I toyed with the idea of getting a found HP called Greta Persson because it is such a common and plebeian name for a rose (it was found in Mrs. Persson's garden). I would have placed it next to a Duchesse or Comtesse but a friend shovelpruned his GP because of diseases so I dropped the idea.

Not once have I bought one for its name, although I might NOT buy one whose name bothers me. Roses named for certain political figures whom I dislike would not be a choice for my garden. Some of the cutesie names for the minis turn me off, too, but I'm not much of a mini person anyway.
Anita

well, sheesh, how could I forget that I picked up this rose, primarily because of its name and becuase it does dual duty on the name front. It was bred by Cliff Orent and named for Gregg Lowery. It's a two-fer since I hold both of them in the highest regard.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rosarian Gregg Lowery

Oh gosh, I buy roses for their names all the time! Silly I guess but I'm sentimental. I got Mom's Rose the spring my Mom passed and Uncle Joe because my Dad's name was Joe. Unfortunately both the roses have passed now too. I had Annie Laurie McDowell for my Sister and Grandmother both named Anne. It was just a tiny band and I lost it to a bad winter (but I'm replacing it next spring now that I have a source, Kim, lol!). I have Blanche Neige because that was my other Grandmother's name. I've been looking for one for my brother Alan but there don't seem to be any with that name. I found a couple with Alain but that's his boss's name and he doesn't want a rose with his boss's name, lol, can't blame him! Other's that I bought because of the names are Tattooed Lady, which I think is a way cool name and very fitting for this oddly colored rose, and Baby Betsy McCall because Betsy McCall was my favorite doll growing up and I still have her. I also got Trump Card because 1. it was Cliff's rose and 2. I knew and loved the story behind the naming. And besides that it's a beautiful rose!

I don't think there are any that I wouldn't buy JUST because of the name (Well, maybe if someone named one Black Spot, PM Heaven or Thrips Delight!) but I'd have to really really love the rose when it come to some of the politicos. I'm still on the fence about Ronald Reagan because I love the rose and not so much the name. I saw a tree rose of it that was to die for gorgeous but didn't want another standard to winter in the shed and they didn't have it in the bush so I didn't get it. I don't mind cutesy names at all. And I don't get why every one hates Sexy Rexy so much? I actually think it suits that rose quite well.

Here is a link that might be useful: HMF Baby Betsy McCall rose and doll

Tipsy Imperial Concubine--that name always cracks me up, but so far I haven't actually been tempted to buy her.

Maybe we could hook her up with Romantic Roadrunner. Sound like a good match to me!

Kate

well, I bought Zephirine Drouhin, knowing absolutely nothing about roses. Have to start somewhere, I guess. I have also bought plants which I had never even seen, because the name sounded nice - Japanese anemones for example - one of the very first plants I ever bought - I have it still (September Charm) Obviously, this method of selection did not last long - in fact just as soon as the gardenia I bought cocked its clogs (unsurprising in my chilly alkaline garden.
On the other hand, the roses (and other plants) I wouldn't buy because of a name are legion - anything after any media celeb - gah! politicos - never, cute or ungrammatical - nope (pedant at heart). I had to have a particular rose despite having a truly hideous name - 'Eyes for You' so if a plant is truly spectacular, I will buy it.....but never again refer to it by its given name.

I am considering buying Rose de Rescht, because Rescht is the birth place of my mother in law. I was considering making it a gift for her but she will probably kill it anyway. Other ones that I have looked into are the ones with names of cities in Iran/Persia like Isfahan.

I also have a generic Damask, because it is the national rose of Iran.

FJ

I have purchased roses whose names I love, but only if it was a rose that I wanted regardless. Maggie because of my daughter's name and Our Lady of Guadalupe...I'm catholic and mexican and that did if for me.
Molly

Lovely reasons, Molly. I grew Gingersnap (terrible rose in every way here) in my mom's garden as her nickname was Ginger and she loved the color. I've planted Passionate Kisses in the same garden as Sweet Nothings as the owner loves the names as well as the roses. For the greeting to my old garden in a planned community, I used Buck's "Hi, Neighbor!" on the path from the golf course into the garden. Couldn't stand the rose, but it greeted all who walked into the place.

