Thanks for that Celeste.

Your cemeteries are so green, compared to ours! And the roses are for the most part very different.
But the feeling is the same, that's for sure.

Jeri

That's beautiful, Celeste, thank you. Did you get cuttings of any of those roses? What a fun way to spend time.

Thanks for posting. Gean

I always enjoy your posts of cemetery roses.

Rosefolly

Celeste thank you for the tour. I love the old cememteries. I grew up next to one but never noticed the roses, guess I was too young to care. Wish I knew then what I know now, I would have collected some for sure.

I love the Scotch roses too.

the bottom rose looks like a gallica, that might narrow down your search. Just a guess on my part by the look of the leaves and I have grown a few gallicas. They have such beautiful colors, so intense and fragrant.

I love these tours.

Valerie

Celeste,
I too always love your cemetery posts!
Remy

Celeste--thanks for this tour-----You are so lucky to have these lovely old cemeteries----Most of them in this area have "perpetual care" which means they are "manicured"---no hope for an old rose.

Thanks again
Florence

I too love the cemetery posts. I always make my husband go through them. He has come to appreciate the little history lessons there. In Iowa on a family visit I often see small, old graveyards on a south facing slope overlooking the valley and fields. What a comfort to know you would spend eternity there.
In Iowa I sometimes see wild roses but also things like apple trees.
Thanks, Karen

Celeste - what lovely pictures! I too love old cemetary roses.

The "dark pink" one you thought might be a sucker of the original old rose looks to me like it might be "de la Grifferaie", a hybrid multiflora from 1845. It was used as rootstock long ago, and evidently more recently for standard roses. It blooms for a long time in the Spring, and has a fabulous old rose fragrance, and gorgeous very double flowers, as you note. I discovered it when a boring yellow hybrid tea rose standard I didn't much like died, and up came what was obviously root stock. It didn't bloom for the first 2 years, but the third Spring it put forth (on very long canes) dozens of those beautiful fragrant flowers. It is one of my favorite roses in the garden now.

Jackie

Celeste, thanks for the tour. The Cemetery Roses are such treasures, the roses tell a touching story.

Celeste, I love your photos, and agree with Jeri about how green they are, and with Florence that it's so nice that they haven't had the "perpetual care" mowing and Roundup treatment that we usually see here in California.

I also think that the first rose may be De la Grifferaie. The dark red Gallica-like rose may be "Little Red Runaround," which we often find out here in cemeteries, too. It may have also been a rootstock. I can't place the fragrant one - we have a rose that seems similar that we call "McCarty Plot" that is probably a Hybrid Perpetual. It tends to blackspot and rust, and I see some of that on your photo. I will check out its scent this year, and also other dark pink HPs in the Sacramento cemetery - we have probably 8 - 10 that have different study names and may or may not be different plants.

Wish we could find Scotch roses, too. I think the issue is that we find roses from about 1850 on, and they weren't in fashion by that time. Your cemeteries are older, and have some really nifty carvings, as your other recent posting shows. Our headstone carvings are pure Victoriana, clasped hands, doves, fingers pointing heavenwards, and many different types of carved flowers.

Thanks so much for what you do in looking for the old roses, and sharing them with us!
Anita

THANKS to everyone who spent a few minutes to look at my post & pictures! I appreciate all the great feedback and suggestions. I am off to look through all my rose books again for 'De la Grifferaie'.
Anita.....We do have many of the same types of stone carvings such as the clasped hands, fingers pointing to heaven, roses and their buds, doves, etc.....but like you stated, New England has some VERY old graves and in the real early ones (1600's to 1700's) we have found some very crude and sometimes eerie-looking figures. Just wanted to post a few of these since I know you would find these interesting.

Celeste

The one thing we find interesting is all the variations of the winged spirit....some look menacing, some friendly, and some even look a little cartoon-like. The older the stone, the more crude the carving it seems.

{{gwi:230926}}

{{gwi:230927}}

{{gwi:230928}}

{{gwi:230929}}

{{gwi:230930}}

{{gwi:230931}}

{{gwi:230933}}

A couple of examples of the skull symbols....

{{gwi:230934}}

{{gwi:230935}}

Other interesting very old headstones.....

This was a grave of a Negro 'servant'

{{gwi:230937}}

This one looked like George Washington!.....

{{gwi:230939}}

There is a lot going on in this carving.....

{{gwi:230940}}

This was a most unusual stone.... kinda looks like a sunflower face with wings!.....

{{gwi:230941}}

{{gwi:230942}}
Me and DH found this on our first annual cemetery rose adventures last yr! We are hooked. Thanks for sharing all your pics celestial rose. It's like finding hidden treasure everytime you locate one of these beauties isn't it??

cottagegirl.....That is a wonderful rosebush you discovered! Have you had any luck identifying it? You certainly had 'beginner's luck'...lol. I am wondering if you took any cuttings of it, and if so, did they root?
Glad to know of yet another couple who enjoy searching for old roses!

Celeste

Celestial rose, this was the only pic I had...sorry I didn't have my camera that day. I wanted to get close ups so I could get a better ID. The bush had little fragrance as I recall, I was a once bloomer and yes I did get cuttings to root quite easily. It is in the town where I work so it's easily accessible. I'm going back in May to get more cuttings and document better. Unfortunately this pic is not really clear and was taken on Dh's cellphone. Yes, I could talk for days about our rose hunts last yr. (it was our first year). I'm looking forward to exploring other areas nearby. I really have found a lot of cemetery roses which surprised me too. I bet I found at least 40 and all were different. I'll get some pics together and do a post all my own soon for ya!
Jen

This is a delightful post and I am so interested in seeing both the roses and the gravestones. I would love to visit old cemeteries but I dont know how to go about looking. Do you just drive around until one is found or is there a way to look up where a cemetery is in each town? I live in east Texas - dont know of any out of the way ones. How do all of you who visit them find them? Thanks for the photos, you all - very enjoyable!
Judith