Nice rose, AnneCecellia! I wonder what it is? I bet someone here will know. Looking foreword to seeing another picture when all those lovely buds open:) Lisa

Oh, I agree it was a great find and I will always remember that day and my excitement. I found not only this rose but growing nearby another once bloomer of a different type in pink (which yes, I call Cobb Road Pink. LOL) DH thought I was nuts when I shouted "Stop the truck!!" and started hunting something to use to dig up a sucker. :-)

I've never grown Tuscany myself, so I can't really compare, but looking at photos on HMF it seems the leaves are not quite shaped right, and the sepals are all wrong - the buds don't look like Tuscany. The blooms, however, are very similar and so is the actual color (not that you would know it by MY camera's interpretation!) If you look closely in the last photo of the whole bush you can see the flower I zoomed in on, peeking out at about 4:00. That is more like the real color.

I was going to try for better photos this evening, but the rose chafers have increased in number over the last 2 days and the blooms that were already open from the day before were destroyed. I'll try again tomorrow to catch one before it is chewed to bits. Darn beetles.

Have you looked at Sissinghurst Castle as a possibility?

:-)

~Christopher

Hmmm. No, I hadn't Christopher; thank you for the suggestion. There are similarities (depending on whose photographs one is looking at.) And the physical description matches. OTOH, the fragrance of SC according to HMF is 'none to mild' and this rose in my garden has a very strong old rose scent.

I'd give a lot to know it's provenance; just how did a rose (if it were, say, Sissinghurst Castle/Rose des Maures) get up to the northern lower peninsula of Michigan and planted in an out of the way site that was probably homesteaded in the late 1800's? Who were they who had to abandon their little home because they couldn't make a go of it? There are a lot of these sites around the north, marked now only by the ancient lilacs or gnarled apple trees, spring bulbs like grape hyacinths and narcissus - or sometimes if one is lucky, old roses. Only the hardiest plants lived without care all those years, competing with thick field grasses or once-cleared land reverting back to deciduous forest. It's fascinating to think of the possibilities.

Anne Cecilia, are the buds mossy? They look somewhat mossy on my phone. Carol

Yes, Carol, they are! You know, I never thought about that before in all these years, to run my fingers over the bud and see if I got that piney scent. I do! :-)

Sweet! I love resinous roses. :-) Yours is a treasure! What a wonderful story and wonderful find. I can so relate to slamming on the brakes to rustle a rose.

Thoughts: Russelliana has decorative sepals and resinous peduncles, stems, etc. like your rose. I'm not at my computer where I can actually see worth a darn, but does your rose look like it shares any other characteristics with Russelliana? Roundish pointed foliage? Maybe reddish tinted stems? Serrated, slightly puckered leaves? Hairy stipules? Etc.? I've only seen fuller flowers, not double like yours, on Russelliana.

Just thinking out loud.... I'm currently a bit obsessed with Russelliana, so it's on the front burner of my thoughts. Carol

Anne Cecilia, more thoughts. For comparison, I was looking at my very young Nuits de Young and noticed it's not the mossiest of Mosses. I also remembered that Labrea once posted a photo of a beautiful but only slightly mossy NdY from one of these 3 locations: personal/Brooklyn Botanic/Bronx gardens. Note the smoother (for a Moss) peduncle, etc. and sepals rather like your rose's sepals. The image is on Jeri's June 2014 "For Those Who Like Pretty Buds and Sepals" thread. Labrea's flower is fuller, but in my experience, Nuits' petal count varies. Attaching image of my very young Nuits de Young. Lots of youth in that last sentence! Similar flower form? My bloom is a bit more mauve/purple than phone camera allows. Carol

Thank you for reminding me of that old thread, Carol. It was fun to go back and look at it again (even without the hunt for a match to Cobb Road Purple.) I do so miss Labrea's photos, don't you?

Anyway, Nuits de Young has some of the same qualities on the buds, especially in view of that particular photo showing very little mossing - but it grows taller than this rose of mine which never in all the years and in none of the 3 locations I've grown it has ever risen above 3 ft. in height. And never does my found rose have petals packed into the center - always opening to golden stamens showing. As to Russelliana, I did grow it at my old house and I see what you mean, but I don't think that's quite the right direction. :-)

It looks a lot like my Tuscany Superb, which also has fairly resinous buds.

-Chris

Yes! I just went outside and rubbed my fingers in Tuscany Superb's resinous post bloom peduncles. They look like your rose's and they have a distinctly piney scent! I wonder if Chris isn't 100% spot on?

Thank you for bearing with all my guesses. I'll be glad when our computer is upgraded so I can view images that are larger than 1 inch by 1 inch square! :-) Carol

TS (the color is actually more wine-purple)

And...I do miss Labrea's posts! Do you know if Labrea is no longer on the forum? Carol