My original Graham Thomas was my homage to the author for his wonderful books and knowledge, no matter how unsuited for my mid desert garden, both his suggestions and rose. I had to have Constance Spry just because of the Renaissance Woman she actually was. Wife of Bath I've always been attracted to simply because Bath's Wife was a remarkable character. When women weren't supposed to know how to read, she argued politics and religion! Quite a lady for her time!

I love "quirky" and pun-ish names best. Things like the short, purple Lobelia, "Grape Knee-hi". I love Lobelias, purple and the soda, Grape Nehi. Gregg Lowery showed me a red Bubble Bath seedling he had at Vintage many years ago. He said it was pretty terrible, but he used it as his indicator plant for Downey Mildew. He called it, "Blood Bath". I wanted one! LOL! Barney Gardner shared a seedling he had for years, saying it was nothing special, "just hangs around like a loyal friend". That's how the rose told me its name.

I've used a number of quirky and pun-ish names. My own Mateo's Silk Butterflies seedling is light pink fading darker and has that silken petal quality. Old Rayon fabric used to turn pink with age, hence "Rayon Butterflies". Sunburn is yellow "burning" rosy pink like newly sun exposed flesh. Annie Laurie and I used to joke about a rose in her hobby garden at The Homestead Acre that was so bad. We called it, "Bouquet Par FEH!" Kim

Love this question. Deuil de Paul Fontaine is my conceit.
JZ5

It was a great moss for my old hot, arid garden, Janice. I don't blame you a bit. Kim

I forgot that I bought Jeri Jennings partly for the name, and partly because it's a very nice rose. Also bought Barbara Oliva, but Paul Barden warned me it needed colder weather than we have here, and it croaked.
Anita

Well, dang! That's not nice! Create a beautiful rose, then name it for a lovely lady and dear friend who then can't grow it? FEH! LOL! Kim

Well, yeah -- lots of roses found their way to my home before I knew very much about them, just on the strength of the name, come to think of it. E.g., Kim Rupert. Which turned out to me ba very nice rose here, btw.

I've never thought about this before, but both Tipsy Imperial Concubine and Romantic Roadrunner have problems with balling. With the Concubine, it was just early in the season when it was damp up on the balcony. With the Roadrunner, it's so bad that there are practically no blooms to be seen most of the summer, just brown ex-buds. Any moisture on the petals ruins the flower. Not a keeper.

Thanks for that report, Kathy. I had no input in the selection of the rose, other than my well known long-term interest in stripes and mosses. I've been very pleased with the rose (I grow two of them!) and grateful Paul talked me into it. It's nice to hear he behaves himself in others' gardens. Kim

FJ, if you want a shorter rose of Persian origin you might try Omar Khayyam. Rose de Rescht should be perfect too, even for you mother-in-law. It is an easy rose. Ispahan gets very big but has a very long bloom season for a damask. Ispahan is one of the most beautiful cities I have seen, the large square, formerly Maidan Shah, now Maidan Imam :-( is an oriental dreamscape.

Thanks for the recommendations of Lilibet or Fairy Princess. I like the picture, and that is my type of rose. It looks like it has its own individuality.

I won't buy Napoleon nor will I buy another rose that has a name of a person who was a friend of Napoleon's.

However, I love SDLM, and am thrilled that my daughter gave me a book (Roses for an Empress) that is about Josephine and Malmaison. I cannot find the author's name even though it is a hardback book. For me to be interested in Josephine's life, and her gardens, I cannot think of her as being an ignorant woman. Yet, she loved Napoleon. I don't know how I can get past that fact, and be intrigued by her and her gardens. Perhaps my interest in history surpasses my dislike for a dictator.

As I read the passages, and am tempted to think of the book as a beautiful love story, the reality is always there.

In my opinion this subject ties into the other thread you started about the classifications of roses. I think one of the most important things that rose lovers need to do is to create a community interest in growing roses. Roses have intriguing names, and growing conditons for different parts of the country. So many older roses can grow well here, but not other communitites. In my dream world rose growers could travel to one city to see beautiful gardens of certain roses, and to other cities to see beautiful gardens of other roses. I love to see pictures of Iceberg since it failed for me consistently.

I could go on but don't want to tread on controversial subjects, so I will stop.

Good thread.
Sammy

I bought Milwaukee's Calatrava this spring. The images didn't impress me much but I bought the rose anyway. Glad I did. Much prettier in person than it photographs.

I'm another Catholic who couldn't resist Our Lady of Guadalupe.

I bought Anne Hathaway because of the Shakespeare connection.

