Celeste----You touched my heart tonight-----I love the care you have given these old roses and I too hope these souls are blessing you for it.
I love the one you call Pom Pom-------Your love of roses is wonderful and also your hubbies help in finding them--

How do you locate the cemeteries ???

Thanks for sharing your lovely stories.

Florence

There's something particularly satisfying about seeing a rose you've collected bloom for the first time with some water and care. Good for you!

Florence, most good maps list cemeteries.
Many of the cemeteries have listings on line -- this is becoming more and more common, since genealogy has increased in popularity.
But if you are going out to examine roses in old cemeteries, please take care. Treat the roses and the places with care and respect, and do NOT take cuttings if you have no reasonable chance of starting them.

Check out the web site of the Texas Rose Rustlers:
http://www.texasroserustlers.org/etiquette.html

Jeri in SoCalif

Thanks Jeri------Most of the cemeteries around my area are pretty "manicured"-----I don't see any roses----

Celeste----did I ever tell you about a book I read---It is called "Beloved"(not the one Oprah talks about) by Antoinette Stockenberg---It is about a cottage in Nantucket and a rose by a tombstone----I read it a long time ago but it was interesting

Florence

Florence....
I was certain you in particular would appreciate this post. I am sending you a private email.

We don't actually use any maps....we just hop on the motorcycle and go "hunting" for them. There are so many small rural plots scattered around the state and are usually found on a dusty backroad out in the middle of nowhere. We don't have much luck in the larger cemeteries as they have perpetual care and are too manicured and mowed. Its the smaller forgotten plots that haven't been cared for in ages that yield the finds. Jeri is right...anyone going into cemeteries should always do so with the utmost respect and care.

Celeste

I think it is wonderful that your hubby is also interested in searching out these hidden back roads-----I love back roads. New Hampshire is such a pretty state---It always impressed me as a very clean state with lots of big Birch Trees . I have a picture with my children with "old man of the mountain" behind us----circa--1965-----he lost his nose didn't he!!!

I remember it was the rose he gave you that got you started with roses---He is a "keeper" for sure !!!!

Florence

I am a cemetery explorer, too. So far I have only been taking cuttings but you have inspired me to start doing some rose care at the cemeteries, too. (I found a child's grave with the name Rosamond and it has a bush that has foliage like Officianalis---wouldn't it be something if it turns out to be Rosa Mundi? I'll let you know next year if I can get the caretaker to stop mowing it!)

Have you considered an ID of "Bella Donna" for your "Reine Des Centefeuilles?" I ask because in one of your photos it looks like it has the distinctive cut-off bud of Bella Donna.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bella Donna

How beautiful your find is. I'm not in a rose-adding mode right now, but if that changes, I may go looking for it through the nurseries. I wonder who carries it.

I admire your work. What a pity it is that most cemeteries have gone to that awful perpetual care system. As if we needed more bland places full of mown grass! Many things in modern life are an improvement (say, antibiotics and running water and votes for all), but I'll put this down as one of the things that is not.

Rosefolly

Please do post more of your 'Cemetery Finds.' It lifts my spirits knowing that there are people like you out there taking care of these forgotten plots and their roses. It is exciting to be able to share in these discoveries. Thank you.

Joanne

They are such beautiful roses, and pics. It's wonderful to see them.

Celeste,

Your posts on cemetery roses are so interesting-

I have a cutting from a rose I found near my parents' grave--it turned out to be Cherokee--not spectacular but nice to have --I am always looking for roses in cemeteries--but most are too well manicured today.

Thank you a very enjoyable post.

pat

Celeste, I really enjoyed your article in the Heritage Rose Groups newsletter recently, and now this thread with your wonderful photography is a special treat! Thanks so much! Finding, caring for, and then propagating a lost rose is a neat hobby. Over in Louisiana there is a man who used to post on here a lot (anyone remember Brian, aka "Cayene" ?)who does the same thing with wild irises in the bayous.

Jeri, thanks for linking to my article about rustling etiquette on the TRR website. That is high praise coming from you! I think the website has some technical difficulties, and the forums are not in use anymore, but the articles are still there at least.

~Allison

I think the website has some technical difficulties, and the forums are not in use anymore, but the articles are still there at least.

*** Yes, I was sorry to see that, but happy to find the articles. I probably need to pick that up from you one day, and run it in HRG.
I had stumbled across it looking for late summer and fall rose events in TX, for the HRG Letter, which I am determined to send to press tomorrow.

Jeri

Celeste you make me proud to be a rose grower. Thank you for all you are doing to help preserve some of those beauties.

I grew up beside a cemetery so I understand your respect for these places. Lots of interesting things to find in a cemetery.

I have a few of the roses you pictured, the white scotch and the pink one, they are great roses and they make some wonderful hips in the fall.

