It appears to be expressing an iron defiency. The "fishnet" appearance of the dark green veins against the yellowish look of the rest of the leaf is the symptom.

No -- I think Alisande means, what sort of rose is this?

Alisande, sorry, I'm sure it's something I don't have here in LaLa Land. :-(

Jeri

ThanksÂyes, I was trying to get closer to identifying the rose. I've never seen one with long, light green pointed leaves like this.

I can tell you it has long, skinny canes. It was marked Sir Thomas Lipton. I should have realized it was mislabeled before I bought it.

That sure looks like my baby Darlow's Enigma, right down to the red edging on the leaves. I snapped a couple pics, but the boys are on the main computer where I have to download and upload my pics.

Could yours be one?

Every pic I see online seems to have exactly the thin, reddish canes and light green, long pointy leaves you show. I don't know if all Hybrid Musks have that sort of leaf, but I feel pretty confident that yours is one; probably DE.

Hmmm........I would love a Darlow's Enigma. I took a look at HMF, and it seems to me the leaves of DE are more coarsely serrated at the edge than my leaves. They said DE is shade tolerant. The spot this rose is in is shadier than most; that's why I was thinking of moving it.

Hybrid Musk does sound like a good bet, doesn't it?

Thanks!

Well, the serration can be a difference...but not all the leaves even on the same plant have the same serration. here are some pics of my plant, sorry they are bad. It was pretty dark, and I had to use my flash and focus in the dark. You might be able to see enough, though. Sorry, the BIG green leaves in the bottom photo is a Chelone glabra; but that helps emphasize the "lightgreenness" of the DE leaves.

{{gwi:296506}}

{{gwi:296507}}

{{gwi:296508}}

{{gwi:296509}}

Good eye, Greenhaven! If it really is Darlow's Enigma, and if it really is shade tolerant, maybe I'll leave it where it is and just give it some TLC. I confess I haven't paid very much attention to it.

If I get a bloom I'll report back!

It looks like some sort of multiflora hybrid. It's definitely chlorotic, and that should be addressed before doing much of anything else. Multiflora will go chlorotic if the pH is too high. Darlow's Enigma, OTOH, seems quite impervious to pH problems. Darlow's Enigma is also very rare in commerce, so unless it came from a small, boutique nursery, it isn't Darlow's. (I actually know it as a passalong plant)

Does it winterkill much? I've found chlorotic multiflora hybrids to be quite tender, and it may very well bloom on old wood.

It's possible the plant is pseudo-chlorotic, thanks to my camera (or, more accurately, my lack of skill in editing the picture).

Yeah, I was thinking about DE's rarity. This rose came from Walmart, so we can rule out rare.

It winterkills badly, so a habit of blooming on old wood would explain the lack of blooms.

I assume multiflora hybrids do not spread like rosa multiflora . . . ? I am so allergic to even the word multiflora after years of dealing with those beasts.

No, it's chlorotic. The leaves should be a uniform green. The veins here are obviously darker than the rest of the leaf. Multiflora hybrids don't like lime. I've fought chlorosis on them for years now, and have finally gotten to the point where it no longer seems to be a critical factor in how they perform. I'm not planting something like Veilchenblau any time soon anyway. Keeping the polys going is hard enough.

Mad Gallica is right about the chlorosis.
We have the same problem here with anything with a Multiflora background.

Take a good look at the stipule.
Is it "fringed," -- an indication of Multiflora genes?

If not, maybe something with an HM component is possible.
It bothers me, tho, that it has not bloomed.
An HM should logically have bloomed. And, does Wally World sell any HMs????

Jeri

Any buds yet? Hopefully not rootstock.

While getting some cuttings of Paul's Himalayan Musk today the shape of the leaves and the way they grew on the stems caught my eye. They seemed to be very near those you have in your picture.
Could it be Paul's Himalayan Musk?
PHM is a once bloomer which would never bloom if it experienced much dieback. Mine hasn't but it's only been in the ground here for three years and seems to be the rabbit's favorite. They eat most growth on it early in the spring meaning no second year growth to produce flowers.

I don't think it's Darlow's Enigma. Mine blooms on new growth and has flowers on it almost continuously so far this year so yours should have produced blooms by now even if it had experienced winter dieback.

The chlorosis was the reason I mentioned the iron deficiency. If there's a chlorosis you can't depend on the light green color of the leaf as a diagnostic character because it isn't typical of the leaf except when the plant is stressed. The leaves may well be long and thin (as Hybrid Musks can be), but you aren't seeing its true leaf color right now.

York Rose makes a very good point.

I'd add that, coming from Wally World, it just does not seem likely that this is Darlow's Enigma or
Paul's Himalayan Musk.

A Polyantha, perhaps.
Or maybe a Miniature?

Jeri

I have Cornelia, also a Musk, and the leaves have very much the same shape. Not saying yours is Cornelia but it does look like a Musk leaf, to my newbie eye, Cornelia being the only Musk I own :-D
Happy to say though, that the color is better on the new growth since I rescued it.

To start over at the beginning:

Based on the leaf shape, and the chlorosis, we are assuming it will also have fringed stipules and the other marks of a multiflora descendant.

The main multiflora derived classes are Multiflora Rambler, Hybrid Musk, and Polyantha with a few others.

If it was a repeat bloomer, even with the stress, it should have given some bloom. A once bloomer, however, won't bloom unless certain conditions are met. I have one that between the chlorosis and the winterkill, is blooming for the first time in 3 years.

Do the box stores carry any once blooming ramblers?

Was it a grafted rose? And if so, the growth is coming from above the graft? (Just covering all the possibilities).

Other characteristics:
If you look closely, you can see that the new growth is red.
Canes are red, and so are new leaves.
I THINK I see that the red fades out to just a thin edge of red.
There are 7 leaflets on the fairly mature leaves, and the last set of leaflets points backward, in the manner of a Tea.
It would be interesting to see the shape of the prickles, and I'd really like to see the stipule.

Is the leaf surface satiny, or shiny, or matte in finish?
It looks like the leaflets attach directly to the petiole, yes?

Jeri

I'm sure it's not, but it does look a lot like Lillian Gibson (red canes, prickles few are far between, once blooming rambler). Here are a couple pictures of my Lillian Gibson

{{gwi:296510}}

{{gwi:296511}}