Greetings Forum Folk,

I posted this image back in June in the hope to identify this gorgeous old garden rose. The potted plant came labelled as Madam Ernst Calvat. This was her first full summer in the ground and she grew well and produced these lovely blooms. My first guess was Charles de Milles, but numerous folk have told me this is not that. Yesterday, I moved the plant to a new location and once again have gone through all my reference books and done web searches looking for a suspect without much success.

Just now, I had an uh huh moment. I went to HMF and looked up Madame Isaac Perrier, of which Madame Ernst is a lighter pink sport. I am still not certain, but because of bloom variability, it seems to me to be a possibility.

So, question to those of you who grow Madame Isaac, is it possible that this is a reversion to the original cultivar? I guess I can wait another year or two to see if it is remontant, but if someone can tell me what she is, it would make me very happy.

On a another topic, we finished the final planting of the new Old Garden Rose display at the Summerland Ornamental Gardens yesterday. It is a stand alone OGR display that sits on the edge of the Great Lawn. It has taken us three summers to rest a useable bed from the edge of the forest. We have weeded the bed numerous times over the past two years to get rid of the stubborn weeds and prepare it for planting. The OGR roses have been sunk in place in pots for the past summer. Yesterday, we planted them all in the ground. We have Gallicas, Albas, Bourbons a Centifolia and a Portland or two; about a dozen varieties in all. They are all three year old plants now, so it is my hope that they take off next spring. Most numerous are the Gallicas including some ancient ones as well a three Barden Gallica cross varieties.