Hi all --

Last year in late May 2008 my r.gallica officinalis, grown in Maryland in a suburb of Washington DC, in lots of sun, where the bush is about 8 or 9 years old, seemed to have a sport!

As you know, r. gallica offic. (Apothecary's Rose) looks like this picture from everyrose.com as http://www.everyrose.com/EveryRose.lasso?-database=RoseDatabase.fp3&-layout=detail&-response=%2feveryrose%2froses%2fdetail4.lasso&-recordID=32889&-search The flower is semi-double, with about 35 petals, and deep pink/red with yellow stamens and very fragrant. But it is a once bloomer.

On my bush, I had about 80 blooms, maybe 100?, hard to count. But I had three blooms on one branch to which I tied a yarn string, that had MANY MANY more petals and looked something like this: http://www.helpmefind.com/plant/pl.php?n=77044

This is Childing Provence or "A Roses Foliees" page at helpmefind.com THis is NOT my rose, but looks very much like it. The description says double with 17-25 petals, globular, open bloom. Mine had something of a button eye or maybe not - a small space where yellow showed - so tight with petals that cannot see much. The bloom was about 3" - 4" in diameter. The color on mine was dark pink in the center and pale pink on the edges. It it NOT cupped, sa outer petals are not so big that they can hold the flower together. Rather, the form is more like a pom-pom zinnia, where top petals lay on second layer of petals, on top of a third layer, and so forth, with the bottom layers at the outside edge at least very pale. The problem is this rose does not last long say 2-3 days. Apothecary Rose is a once bloomer and this sport is a once bloomer also. It would have been a very big leap if were a repeat, and while much to be desired, repeat bloom did not occur.

This year, in 2009, I looked forward to r. gallica's blooming. I had tied a string to the cane. There are only three blooms on the cane - one was misshapen, but the second is smaller. This year it is all medium pink, not dark in the center and light at the edge. However, there are a couple other canes, that seem to show similar type flowers. When the bush is done blooming, I will trace where these canes originate - but now while the bush is very full, they seem to be two canes that are separate and unrelated to the first with the yarn string, that have small pink blooms (solid color not with light edges, and say 2" diameter), where pink is lighter color that r. gallica offic. blooms.

I do not have a digital camera. But I do have a 35 mm film camera, so I will take photos of the potential sport blooms. Unfortunately it is raining hard here in Maryland off and on the last few days. I will measure the bloom diameters. After the rose is done blooming I can try to count petals - do not want to pull them off an attractive bloom now.

Any suggestions? Has anyone else seen something similar? Thank you. Kathy

PS HOw does one post photos at Gardenweb? Formerly there was a box at the base of the message space, in which to paste the link and a title for the link.