloom which has gotten WAY more pink, but that color did not come out in the pic, so it is not below (sigh). The next pic shows more leaves, with some closed buds. I looked all over it (found a long climbing cane which was climbing along the ground - lots of leaves) and could only find 5 leaflets on any leaves - never more. Surprised me. The last picture shows an old grey cane with is non-the-less sprouting all over. Whatever it is, it appears to be happy!

Jackie

Jackie, a wonderful mystery! The blush rootstock that comes to mind is Rosa odorata, but I see thornless stems which don't match RO. The stems and foliage do remind me more of Fortuniana, as you and Ingrid, but not the blush tint of the flowers or the pink buds. I can hardly wait for someone to crack this puzzle! Carol

You're both right, the pink buds are atypical of R. fortuneana. Wish I had more to contribute.

Carol I do see thorns on the stems in the pictures...

Thanks, Kim! Odorata it is. What had mostly confused me is that the blooms on my plant are semi-double, and do not resemble most of the pictures on HMF of O. However, I just looked at all of them again, and the pic from Sangerhausen, and the one from Serbia, are the best matches. So, now I know it is a very repeat bloomer, I am tempted to root a cutting and plant it in more sun. Drat!

Jackie

You're welcome, Jackie. Remember, too, though many Odorata plants are the remnants of old root stocks, "Hume's Blush Tea-scented China" was sold as a variety itself and planted in many gardens. With the age of your garden, it would be neat if it turned out to be such an old plant, it predates the wide-spread RMV infection. It's possible. If we can still find cemetery roses which escaped infection, why not some from very old gardens?

Jackie, I'm curious. How would you describe the fragrance of your rose? Carol

Carol - Fragrance - very very faint. I always have trouble smelling much scent on tea roses. Smells just like my DdB, which is the only other tea I have blooming right now - I compared them.

Kim- what about the fact that it is climbing? HMF says odorata grows to 1 or 2 feet tall.

Also, a bit of new data - when I just went out to smell the blooms, some of the closed very dark pink buds from yesterday have partially opened, and now look way more like some of the pictures on HMF of partially open blooms which have very dark pink petals remaining on the outside of the bloom, while the inside petals are white.

Jackie

It seems very probable that there are quite a few Hume's Blushes in commerce worldwide.

There are definitely a few different roses called that. I chatted with Malcolm Manners on Face Book the other day and he has an idea how to DNA test to determine which might be the correct one. Hopefully, though, something growing for potentially a century in a garden may stand a better chance of being something "lost".

Jackie -- the collected Odorata rootstocks I grew smelled intensely of violets.

(So does Fortuniana, btw.)

Yet, I can't smell that violet scent in Fortuniana (nor Banksiae, for that matter), though the Banksiae pollen drying has the most intense clove-spice scent as it dries. All I get from the "violet" scents is the bitter impression on the back of my tongue I smell from Pansy plants. Not the flowers, but the plants.