What a wonderful history and wonderful rose. Nice sepals! (I'm one of those sepal fanatics.) Thank you for posting the bud. Please DO post the bloom, too. I am so looking forward to the unveiling. :-) Carol

I will definitely post the bloom -- but I have so been enjoying watching the buds swell, and the sepals part, I thought I'd share this first hint.

I am another who loves pretty sepals, and I can be just as excited over perfect foliage as I can over a bloom.

Jeri, I'm showing this picture to my recalcitrant N 92 Nanjing so that he'll pull his socks up. I think the heat is getting to my little guy. Maybe I should pot him up and send him for a fog vacation at your house?

When I received this rose it had a lovely bloom on it. The two that opened in the heat have been close to ugly. I'm hoping that El Nino (should we be so lucky) and the cooler fall weather will help this rose along.

Ingrid

Ingrid -- Remember that in hot summer weather, roses of this sort may commonly go dormant. Be patient with the little fella, and see what he can do when Fall and Winter come.

Jeri, thank you for sharing this journey. I too am a fan, and can't wait to see your bloom. N 92 Nanjing and Tipsy Imperial Concubine are among my favorite rose names. Glad to see this rose in loving hands.

jannike

What I really want NOW is "Ten Thousand Camellias."

:-)

Oooo, 10,000 Camellias! Even the name is seductive. Carol

Almost forgot to update this!

Gee, she's pretty, isn't she? Each bloom stage is an experience. Carol

Jeri, you're not allowed to forget the "full open flower" stage!

Ingrid

Coming right up . . . I need to make a collage, so you can see all of the images.

OK! First open blooms on a VERY immature plant. Now that I have seen them, I'm going to disbud for a while -- though this rose seems to have vigor to burn.

Mine arrived this spring with two buds. They bloomed nicely. Now he is putting up a very good fight against blackspot. I keep my fingers crossed that he makes it thru the winter.

She's got such beautiful leaves! The rest of her ain't bad, neither.

And I love the name, also- it sounds like an expensive and exotic perfume.

Jeri, does this strike you as looking more like a China than a Tea, both in the leaves and the flowers? I suppose we'll have to wait until it's mature before making that decision, but right now I really wonder. The flowers are very pretty but I have a feeling this rose will have more individuality when it's mature than what is apparent now. Still, it's great to have these pictures. They're also a good record in terms of comparing the now with the future, mature plant.

Ingrid

Good observations, Ingrid.

YES. We really can't judge the mature plant from what we see here.

Still, based only on this observation, I'd say right now that I THINK of it as a China. But, then, I think of 'Mutabilis' as a gigantic China. And "Ragged Robin" as some sort of an overgrown China.

So, I should probably take my observations and go shut up. :-)

It looks very China to me, too. (A completely charming class of roses, I might add.) The blossoms are sweet and spunky all at once. Lipstick pink is such a great color. It has punch, it blends well with others, and it looks fantastic against clear green foliage. The color of your Nanjing's buds reminds me of my Nearly Wild bud color. I cherish each one, like a little holiday light bulb. Carol

This post was edited by PortlandMysteryRose on Mon, Jun 23, 14 at 23:12

Glad I was there to witness you grabbing this rose at the Celebration of Old Roses. You were so obviously thrilled you found it amongst Vintage Garden's last treasures to be had.

Diane

Oh, I RAN out front to get it. I'm glad I did.

BTW, Kim Rupert was here a couple of days back, before the blooms were fully opened. He said then that the thing reminded him of Ralph Moore's Green Rose Reversion.

And indeed, seeing photos of that, there certainly is a resemblance, though GRR has fewer petals.

Here is a link that might be useful: Green Rose Reversion at HMF

It sure is a nice looking rose.

I think so, too. :-)

The bud shape, ovary shape, sepals, foliage, wood all impressed me as strongly resembling GRR, Jeri. You know when you see something and it immediately triggers the mental image of something else? When I first saw the plant at the end of the row in the "nursery area", the thought hit me, "dang! That sure looks like it!" Kim

Yes. I noticed that you zeroed in on it, right off.

Since this rose is apparently WIDELY grown in China --

" . . . is planted in various parks and roadsides of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces in China. . . . collected by Dr. Y. Ueda in 2002 from a plant in front of the gate of the Jiangsu Forestry Academy in Nanjing."

-- it seems to me that it (or something very closely-related to it) could have been the sport parent of Green Rose, to begin with.

This is the final photo I'll show of this spray -- it's about done. Might well have lasted longer, if the afternoon sun wasn't frying EVERYTHING.

But it's obvious that N 92 Nanjing shares the charming Tea/China characteristic of blooms that "fade to dark" -- growing darker as they age, rather than paler. When the plant grows up, it will have that "bush full of butterflies" multicolored look.

Now that the first half of our days finds us sitting in a thick fog bank, I'm seeing some mildew on this rose. Not to worry, it will probably outgrow that, with maturity (and with a weather change, for that matter). And hotter weather, damnit, is coming soon.

I am looking forward to seeing more photos of this one.

Such a pretty rose and I do love that fade out. No chasing off our fog!

No. And you know I value the fog, Kippy. I need to deadhead her, and trim her a little. And I think if there are more buds, I will remove them, for the present, and force her to grow up.

I forgot I had planted two (mix-up on order). The one I forgot is doing better than the one in the prime location. It gets a fair bit of shade ad perhaps a bit more water. It has multiple blooms and is only 1' tall. And yes, it definitely looks China to me.