Both of them bloom nonstop for me and I love them for themselves now.

I bought Empress Michiko and Shi Un because of their Japanese names. Shi Un, actually bred in Japan, died from the cold last winter. Empress Michiko, bred in the UK, seems to thrive here.

But it was the names and Japanese link that lured me into buying them. My mom is Japanese, so I'm intrigued by Japanese roses anyway.

...defy anyone to come up with a dumber rose name than Romantic Roadrunner!

'Weight Watchers Success'.

Roses named for the hybridizer's wife are pretty reliably good, but the ones named after the hybridizer's mother are often better.

lol, hoovb. What about 'Rip Thorn'?

Just received the rose whose name alone initially drew my interest: "Phluger Flowmaster". How could I resist? Not too many other people share my fascination, I guess, as it is only in two gardens on HMF. Looks sturdy, and there's a fat bud. Vintage says it's a shrub, not a climber as it says on HMF.

catspa, what a name! Sounds like a German plumbing product. Probably no worse than Peadouce, a British disposable diaper! LOL! I'm aware of renaming from overseas, like McGredy's Mullard Jubilee (an electronics firm's anniversary) to Electron. Suitable. I guess it's due to this rose being brought in my someone who was interested in it as a rose, and not a company needing to sell it with a suitable name. Kim

willamettemom, funny about your Anne Hathaway and its Shakespeare connection. Clair Martin, retired Curator of Roses at The Huntington Library, used to quip he couldn't get the volunteers to dead head Anne Boleyn! LOL! Kim

It was only with the greatest restraint that I passed up Futtaker Schlingrose; answering inquisitive visitors would have been so much fun. I think I bought Gloire de Chedane-Guinnoiseau for its name, but the rabbits took it for its flavor, alas. I continue waiting to see it turn up again on VG's available list--it was lovely while it lasted. Lately, my obsession has been collecting roses from the birth years of family members.

rinaldo, I thought that was just ME! LOL! I had them for all the family members, including my own. I grew Confidence because it was from the year my parents were married. It was quite instructive studying roses of the various decades. The bar honestly has been raised every decade as far as health, vigor and productivity are concerned. Kim

OMG, that's a hoot about Anne Boleyn! "Off with her head!", lol!

I try NOT to buy roses with names that are tongue twisters or that I cannot pronounce. Both my grandparents and my mother were from Quebec and spoke fluent French. Some times I cringe when I hear fellow rose society members murder the French names but I never say anything. I'm horrible with German and sometimes Spanish names so I can put myself in their shoes. So I just tend to avoid the ones I can't say.

I confess. I have Phulger Flowmaster, Futtaker Schlingrose, Wartburg. These are nice roses actually. I think Phulger was named for where it was found outside of a bussiness with that name.

Ghislaine de Feligonde. She almost died from aphids the first year but struggled through and we've never looked back. She is glorious. The Duc de Rohan and Duchesse de Rohan, of course. Named a cat Mrs. Oakley Fisher, and then had to get the rose to match. (She's buried under it.) Literary Giant because I'm a fourth-generation writer. And I grow Katie's McNear because I'm the Katie found her. Several roses have had their names changed on me--Irene Watts is Pink Gruss an Aachen, Mrs. R.G. Sharman-Crawford is Grandmother's Hat/Cornet, Aldinglow is Gletscher. I know their correct names, but when no one's around, I call them by the first names I knew for them.

I purchase Dolly Parton because of this thread or the Rose Forum's descriptions. They were all correct. The rose was voluptuous, beautiful, and all of the sexy descriptions you can come up with. There were amazing parallels to between the blooms and the singer.

When I went to a no spray garden, I thought it would break my husband's heart to dig up Dolly. He had so much fun talking about her, and pointing her out to his friends. Yet, he did not want to spray the rose, and I was going to stop spraying. He agreed that it was better to have no Dolly than to have a weak, black spotted Dolly.

He just won ticket for us to see Dolly in October. He really likes Dolly --- her voice, you know. LOL

Sammy

I actually have to have a conversation with the roses themselves about their companions in the garden. I had trepidations about putting Dick Clark next to Queen Elizabeth, but they're about the same age, and Betty White (ditto) was nearby. I had to separate HRH the Queen from Lady Emma Hamilton, that harlot, by flanking her with Chihuly (which I absolutely bought for the name) and Papa Meilland. I wasn't at all sure about placing Liv Tyler next to Pope John Paul II (whatever would they talk about?), until she told me she was really the Comtesse de Provence in disguise.

