Thank you for the great video, Brandon, and the thoughtful comments about roses becoming extinct, or at least no longer available in commerce. Even early hybrid teas are being saved and grown by some people and institutions which are worried about their potential disappearance. Vintage Roses started doing this years ago. Many nurseries which carry old/heritage/antique roses are also offering rare hybrid teas. They also are offering "found", or "mystery" roses, to put them back in commerce under a study name, even if they have not been and may never be, identified.

I think lots of people who are interested in preserving old roses have extended their definition of "old" in that respect. Anyone who inherits an old garden, as we did, might have a treasure trove. Our garden maintained a bit, but not really "gardened" from the 1960s up until the late 1980s. That was over 20 years. What I eventually discovered is that the weak roses (there had been a large collection planted from 1905 through the mid 1960s) had died, and the remaining roses were the best ones because of their ability to survive. We discovered several rare and wonderful old tea roses. One growing in our garden, Anna Olivier, had been "lost in commerce" (replaced by a different rose) in North America, and was only identified when the Australian tea rose ladies identified it, and Vintage Gardens took cuttings from our garden and spread them around to many nurseries.

Schmidt's Smooth Yellow (study name), which I found growing in an old, about to be (and was) paved over, garden 3 blocks from my house, is thought to be one of two polyanthas hybridized in Europe in the period 1898 - 1900. So, it is not an antique rose. It is a wonderful, completely thornless, almost ever blooming medium sized polyantha which is completely healthy without any spraying, and I can't understand how it could have dropped out of commerce, but it did. One of the roses we think it might be is "extinct", and the other one is hanging on by a thread (I have only been able to locate one plant growing in Australia, in harsh conditions). My point is, if everyone keeps their eyes out for unusual roses growing wild in vacant lots, old unkept gardens, etc., you might find a jewel, you never know. Those who are lucky enough to have what they know are very old bushes of a rose which IS still in commerce should treasure them too, as evidently many very popular roses (including newer roses like HTs, etc) "decline" over decades of being cloned, commercially, and old clones sometimes are much better and healthier than the new ones still in commerce. I am lucky to have many roses which fit that description in my garden - I keep rooting them myself and planting them around.

It makes me sad to see and read about on here that some people basically discard most of their roses every few years, in order to fit brand new ones into their gardens. That is how we lose the older ones, sometimes forever.

Jackie

Pardon my ignorance, Jackie, but I am a little confused about Anna Olivier. I have always enjoyed your pictures and tales about your Anna Olivier. Is she the same as Bermuda Anna Olivier? And the same as Etoile de Lyon? Rose Petal Nursery lists a rose called Bermuda Anna Olivier and says it’s synonymous with Etoile de Lyon. But somehow it doesn’t look the same to me as your Anna Olivier.
Judi

Oh, I just now found another Houzz thread in which you discuss this issue. I guess there is a bit of confusion surrounding this rose! I always enjoy the peach shading on your rose. So if I want that one, I should look for the one labeled Anna Olivier without the Bermuda prefix.

Yes, I believe it is thought that "Bermuda Anna Olivier" is really 'Etoile de Lyon', and as I recall 'Etoile de Lyon' was the rose which had accidentally replaced the true 'Anna Olivia' in North America. It looks very much like AO, except that it is all yellow all of the time. (If you see double quote marks around the name of a rose, it means that is a study name, or some other name assigned to a rose which they do not know the real name of. If you see single quote marks around the name of a rose, it is believed to be the true name of the rose.

Jackie