Oh GORGEOUS, Aliska!
Fragrant??? Tell us more!
A little about the place where they were collected?

Jeri

I'll tell you whatever I can, have an archive of photos I took when we were trying to identify it where it was growing for leaf structure. The vacant lot used to be owned by 2 sisters I'm told, house long gone, owner lives around the corner and down about a block. The neighborhood is deteriorating badly, but I would say a little safer than some of the older ones around here, less than a mile from my house. The scent is exqusite, like perfume. It's almost thornless, and I did see where it shot out a huge long cane (there) trying to get to the sun where it was. When it suckers for me, it comes up very reddish then quickly turns to green.

Usually I get along with people on my forays, but this couple is black and took a dislike to me, probably because someone saw me either photographing or taking cuttings "doing something with the rose". I assured him I wouldn't try to dig it up and did not, couldn't have anyway, just a horrible tangle there. He keeps his landscaping equipment on the lot, dumped gravel all over it, don't think he knows much about flowers though. There were tiger lilies and what I would call a double ditch lily growing on the slope. He said I could have some, I said I'd only dig about 6 of each but wanted to wait until fall. Back to the rose, it's extremely hardly, withstood years of neglect and struggled so to survive in that mess, thoughts are jumping back and forth this am.

Here it is this morning after very high winds last night. I would have only been too happy to root one for his wife but don't dare now. Anyway, I went back to admire the lilies and check on the rose, and he had sprayed all the liles a year or two ago. The tigers have come back, but the double one is probably gone. He didn't spray the rose, but cut it way back, and I don't see it this year, maybe one sucker on the sunny side, but couldn't see it yesterday and don't want to be seen on his property to look more closely. My friend lives right across the alley from the vacant lot, and I was taking her home.

It's a curious thing, but the little girl who used to live in my friend's humble, old, smallish 2-story house when I was in grade school in the 4th grade, late 40's, got something wrong with her brain, the doctors operated which left her in a coma at about age 9. Her parents cared for her at home until they moved to LA CA where she died at age 16. I almost died from pneumonia shortly after the incident at school, but my life was spared by a new drug, streptomycin, shots around the clock. And my daughter's life was spared by surgeons; she had brain surgery and multiple injuries from an accident, same univ hospital, years later, so much emotion and irony in all of it. It was in the local paper at the time. Her father built her a special bed so they could care for her at home, no services like what we have now She was known as the "Davenport coma girl", and it made a national tabloid. She was a nice little girl, very quiet, dignified in her poverty, and it started with an ear infection which smelled bad. I had to share a locker with her, and it made my things smell which was upsetting so I was mean to her once. I did try to make it up to her, but have carried the guilt over it all my life, why I couldn't have been more compassionate, especially in light of what was to follow. My friend who lives there now is black and kind of glommed on to me, the kind that people like to trash for being on welfare all their lives. Sometimes she annoys me with her unannounced visits, but I don't have it in my heart to reject her and tried to help her in little ways. So there is meaning on multiple levels here, how events in our life intertwine for better or worse. I was calling it Marva for my friend, but think I will call it Bernadine in honor of the little girl that died who lived next door. Bernadine Pollock, March 4, 1940 - February 13, 1957. She was ill on Valentine's day, so I took her valentines to her mom who was gracious from school, hardly a fitting reparation for my cruelty (didn't hit her).

Here it is this morning (one has the green eye, most can't see a green eye):

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Here's the third one, went out to collect some branches that fell in the night, and I was kind of in awe, stuck it in a spot with too much shade. This came from a different house a little further away that an elderly lady uses to store her belongings, could find her to get permission, lady across the street who is a community organizer told me to go ahead and take a few, but technically I rustled that one, too, and would rather have permission, cemeteries and such I'd feel a little different about rustling there. It doesn't look at all like the parent plant but that was full sun. It has a perfumy scent, too, but not quite as pervasive as the lighter pink one, been trying to get that garage window replaced.

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You did ask :-). I ramble just like roses. None of this was about the magenta one. I had permission for that and am not sure if I'm going to be happy with it other than the color.

I'd be willing to share if it has merit, limited ability to fulfill multiple requests and don't want any money for it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bernadine Pollock in CA Death Index

It's a beauty! All three are.
And the story is terrific.
If you would, can you take some detailed photos? Images of bud, bloom, canes, prickles, stipules, sepals, leaves . . . you get the idea.
I think these roses are way out of my personal experience, but there are others here who might do better.
In fact, your story, with photos, would be a good addition to the Heritage Roses Groups "Rose Letter."
And that would give more people a shot at identification.

Jeri,
"Rose Letter" Editor :-)

Hi Aliska, I am Bernadines' youngest sister she never met me, I was born in 1958, she died in 1957. Her story is a sad one and my mom never got over what happened to her. Just to clarify. Her dad made a pump to rmove excess mucus from her not a bed. She was 12 when she went into a coma. It's funny, my sister came across your post about Bernadine on our mothers birthday which was Feb, 12. To think Bernadine died a day after our mothers' birthday couldn't make the story any sadder.

As for feeling guilty, don't. Life is too short and Bernadine was proof of that. Thank you for naming a rose after her. I'd love to see it.

Take care, Anita

Anita

It's so kind of you to post with an update on your older sister in response to Aliska's note about naming her found rose after Bernadine. I haven't seen Aliska posting for a few years now, so she might not get your message directly, but hopefully someone will have her updated information and invite her to check back in. I know your very thoughtful words about your sister's likely reaction to her regrets would make a world of difference to her own feelings.