Good luck on your next mission.

Valerie

THANK YOU EVERYONE for your appreciation of these wonderful old roses and our efforts to save them....I enjoy all your comments.

belmont....You are very smart in your thinking that my beloved "Pom Pom" rose looks like Bella Donna. I was suspicious of that myself because the two do look very similiar. (Actually one of the photos of Bella Donna on HelpMeFind is one of mine!) If you look up Reine des Centfeuilles on HelpMeFind you will see photos that could be a dead ringer for Bella Donna....therefore there could easily be some confusion...and of course, I am not 100% positive but a few things tipped me off that this is NOT Bella Donna even though they are look-alikes:
1) This rose has a sticky resinous & aromatic mossing at times on the calyx, sepals and pedicels which Centifolias and Mosses have. (In fact, when I first saw the mother plant in the cemetery I thought it was a MOSS rose because of this; I couldn't make out the flower form because the beetles had destroyed every bloom). Since Bella Donna is a damask I wouldn't think it has mossy resin on its buds, but I could be wrong...I just haven't ever seen it for myself. Its not real mossy as much as the moss roses I grow, but if you pinch its buds you will feel the stickiness. There is NO mossing on the stems. 2) I was at the Montreal Botanical Garden this past June and they had both roses there....my rose is identical to their "Reine des Centfeuilles" in every aspect. Whichever rose it is, she will always be "PomPom" to me....that's what I've always called her!

I agree that the buds of both roses are the same. PomPom does often have flat-topped buds but sometimes they are rounded....I guess its a girl rose after all because she's fickle and changes her mind as she pleases...LOL.

I am SO happy when others here tell me that they also are taking an interest in preserving the old roses! Graveyards are not the spooky, morbid places that many people think. They are a peaceful place and the departed should never be forgotten no matter how long ago they were laid to rest. What better way to honor them than to give health, life and vigor to the roses planted in their memory?

Best wishes to all,
Celeste

side view of PomPom:

{{gwi:297998}}

Celest---I just wanted to tell you how much I admire what you are doing to save and identify these roses----

You write such touching stories----have you ever thought about writing a book----

I agree these souls should not be forgotten.

Please show us more pictures and more stories.

what are the names on the stones by Pom-Pom-----?

Florence

Hi Florence,
I have been told often that I should write a book....but right now with the full-time job, kids, 200 rosebushes and hubby...it will have to wait...LOL. But thanks! You're such a sweetie.

I will most definitely be sharing more pictures & stories as the season progresses and I get all my photos uploaded.

I will be going to the cemetery this weekend to check on the original rosebush and will take a closeup of the stones...(I have a photo from last year but I can't make out the names because its too far away.) I do know that they were from the late 1800's and the rosebush was growing from between & underneath 2 headstones.

I will get back to you !

Celeste

P.S....Here's another shot of PomPom:

{{gwi:226233}}

gorgeous! I think I have a cutting of a pink scotch roses also - taken from an old plantation homestead nearby. Tough little booger, whatever it is!

There is something so special about wandering around an old cemetary and finding the last rose planted by some loving family.

Thanks for sharing and the pictures are wonderful.

Carol

Celeste, Your post made my day. Annie

Celeste, your tales of how you care for gravesite roses is inspiring,I love reading your postings. The lilac-pink Scotch Burnet is a beauty, and I've not seen that rose in commerce, has anyone else?
Someone who is familiar with gravestone cutting technique and history, might possibly be able to date the century and decade of a headstone, by the material its' made from, and the script.

Luxrosa

Once again, THANK YOU to all my rosey-friends who took the time to post their comments!

Luxrosa...I have never seen this lilac-pink Scotch rose offered by any vendor and consider myself very fortunate to have found this little beauty. The Scotch (Burnet) roses are my husband's favorites and he has made it his personal mission to find as many variations of the Scotch roses as he can. The lilac-pink version is particularly lovely and our favorite so far. And the hips are lovely too....they look like ripe cranberries! Here is a closeup of a hip:

Celeste

{{gwi:298001}}

Wonderful thread Celeste, thank you so much for sharing!

Bill

Celeste, it's been a long time since I've checked into this forum but I'm glad I did tonight. Your post about what you and your husband are doing brought tears to my eyes. Thank you for letting us share in it.

Suzanne

Thank you Celeste. Great finds and wonderful pictures.
Olga

Wow. I'm impressed.

But I'm also puzzled. I'm a city gal recently moved to rural Iowa. I've been driving around to various small cemetaries, and NO ROSES. Yes, peonies and daylilies, but not a single rose so far. And, as I've said, I'm rural, rural, rural.

Are there areas of the country where "perpetual care" (ugh) has been slow to catch on?

And Oh My, you have found some beauties! I wish that I could say the same for me. But nothing but grass, plastic flowers, and grass again.