Kay

Over the years I have several roses with names that make me think of various family members -- 'Thomas A Edison' (for my DH Tom, also an engineer), the 1941 HT 'Charlotte', 'Jacob's Ladder', 'Sheila's Perfume', and 'Cara Mia'. I've decided to stop doing that. When I de-accessioned 'Sheila's Perfume', I felt guilty to the real Sheila, even though she did not care.

I also grow 'Brother Cadfael' because I love the Ellis Peters series so much. It in turn reminds me of my mother, who also loved the series.

Rosefolly

That de-accessioning (love the terminology!) wouldn't have anything to do with a shovel, would it?

Kay

The way Sheila grew here, I'd suspect it had more to do with a back hoe! Kim

I'm kind of a lit geek so most of the Austins that have managed to find their way into my yard did it on the strength of their names. Ditto for the Cardinal de Richelieu.

The Oregonian (Sight Saver) came with my newspaper as a promo one year, so I guess its' name got it into the yard as well

Kim, I haven't been online in a while and just saw your post. I think I'll have to get Anne Boleyn just so I can steal that joke!

Welcome back willamettemom! Be my guest! I'm sure Clair would get a chuckle out of it! I'll share another...one day out in the gardens, a couple walked up and the wife asked if they had the rose, "French Kiss". He slyly grinned and asked, "Might you mean French Lace, or First Kiss?" The husband laughed while his wife stormed off! Kim

Ah Melissa, you touched my heart...

Good thread. I can't stop giggling over Anne Boleyn. According to HMF, Catherine Howard doesn't have a rose, nor does Thomas More or Charles I. The only other candidate for the joke I came up with was 'Mary, Queen of Scots,' but then you wouldn't deadhead a spinossima anyway.

Michael, I know! I chuckle over Anne often. I'm still looking for the intensely fragrant mini as I want to name it "Little Stinker" after one of my nephews. Kim

I remember reading the story when Sam McGredy's seedling had won high honors at a rose function and he was urged to name it for potential introduction. One of the big wigs in the RNRS suggested the name "Mischief" which Mr. McGredy liked, so it became the name under which it was introduced. Later, he found he had named it for the gentleman's dog! LOL! Kim

Some years ago I posted a fake list of "new" Buck Roses that included Whistlin', Quilting Bee, La Cucaracha, and Silage. Unfortunately (or not) it wasn't cached. Sic transit gloria mundi.

I do think his 'Earth Song' is a very good rose with a truly great name.

Michael, those are very clever and too funny! I'd buy them for the names alone! LOL! They almost feel like something worthy of "A Mighty Wind". I hope you've seen it, as it's a real hoot! Kim

I'm enjoying this post------

"Lyda Rose"-because I love the song from the Music Man---turned out to be a great rose---

couldn't resist "Ghislaine de Feligonde" after I read about how she rode a horse into no man's land to save her DH--

Florence

Great name suggestions, Michael! I think my favorite is Silage, lol!

I have a nice mini seedling from an OP hip of What a Peach. It's a nothing special, run of the mill pink pom pom bloom but it's been very healthy, vigorous and blooms a lot so I planted it in the new bed. Alan told me it had to have a name but I have no intentions of registering it so I didn't bother. My brother has now dubbed it "Son of a Peach"!

I grow three 'Kristin' roses because that is my lovely daughter's name. It's also a great rose (miniature - red/white bi-color). I also grow 'Isabel Renaissance' because my granddaughter's name is Isabel. Can't find a Gloria for zone 5, so I celebrate my littlest granddaughter with the peony 'Glory B'.

Seil, I like your "Son of a Peach". Tom Carruth used to tell the story of the marketing meeting to name his new (at the time) peach colored mossed mini. One of the other employees came up with "Peach Fuzz" and the rose became HIS.

Karen, you could, if it grows well in your area, grow Peace as it was sold in Italy as Gloria Dei (Glory to God) or even Gloria Mundi, the poly. That one is not quite as readily available as Peace, but cuttings can be had if they're wanted. Kim

Oh I think Peach Fuzz is a great name for a mini moss! And you beat me to it. I was thinking of Gloria Dei too. Besides, I'm of the opinion that everyone needs to have a Peace rose in their garden!