Sorry, no help at all Rick, Just admiring this pretty but extremely well-armed rose. I suppose when you're a wild rose you need all the help you can get.

Thanks Ingrid. This rose lives in a very secluded neglected part of the garden. Someone told me it was in full bloom yesterday and asked me if I knew what it was. Hence this post.

The rose is quite lovely and it seems almost fitting that it lives on in an area of the gardens that has gone wild. I have my work cut out for me trying to ID so many nameless roses. We are trying to catalogue all of the plants in the gardens, a task that will take years.

It was a misty, showery day in the gardens today and I had them mostly to myself as I worked. It was all rather Zen like, walking the paths in the showers and mists. Very calming and peaceful.

Cheers, Rick

My immediate response was that surely that's too pale for ecae - but that's only from what I've usually seen in photos, not having grown it myself.

Have you considered/ discounted R primula?

It's a relatively early bloomer (often the first in the garden to flower), with younger growth having characteristically wafting incense-scented foliage, in addition to those gorgeous creamy flowers and ferny foliage, and decorative round hips later in the season.

Maybe Rosa xanthina 'Canary Bird'? Although it's not exactly a species rose.... Carol

That's a beautiful garden!

Thank you Comptesse D. I do believe that you have nailed it. According to HMF Roses,'Rosa ecae ssp. primula' is yellow, light yellow, or lemon yellow. This rose also has arching canes and blooms at the same time as the Lilacs as in the description. I will have to check the foliage for fragrance, but everything seems to fit. Another unknown tentatively identified.

Sheila, yes, the garden is incredible. I have begun to call it "Canada's Lost Garden" from my own perspective. It simply astounds me that a garden like this exists, yet is so little know. That is largely due to its location on the edge of a small town in a lightly populated region. We are trying hard to up its profile and secure its future as a Heritage Garden. It is completely run and maintained by a core group of local volunteers, even though it sits on Federal Government land at the top of a research station. And over 90% of the funding comes from donations, a yearly plant sale, and grants that someone must submit applications for ever year. I am very proud of the work the Friends of the Gardens does and has done to maintain it for more than 25 years.

It is well worth a visit if anyone is ever in the area. While not a rose garden per sei, it has lots and lots of roses incorporated into the landscape plantings, which is the way I most love to see roses displayed. We of course are working hard to expand and rejuvenate the rose collection, including building new and replanting existing rose beds.

Cheers, Rick

If Nik's still around he might be able to confirm, since he grows it, I believe.

I'm also admiring that other delicate little single rose - is it by any chance R sancta (the Holy Rose, St John's Rose, R richardii)?

What a special place you have there. I love your description and can quite see its Zen-like potential, given suitable misty conditions; it just needs a little rustic tea-house or hermit's retreat, tucked away in a quiet corner..

Hi again Comptesse D., I am pretty certain that the pink single rose pictured above is a native species called Rosa woodsii which is native to Western North America. It is quite ubiquitous in the Okanagan Valley. The other native species which grows abundantly here and is in bloom right now is Rosa nutkana. It has smaller pinker single blooms and the most heavenly "clove" fragrance that wafts on a breeze. There are many of those on the wilder area of the local bike paths as well as in the wild sections of the Gardens.

Rick

The prickles and growth habit look similar to spinosissima. Could it be a spin hybrid?

The garden is lovely, beautifully landscaped and inviting...

I have R. primula (from Pickering), and it’s thorns do not look like that. I also have R. cantabrigiensis (has scented foliage and bristley canes)), R. xanthina, 6 seedlings of R. primula (some do have thorns similar to the yellow rose above) which all have scented foliage. I‘ll look for some photos for comparison of canes and foliage to post. I can zip out into the garden to get more if needed.

R. primula, I looked for photos where you can see the thorns. They are big, but the canes have no bristles.

R. xanthina. I got mine from Eurodesert, it still had a tag on it from Forest Farm. R. xanthina has more arching, flexible canes, darker yellow flowers (quickly fade lighter in sun), and smaller thorns than R. primula. Also R. xanthina has some red at the base of the stamens. Not so R. primula.

R. cantabrigiensis. From Colvos Creek Nursery. Very bristley canes. Canes flexible and arching. Pale yellow flowers. Long bloom season (longest of all the once-blooming yellows in my garden). Still blooming today. Scented foliage (not strongly so, but unlike R. primula's scent) which surprised me. I have two plants of it--one in a sandy area of my garden and one in clay. The one in the sandy area is much bigger.

R. cantabrigiensis next to a white/cream rambler on May 11, 2019

Just for comparison, here are some bristley/thorny canes on a white-flowered species, R. Omeiensis from Greenmantle Nursery.

Gorgeous photos, Tessiess! Species and near species are just simply lovely.

Rick, thank you for sharing those lovely garden pics, and thank you for offering a mystery to challenge our rose knowledge. I do love a good mystery! :-)

Carol

R. hugonis is a possibility. However, I don't know that rose very well (Kim R. does). It never got very big here and died last year suddenly. I don't have very many photos of it. The dead plant is still in the garden, and just looked at it. The canes have a combination of thorns and bristles. Is there a plant scientist near the garden who could compare the various yellow species/species crosses and give you a better idea?

I have plants of hugonis and primula, and neither of them have those dark older canes, or that quantity of bristles. The flowers also look vaguely off in some way.

Couldn't it be R xanthina/Manchu Rose (but not 'Canary Bird' if that one is a miss)? The armed lower cane looks very R spinosissima-like, doesn't it? Shudder! Where oh where is Kim Rupert when we need him? :-) Carol