Iowa. I've been driving around to various small cemetaries, and NO ROSES. Yes, peonies and daylilies, but not a single rose so far. And, as I've said, I'm rural, rural, rural.

*** You'll probably have the best luck in the oldest, small out-of-the-way cemeteries.
I too, however, found that Peonies were everywhere in the Iowa cemeteries I have seen.
And in many, MANY parts of the U.S., the roses most commonly found are all types of "ROSA PLASTICA."

Jeri

Thank you Jerijen for the reply.

I am really, really off the grid, so I was hoping to become a rose rustler, but it's so disappointing. Even in the smallest Iowa cemetaries I've visited it's plastic roses.

Maybe I need to become a peony collector (a month or so earlier) than a rose collector?

But I really do love the roses and was hoping for a good rose find. But nothing! Even on backcountry lanes. Such a bummer.

I am really, really off the grid, so I was hoping to become a rose rustler, but it's so disappointing. Even in the smallest Iowa cemetaries I've visited it's plastic roses.

*** OK.
But Iowa has many small older towns, and older areas in its cities.
You'll need to get off the Interstate, and wander along back roads.
Look for old farms, and old residential areas. You won't find older plants in new, trendy areas.
Look for older, more "down-at-the-heel" areas, often once fashionable, and now forgotten.
There you may find gardens where Older roses have been planted for many decades. They remain,
because no one cared enough about current fashion to go to the expense of removing them and planting "the latest thing.
Keep your eyes peeled for homes which have been in the same family for 3 generations or more.
People are often loathe to dig up the roses their great-grandmother planted.

Roses go where people go, and there's almost always some place where they've survived.
Much of the pleasure comes from the search, particularly when you share the adventure, as Celeste does.

Jeri

Reality Check Time

There are areas of the country where roses did not tend to be planted in cemetaries. Iris, yes, peonies, yes, daffodils, yes, arborvitae in vast quantities, but not roses. In one week in Arizona, not even particularly looking for either cemetaries or roses, we saw more cemetary roses than I've ever seen in this part of the country.

The closest anybody seems to be to an explanation is that roses in cemetaries are connected to a Catholic cultural heritage, which doesn't really arrive in the northeast until the late 19th, early 20th century. My mother's family cemetary plot in western Pennsylvania looks like something from an Edward Gorey drawing (as did my grandparent's house)

Which brings up something else to keep in mind. The major enemy of neglected roses in the eastern part of the country isn't drought but trees. Many older cemetaries here are heavily shaded. In the really old cemetaries - the 17th century ones - it's not uncommon to have 200 year old trees growing in the middle of the headstones.

So you have the conumdrum that roses can only exist around people, but people can decide to get rid of them.

I am absolutely smitten with your Reine des Centfeuilles--what a lovely rose. I had no plans to add more roses to my garden but that one is entrancing. I wonder who carries it if anyone. Beautiful and haunting post.
la

Yes, I too would love to know a vendor where we could get the
Reine des Centfeuilles . And one that ships to the US.

If anyone knows please share this source.

Sue

http://www.floweringshrubfarm.com/
Is this it?

Here is a link that might be useful: Rosa centifolia

{{gwi:298002}}

HELLO EVERYBODY...

I'm back with a photo of the headstone that "Reine des Centfeuilles" (alias "PomPom) was growing by. We visited the cemetery tonight and weeded around her again, but were sad to see that the Japanese Beetles as usual had been feasting on her leaves and left her looking a bit forlorn. It always amazes us that in spite of being nearly defoliated each summer she still persists.
Celeste

The inscription on the stone reads:
Laura Austin
born February 26, 1845
died May 27, 1908

{{gwi:298003}}

Growing next to the original rosebush & Laura's stone is another to mark several other Austin family members, and suckers of the rosebush came up and grew around this stone....

{{gwi:298004}}

In the same cemetery there is a clump of a semi-double white Scotch rose, photo of the graves it is growing beside: (note that the bush is very short...that is because it has no doubt gotten mowed down a few times.)

{{gwi:298005}}

photo of the "child" of it, growing in our garden:

{{gwi:298006}}

Celeste----thank you so much for these pictures---How wonderful that some loving family member took the time to plant this rosebush------and wonderful that it has survived for 100 years----

Thanks again ---I love all your stories.

Florence

ARE THERE ANY BOOKS WRITTEN ABOUT OLD CEMETARY ROSES???LET ME KNOW ASAP. WHERE CAN ONE GET OLD CEMETARY ROSES CUTTINGS? SINCERELY, GLENDA FAIRYDUST

thanks for the wonderful pictures and fascinating info. keep posting
jan

A good book would be "IN SEARCH OF LOST ROSES" by Thomas Christopher.

Roses grown from collected cuttings are available from various vendors under study names.

Jeri