It sounds like your family had so many emotional events happening during those years, between Bernadine being in a coma, having her die the day after your mother's birthday, and then welcoming you to the world the following year. I know your family has the joy of having you in their lives, but I suspect your family still has lingering emotions from what could have been. My grandfather died a few months before I was born, and even though I wouldn't have known the difference I still wish he could have held me as he did my brother. The same happened with my own father dying a year before my twins were born. We still treasure the heritage and family memories for both of those men, as I'm sure your family does for Bernadine.

We appreciate you posting, and Jeri does still post here. Maybe she knows if the photos of the rose honoring your sister ever made into the newsletters she mentions. Now that the photos don't show up here, we'd all love to see this rose even more now that we know more of the story behind the person honored.
Thank you for sharing your story.
Cynthia

Such a story! The photos didn't work on my Apple computer. Sad.

The photos aren't working for me either, and I tried on both my PC and phone :(

Thank you for trying ladies!

I can't view them either, but it seems Jeri could in 2008. Maybe she stored them? Carol

First my heartfelt thanks to Anita for her warm and caring comment. It meant the world to me. Much I don't remember back then, and either I or the paper got the detail wrong about the bed/machine. Bernadine had a younger sister, I remember, thought her name was Brenda, didn't sound right, maybe it was Glenda.

I have thought over the years what a terrible ordeal it would have been for the family, the caring, the moving to CA and the constant sorrow and stress. I know what it is to lose a child, lost my son in December 2012 under vastly different circumstances, and I will never get over it.

It was fourth grade, the fall of 1950. The family moved to Davenport from Buffalo or Linwood, and Bernadine may have started a little late that year. February 1951 was still fourth grade, and I don't think Bernadine returned to school after that Valentine's Day I mentioned in one of my posts. Then was the unsuccessful surgery in Iowa City. Bernadine would have been in a coma for at least six years before she died. There are probably still some here who remember her.

It is painful to think that so much has been learned and new diagnostic methods that she could be saved were it to happen now as they are able to save to many heart patients.

It was a blessing for Anita to be born the year after her death, and she was no doubt much welcomed and loved, but no child can ever replace another. So thank you again Anita for responding to my old post. And hope I didn't say anything wrong or offensive.

About the roses. I had my own website and had an html page full of my "finds" where I found most of them, and how they looked after I got them rooted. The best I can do is post them to my flickr photo stream. Some you can kind of figure out but most will be a jumble.

See if this link works to my flickr account. There should be 29 or so rose photos. I tried some months back to upload a couple photos to houzz and failed. I used to be able to do it with ease but not since they changed the format of the site.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/44652973@N04/

Lovely photos! Thanks for sharing. Makes me eager for spring. I really love the pink ones in the bud vase, as well as the purple/magenta rose above it. Is that pink one shown in any of the other photos?

-Chris

chris, the pink ones in the vase I cut from the donor rose on the vacant lot next to Bernadine's former house. That was on May 28, 2006. The three pink ones in photos following named Mystery Pink 3, 2 and 1 came from my backyard from the one cutting I took that rooted out of several failures (my second attempt at rooting a rose). That was May 30, 2009. It was prettier the first couple years, then got leggy and tangled with undergrowth. Now I've cut it way back and will see what it does in the spring. They all seem very hardy. All once-bloomers and fragrant except Harison. The most heavenly fragrance of the lot, including newer ones I've purchased, is the pink one in the vase.

The magenta one turned out to be a monster rose. One by the side of my house where it rooted over a winter is in part shade and stays a decent size but one I put out in full sun went crazy, think that one has to go. The blooms are fairly small, no bigger than a half dollar if that, but cover the bush. It's pretty in the spring but then awful the rest of the season, healthy foliage though. The "baby" the first year had prettier blooms, too. Now most have a "crushed" carnation look.

The pink you asked about, I may have the only known one like it. The parent/donor is gone. The magenta I think still exists on that rubble pile in a photo as well as the white which I think is Mme. Plantier. That one is from the line of white ones in the row that overhangs a drive with an iris at the back where I got the cuttings for it. I had to take what I could get, with permission, in the fall, had bad black spot, rooted it under lights; it took weeks and weeks but finally took. It suckers nicely if my yard guy doesn't chop it off. The other pink one (more of a shocking pink in color) in front of the white house is gone. The clone I saved from that is planted back behind my garage and spills over the terrace. I had to cut it back because it interfered with walkers on the public sidewalk. A rosarian from out east thought it was Shaylor's Provence.

Thank you, Aliska, for the rose rustling (preservation), the rose photos and the stories behind the roses! Carol

Aliska, Thank you so much. Your roses are beautiful!

I'm so sorry about the lose of your Son. That would be so hard to go thru no matter what the reason. I too have a son who was in the military and now is a police officer so I worry about him all the time.

As for the advances of medicine, we can't think of the what if's. It doesn't change what has happened in the past. I just hope no one else had to go thru what my sister and family did.

Good memory, Bernadines' younger sister was Glenda. Glenda seen your post for the first time this past Sunday so we have been talking back and forth about it. She didn't remember an Aliska, did you go by another name? Just curious. Do you still live in the neighborhood? My sister is in Ohio and I live in Indiana. I was born in Victorville CA. We both thought about going back to CA to visit Bernadines' grave. I've been curious about where I was born since we left there when I was really young. Maybe one of these days.

Take care and God bless you Aliska

Could the purple/magenta one be Russelliana? I am not really familiar with that rose, but the pictures bare resemblance.

http://www.paulbardenroses.com/climbers/russelliana.html

Or Erinnerung an Brod?

http://www.paulbardenroses.com/climbers/anbrod.html

-Chris

Lovely photos, Aliska! Thanks for the link. And nice to hear from you again, too.

Rosefolly