Oh, Kim, I hate to hear that. It's a reminder of how imperative it is that we keep passing around and growing these rare roses. Even when you did your part to keep IZ going, all it took was an unfortunate series of losses to create a tragedy. Here's hoping you can find the real thing, and start again.

John

I suppose yours came from Ralph Moore???

I wonder if it was ever at Camulos . . .

Ralph Moore's came from ME. It grew in the single HT bed at Rose Hills. I made contact with Desi Maze who was the marketing director and worked out a trade where I brought them rooted plants of odd things and I was permitted to take cuttings of their rare things. Of course that was LONG before "Dr. Tommy" ripped it all out and trashed the rarities they had, including several i was never able to get to propagate, and installed his "test garden". Jim Kirk planted it at Rose Hills after receiving it from Forest Hieatt, who was the President of the Men's Garden Club of Southern California and President of the San Diego Rose Society. Hieatt bred Flame of Love. John McGregor, Clair's predecessor at The Huntington is who told me about its name, "The Male Gypsy", as it was reportedly the same colors as the I Zingari Cricket Club of the time (1925). I budded two plants and I stood in my garden in Newhall and watched hail rip the budded portion out of the stock of one during a freak storm. The other plant is what every other plant in commerce resulted from. Who can tell if it was ever at Camulos? It's not a strong enough plant to have survived decades there without care.