Thank you, Ingrid. It really is an adorable little rose, so often overlooked by people going on about their lives. Around here it is considered something of a 'weed' because it grows in fields and along roadsides and most people never even notice it. The blooms are petite but very frilly and charming. I also love the buds with their elongated sepals. I agree with belmont....in the garden it isn't invasive. It does sucker, but it is very 'polite' about it and doesn't overtake the garden. There is a small thicket of it down the road from here along the roadside that gets mowed down each summer but keeps bouncing back. The road salt that gets thrown down all winter long doesn't faze it either. Here's another photo to illustrate the lovely little buds.... Celeste

Just called High Country Roses to check on some roses listed as out of stock on their webpage, and another which I'd been on the waiting list for when the mother plant died. Good news all around--so naturally I ordered.;) Got Suzanne, hurray! I've been waiting for years to get one, and next week she arrives. Fru Dagmar Hastrup (found some recipes online that recommend this variety for such things as soup and jam) Wasagaming (my Pickering one this year was DOA) Scabrosa--great rose, lots of hips, shade tolerant R. pomifera (can we see the theme here yet H-I-P-S!) Also asked about what might be offered in future but not on the website yet. R. moschata, likely next spring. Also R. pulverulenta (which HMF indicates is a synonym for R. glutinosa), but this one is too small to propagate from yet, so it will be a while. I sent an email to Forestfarm about R. dumalis and R. palustris and was told to check back in January, they may have some then. Melissa

Dog rose, a variable species, includes plants with white flowers. You can find keys on the internet not specific to our region, for instance the one in the online Jepson manual - where both sweetbriar and dog rose appear near one another. But the rest of that key consists only of species native to California. The Rosa portion of Flora of North America is still being worked on. Older printed sources with keys include Bailey's MANUAL OF CULTIVATED PLANTS and Rehder's MANUAL OF HARDY TREES AND SHRUBS. Again, not limited to roses seen wild in this area. List (with remarks) of roses seen wild in Seattle, including garden forms is in back of Jacobson's WILD PLANTS OF GREATER SEATTLE. Web site of Burke Herbarium (at University of Washington) shows photos, distribution by county and mentions morphological features of roses represented by specimens held there. Dog rose and sweetbriar are both among them. Your upper picture has leaves like sweetbriar, bottom plant looks quite typical of dog rose.

Dealing in any other way than credit card, paypal and the like is prohibitively expensive unless we are talking about very large orders. To give an example, my bank is asking for a euro 50 fee for the transfer of amounts up to 500 euros or so...Three roses which is a reasonable amount will thus cost at the minimum 45+15+50 euros... I have had experience exchanging emails in english with Le Roseraie du Desert and they have been very helpful and easy to talk to (they are Americans if I understand correctly). They accept paypal I gather. I was about to order from them when I needed to be hospitalized last year. Last time I checked Bierkreek the only payment method available was bank transfer or cash which prohibited me from dealing with them. I don't know if this has changed but I doubt it. Additionally you had to email them your request, and they would come back with availability and the shipping costs quote. Not very efficient I think. I've had very bad experience with a couple of german nurseries which never responded to my emails. For one of them I left a bad review in HMF and discovered I was not the only one with such a bad experience. What I like to do is go online to an english language site, put a few roses in my shopping basket, check out, pay with my credit card both the rose price and the shipping cost, receive a confirmation email and be done with it. Anything more complicated than this is a hassle. Contact with the nursery should only be needed if one needs to clarify something or resolve a problem, not for a business as usual order. If contact is needed I expect this to be conducted promptly by email and in english, not because I happen to speak the language but because it is the de facto lingua franca for international commerce. I don't expect to have to use a translator nor jump through the machine translation hoops. So if anybody has any recommendations for such nurseries not in the UK with a good selection of OGR's and the like and which will ship across the EU, they are welcome. PS. Bierkreek seem to be preparing a proper e-commerce site. When they have it ready I will be pleased to try it. PS2. The Lens nursery was mentioned. Below the link to their terms and conditions. Please note, on top of the payment method problem and uknown (and possibly very steep shipping costs judging from their costs for shipping to nearby places like the UK and Germany), their disclaimers about shipping and state of plants on arrival. This is what I call bad business practices and I would never buy from them. Lens nursery (Belgium) terms & conditions