I think that would be more efficient than first searching for roses and then culling all those which aren't in old cemeteries. Seriously, in my experience in this part of zone 5, there are not a lot of interesting roses or even roses of any kind, in old cemeteries.

There are some roses, in some cold-zone cemeteries. We found Harison's Yellow (no big surprise) in a North Dakota Cemetery. But you must look for old, neglected out-of-the-way cemeteries.
Likewise, old run-down neighborhoods are a good place to wander.

To find roses in cemeteries, you must first find cemeteries.
Google can help. Mapping programs can help.

Before you set out, you might want to read: IN SEARCH OF LOST ROSES, by Thos. Christopher. He changes the location of many things -- I'm sure that's to protect sensitive sites -- but the underlying truths are there.

Jeri

To find old cemeteries, see if your state has a county road atlas. Tennessee does, and it's got every road in each county, including the near-dirt ones that are maintained by the counties. From doing field work in the south east, I know that similar atlases exist for Alabama and Georgia.
In the Tennessee atlas, all the known cemeteries are there, although not to scale. (The cemeteries are much larger than in real life, it takes space to bracket a "t" that's a cross.)
For the cemeteries you do find, look inside the boxwoods. I've found roses overgrown by boxwoods with just a leaflet sticking out here and there.
Also check along the fencelines of the cemetery. The guys with the roundup and weedwhackers get tired and don't work the fencelines the way they do the tombstones.

And the idea resource would be a funeral home that has great landscaping, because those folks go out and see many, many cemeteries. And if you were to luck out and find the diggers who get there early, and hang around to finish the internment, they would be the ones to see roses.
We have a cemetery on our property and the diggers who've come here, to do their thing, haven't been plant people (I've asked after I've taken them iced tea.)

Right now I know of five roses I've seen in Knoxville cemeteries that I haven't seen in bloom. By now I know what Dr. Huey and multiflora look like in profile, so this spring, I'm going to try to get to the southeastern corner of that county as well as do my own county with my state map. (Yes, I have found cemeteries in which only Dr. Huey and multiflora survive. Sad. )

I've been wondering about this very thing. I did a Google search and came up with a list of cemeteries by county in my state but I have no idea which are the oldest. You might try going to the Texas Rose Rustler's site and see if they have suggestions. One of the only cemeteries I've visited had a good many old roses and I propagated two but found out they are ones I already have. So many newer cemeteries don't allow any sort of plants.
I think I'll google " most beautiful cemeteries" or " oldest cemeteries" .

I think the idea of talking to the people at a funeral home is a good one too, though they might not have great landscaping and yet know of roses in cemeteries.
Linda

I'm not sure what information is available for other parts of the country, but I have found that for many of the Texas and California cemeteries, you can find on-line listings of the burials.
Look for "cemetery census" -- a lot of this information is collected by and for genealogy researchers.
Some of these records even include descriptions of the places, or even photographs.
If the oldest burial was in 1950, you're not going to find much.
If the oldest burial was in 1750, well, that's more promising.
But remember that you're going to kiss a lot of toads to find a few fairy princesses.
And the well-maintained cemeteries rarely have old plants.

I've found that walking through an old cemetery -- even one with no roses other than those carved in stone -- gives me a wonderful sense of the history of the area.
It's a worthy way to spend a day, even if you never find a rose.

Jeri

Ann,

Thanks for the suggestion. I wonder if my partner-in-crime might not want to take a road trip around some back roads in central VA? If anyone else wants to join me, we can start our own VA rose rustlers.

Robert

California has a cemetery association and you can get listings of cemeteries by county. I wonder if something similar exists in other states.

I have really good peripheral vision, and can spot a rose, a Starbucks, or an old cemetery while driving at 60 mph. I've thought about a bumper sticker warning that my car makes frequent, sudden stops. A few months ago, I was driving by a little cemetery that had incredibly tumbled down stones and overgrown grass and shrubs. My friend said, "There aren't any roses in that mess!" Oh, dear, them's fighting words. We did a U-turn (I was driving), found a way into the cemetery (which was founded in 1856) and identified three huge bushes as banksiae. Ha! Don't tell me there aren't any roses! I would love to go back in the spring and see them in bloom.

If there had been perpetual care, between the depredations of weedeaters and Roundup, there might not have been any roses. Often, you'll see just a cane or two surviving, often within another shrub or with a tree growing through it. We always try to leave the rose in better shape than we find it, if at all possible.

I've looked through a dozen or so old Ohio cemeteries without any sign of roses. Well-trimmed grass and peonies prevail. However, I do enjoy the old headstones (predating many that we find in California) and the atmosphere. Hope that you are able to find some roses in your part of the country. I am in awe of what Celeste has been able to find.
Anita

It's not just cemeteries.
Old houses, falling down, or fallen down within the past two decades are also potentials.
Once upon a time I hoped that every patch of daffodils from where houses once were would have a rose or two several months later. Cattle and bushhogs blew that hope of mine. But in my part of the country, two story houses that are at least eighty years old are good potentials.
(Someday we have to talk about houses, their ages, and their landscaping.)

I have much better luck rescuing roses and other remnants of gardens past at old house sites than I have at cemeteries. Most cemeteries, like Ann and Anita have said, are well cared for -- meaning expanses of grass with tombstones and the occasional shrub. It is rare to find a cemetery around here that has anything.

Check with your local historical society to see if they have any kind of cemetery preservation program. In my county, they have an adopt an abandoned cemetery program -- I plan to see if I can adopt a small one to maintain it and plant roses.

I have cuttings of two polyanthas in the greenhouse that I took last fall. One was in a cemetery and one was from a house down the road that is destined to become a shopping center parking lot. There are also Gallica cuttings on my mist bench, that came from a plant beside the porch of a falling-down house.

These roses have survived for a long time without care, and we must be mindful to do no harm if we take cuttings -- and to only take cuttings if we have the probability of rooting them successfully. If there's a bulldozer idling behind you as you work, do what you can to perpetuate your treasure. (Under just these circumstances at a construction site last spring, I cut a neglected climber clear to the ground and dragged its remains to my truck -- the operator wouldn't wait for me to dig it up.) If the site isn't in danger, leave the rose so it can be enjoyed by others who happen upon it.

Connie