I don't have a photo, I didn't own a camera on the month that the man brought me the incredibly large rose blossom. I've compared it to every thing I've ever seen blooming at vintage gardens home garden and at san jose heritage rose garden, and my journal notes about exceptional roses, and no description or image comes close to it. From its shape and style of bloom it appears to have a strong H.P. influence. One blossom has a great weight, for a rose blossom, a hardball baseball came to my mind when it was in my palm. The little scrap of foliage on the cutting the man brought me appeared somewhat typical for a H.T. but these were only 3 leaflet leaves. I would guess from those traits listed above that it could be a first or second generation Hybrid Tea. I would think that it would have been bred in a warm climate because it only opens fully in 80+ degree weather No Identification yet, as of March 9th, 2011. I would guess that in the modern age since patenting that such a rose would not have a great commercial value, because of the limitation from its requirement of heat to fully open, I've been looking among H.T.s that were introduced between the 1860's through the 1940's for an identification, to begin with. I've moved since getting the rose blossom and haven't seen the man who owns the rosebush since, but it is still on my mind. thanks all, Luxrosa

Webmaster, I posted this question twice by accident. Would you please remove this one? The other post has been answered. Thank you with my apologies.

conifers are commonly known as evergreen .... i swear a conifer can be dead for months.. before it browns and loses its needles ... ergo .. the brown tissue probably developed over the winter.. probably due to the transport and transplant to your garden ... this fly .. no matter what it is.. hatched a few hours ago ... how can it be anywhere in the equation as to why this is the second or third BHSpruce you are having trouble with???? and how it may be related to tissue that browned months ago ??? are you hoping for better answers over here .. instead of the conifer forum.. where we usually hang out... lol ... good luck on the ID ... knowledge is power.. but i dont think its going to answer the browning problem .... ken PS: boy thats a lot of whitish mulch ... do these things get any protection from the sun any time of the year ???? reflective sun ... in winter .. can be very problematic ... perhaps sunburning the needles.. not only from above.. but from below with that mulch and snow ... i know there is nothing you can do about it.. with the drainage field ... and i suspect that once the plant gets more 'established' ... it will be able to overcome it all ...

spiced, I do know that there were dark colored varieties here in the US back in the mid to late 1800's. At another site there's a long discussion about the variety True Black Brandywine and Tom Wagner also contributed some info about known maroon, dark colored varieties present here in the US long ago, and maybe not that long ago. I can't transfer that thread here b'c GW doesn't allow for other message sites to be posted here and in transferring it it's ASAP known b'c of the formatting, which is different than here. Keith, you've also showed pictures of dark colored accessions from the Rick Center. Do you know where they were from? I know, I know, I could go look but you know the PGRC site so much better than I do that you could do it much quicker. Speaking to just one comment made in an above post, Craig LeHoullier got the variety now known as Cherokee Purple from J D. Green of TN and it had no name. John had told Craig that the woman he got it from said that it had been grown by the Cherokee. Craig just used the info he was given and at firat called it Cherokee Brick Red, which unfortunately is still listed in the SSE YEarbook, and then changed the name to Cherokee Purple. All attempts for John to track down the lady who gave him him the seeds have failed, so no other info is known. At yet another message site a woman from NC said she had seeds directly from some local Cherokee and was offering seeds. I'm growing it out this summer as is Craig, but not holding my breath b'c she also says she has the only this and that variety as an original, which I know to not be true. Oh well. I would hope that some of the researchers could look at some of the black accessions from the PGRC, b/c it might be useful. When I have time I'll try to transfer here at least the names of the dark colored varieties known from the early to mid 1800's, but alas, I think all of them are now extinct, but were described in various publications, some of which were cited in that thread elsewhere. To me it's perfectly possible that what the Cherokee were growing could well have been one of those dark colored varieties known to be in the US in the 1800's. Additionally, as spiced has already mentioned, it was the Spanish who first distibuted seeds, from Mexico, to the Caribbean and Spain and also to the Phillipines, all on their trading routes at the time, which introduces yet another slant to this interesting story. The Crimean region has long been thought to be the source of the original dark colored varieties, and I think that's up for reconsideration as well. Right now I'm in my medieval mystery reading mode but can switch ASAP to any tomato mystery mode quickly, and have. LOL Carolyn