Beautiful! One of my favorite roses for sure. While GP is notoriously difficult to grow, I’m actually very surprised at the toughness of its progeny INTERMEZZO, another favorite of mine.

Speaking of odd colors, the camera failed to capture the silver and beige tones of the petals, they’re not white—here’s CYMBELINE:

Mel Hulse used to laugh himself silly about Sam stating on Rec.garden roses that "Uncle Walter Bentley stated it was the 'rose of lavatorial coloring'!" LOL! I still have it simply because of you, Paul. I had two variations of it for years; the "Huntington Clone" and "Greenmantle Clone"; one with white petal bases and no yellow, and this with a great deal of yellow. Both were eventually lost. You budded several for Burling who sold me two. I budded two from the single remaining plant and have nursed, babied and performed occultist rituals over them for years. They are now over four by four feet each and I have been sharing bud wood for Steve Singer to custom bud them for those who wished them. If you have stocks and wish bud wood, it's yours for the asking.

Oh, how I love it, Kim! What an abundance of beautiful blooms! I enjoy my ‘Irish Creme’, ‘Little Grey Pearl’, and Ralph Moore’s ‘Silver Cloud so very much. Last summer, I brought home Burling’s own ‘Connie’s Sandstorm’. (She’s still waiting for a spot.) As you said, some people love them, others make a beeline for those “oddballs”, and adore them. It seems these “coffee colored” roses are becoming quite popular with brides, lately.

I’ve always loved the “oddballs”, and feel that they have the look of an old fashioned photograph, but right there in front of me. Now that I think about it, they have a certain “tintype” look to them, which I only now realize from seeing Paul’s photo of ‘Golden Century’. How wonderful would it be, to see a photo of Constance Spry’s bouquet being held by that bride in her silk brocade dress?!?!

Beautiful photos of a beautiful rose, Kim! Lisa

What a beautiful bunch of blooms! I love the shades of this rose, so stunning. I also love the not so complimentary comments given to this rose. It's wonderful to see others able to grow these oddball roses. I think many of these beauties would not make it in my area; between the cold winters & humid summers!

Prior to its introduction, Jim Sproul, the creator of Honey Dijon, and Tom Carruth of Week's Roses (at that time), the introducer, referred to Honey Dijon as "Baby Poop" on line in forums. Tom even commented tongue in cheek in a talk that they had considered naming it "Pamper Me".

That’s hilarious, Kim! What makes your comment ironic, is two things. For one, Sarah (you met her with me in Bakersfield, last summer) gifted me a Honey Dijon for Mother’s Day last year, and it finally arrived at her house a few weeks ago. She got one for herself, as well. Second, Sarah is very excited because she’s going to a garden party at Jim Sproul’s this weekend! I’m sure she’s not even aware that he created the rose we’ve been waiting for, for nearly a year! I certainly wasn’t. I’m going to have to direct her to this thread! “Baby Poop” lol. Lisa

So fascinating that roses could grow in such colors! I love them for their unusual shades. They seem pretty rare, though...is GP still in commerce? Never seen it listed anywhere? :-)

I'm in the don't love it category, but who cares, it's great that roses are available for all tastes. The descriptions here are priceless; they alone make it worth looking at this odd darling of the cognoscenti.

No, only a masochist would attempt to commercially offer Grey Pearl. Roses of Yesterday and Today was the last who tried it. Each year it was described and most of the catalogs also carried apologies they would, once again, not be able to supply it. I have made buds of it available for Wisconsin Roses to custom bud it the past two years. I will be sending him some more next week so he can generate replacements for those which failed.

Kim, how would I go about getting GP budwood from you? I have established stocks of Dr. Huey & IXL ready for grafting. I’ve given up on the idea of ownroot GP culture, at least now I know what it DOESN’T like.

BTW, do you or Paul still have Moore’s CONDOLEEZA? I’ve been looking for cuttings of that Moss for decades now. Thanks!

Kim- amazing range of colors in your Grey Pearls! I love it.

Kim, your heroic efforts have paid off with your GP. Thanks for sharing budwood. GP has very pretty and unique color, but I think I like LGP color better.

Cymbeline is so charming.

"Pamper me" is too funny!

I'm happy to have been able to help spread this stinker around! With all its faults, it can be spectacular and I would hate to see it go extinct. Romogen, you can private message me through Houzz with your name and mailing address and I will see what's available. It's one of those real buggers which will decide to push growth from virtually every bud on the plant, which usually means it's about ready to slit its wrists in front of you while challenging you to attempt doing anything about it. Hopefully, there will be some pieces to remove without losing major portions of the plant.

PM sent. :-D

Thank you very much!!!

"Constance Spry wrote in her last book, Favorite Flowers, she received word she MUST go down to London to see Grey Pearl. She was searching for a wedding bouquet to compliment a heavily brocaded antique silk wedding dress. Once she saw Grey Pearl, the bouquet was made. "

Was the bride a zombie? LOL.

I have to go with Ingrid on this one and say it's not my thing, but I'm happy it has a fan base because it's strange and rare enough to hang on to.

“BTW, do you or Paul still have Moore’s CONDOLEEZA? I’ve been looking for cuttings of that Moss for decades now. Thanks!”

Not me, no. Mine was killed in the Polar Vortex a few years back. I lost at least 300 varieties that year, including many rarities like Grey Pearl.

“only a masochist would attempt to commercially offer Grey Pearl.”

I budded Grey Pearl several years in a row around 2002-2005, and if I got 1/3 of them to take and produce a viable plant, that was a very good batch indeed. I’d hate to have to try to actually push out serious volumes of it.

I am joining the club of Ingrid's. I have never seen this rose before and I was looking so hard at the pics. They don't look real . ...more like paper and missing colour paints which I agree that it needs tons of pampering.

jin

Thank you so much for sharing the pictures. I'd seen a photo or two, but never so many at one time, showing so much variation.

The guard petal colors astound me. The blooms make me want to adjust the petal colors....to what I'm not sure, but somehow the insides to me need to slightly reflect the outsides.

Foolishly, it reminds me of the nonsense poem, now more than a hundred years old

I never saw a Purple Cow,

I never hope to see one,

But I can tell you, anyhow,

I'd rather see than be one!

Ann, many years ago, when I first started growing the oddball colors, I photographed them and took the film around the corner to the one hour photo shop. (Shows you how long ago, doesn't it?) I picked up the photos and took them home. They were all "normal" colors. No browns, grays or greens, but pinks of all shades! I began laughing as I KNEW what had happened. I cut the blooms and took them back to the store with me to show the guy who processed and printed the film. He was gobsmacked! He said he was shocked when they came out those colors, so he checked the chemicals to make sure they weren't old or contaminated. Then he calibrated the machine and rechecked everything, but they continued coming out those "awful" colors. He reprinted them and swore he'd never encountered anything as oddball as that.