The flowers look like Blossomtime, but I don't know if Blossomtime can truly attain that height. Mine is still a baby.

Connie

I have no idea, but the darker pink reverse on the petals is very lovely.

Are the blooms enormous? Could be Cl. First Prize.

Kathy

It does look like it could be Blossomtime, doesn't it? Another of the New Dawn descendants that this reminds me of is Viking Queen.

I've never seen Blossomtime in person, but yours looks like the HMF photos although it says strong fragrance.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: Blossomtime of HMF

My first thought when seeing the blooms was First Prize as well. It takes the right climate for Climbing First Prize to do well, but this one really looks nice. However, I'm no expert on climbers, so it could well be something else.

Three characteristics of Cl. First Prize:

long single stems uncharacteristic of climbers generally.
huge elongated buds; open flowers easily reach 5" in mild weather.
distinctive, washy blend of light pink and rose pink.

(Some HMF pictures show a very strong coral-toned pink that was not characteristic in my experience.)

Your rose doesn't resemble the climbing "First Prize" that I lived with for c. a dozen years, which had a broader shape of bloom, and was a different hue of pink. Its' center of bloom also appeared a bit lower. I like michael g.'s description of "washy" and agree with it for the coloring of "First Prize".

I'd vote for "Blossomtime"

Lux.

Can you knock on the door and ask? I'll bet the gardener would love an opportunity to show you his/her garden.

Thank you for all the input. From the photos on hmf it does look a lot like blossomtime.

Cl First Prize looks like an interesting rose - if anyone has more photos, please do share. There are not many on hmf.

This rose is at the Bon Air memorial gardens, a public rose garden in Northern VA consisting mostly of AARS winners.

The majority of the rose signs/labels are gone, or have fallen off and placed next to the wrong rose. This one did not have a sign next to it. I have sent an e-mail to the local rose society to see if a list exists of the roses grown there.

AARS eh? Well, the only official climbers on the AARS list are Flash (1940, hot pink hybrid tea), High Noon (1948, yellow hybrid tea), Golden Showers (1957, yellow), America (1976, coral), and Fourth of July (1999, red/white stripe). So we can fairly easily say it's not any of those.

But any number of the pink hybrid teas on the list from Charlotte Armstrong on up have climbing sports, and this plant may have just sported over to a climber on its own. First Prize was an AARS winner in 1970.

Here is a link that might be useful: AARS winners 1940-2010.

The Rose society was very helpful and looked into it. They mentioned that the garden includes:
Compassion,Westerland,Cl.Crimson Glory,Don Juan,Clair Matin,Lavender Lassie,Dr. J.H.Nicolas,Blossomtime,Aloha,Leverkusen,Sombreuil,Constance Spry, Galway Bay, Viking Queen and potentially Coral Dawn.

If anyone has seen both Blossomtime and Viking Queen - which one does this look more like? From HMF photos the younger blooms look more like blossomtime and the older ones more like viking queen.

I guess I may just have to get both...

Thank you.

I have seen neither, but I have Dr. Van Fleet (or a New Dawn that's very stubbornly not reblooming three or four years after transplanting), and I notice that regardless of what this rose you've posted photos of is its leaflets are distinctly more elongate (& a lighter, grayer, duller green) than the rose I grow. The new growth is also notably darker red.

Those bits of information may be helpful to someone (perhaps).

I grow Blossomtime and this could be it, except mine has a wonderful strong scent. It has grown maybe 8 feet (about 3 years old).

jaspermplants, since you have personal experience with Blossomtime I have a question for you.

How lax are the canes? Do you think it's possible the canes would drape gracefully along an iron fence only about 3' high, or are they too upright, too stiff to do that?

It's a little hard to tell from the picture but mine is somewhat lax but easy to train. I have it on a small arbor and it will drape down gracefully but can also be trained upwards (if it gets in the way!). It's a lovely rose and very fragrant, as mentioned. Very graceful. I love it.

Thank you for your very helpful answer! I will bear that in mind for the future. I'm still trying to decide upon roses to grace this fence (to buy when funds permit... :((( ), and wasn't sure what to choose beyond Viking Queen. Thanks to your comment I think at this point I'd either choose Blossomtime or Parade (highly recommended by Vintage).

Oh, and as to the name for the rose (the topic of this post)? I think from what I read at HelpMeFind there is one way to distinguish for sure between Blossomtime & Viking Queen. That is, now and again (on the same plant) Blossomtime will simultaneously put forth flowers of classic hybrid tea shape, and also flowers that are so full of petals they're quartered.

vettin, has the rose in question ever produced flowers so full of petals the flowers are quartered in appearance?

Molineux might well be able to help here as well, if he catches wind of this post. He's a big Viking Queen fan who gardens in the DC area, and is also very knowledgeable about roses generally. I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if he was able to distinguish between Blossomtime & Viking Queen.

I only have one flower opening on Blossomtime, but i'd be more apt to go with that than Viking Queen. VQ's flowers are huge, intensely fragrant at all stages and petal packed. They open normally and suddenly so many petals spill forth it can't contain them, creating a look that reminds me of on overly frosted cupcake.