Actually I think there are a small handful of possibilities. Harrison's Yellow is probably the most well known, but there are also Father Hugo's rose (Rosa hugonis), Canary Bird, and a few others. They are all varying shades of yellow, all have smallish leaves, thin-ish wiry stems, and bloom earlier than the rest of the garden roses. Olga posts on these kinds of roses over on the Antique Rose forum since they are a favorite of hers. She grows a bunch of them and they're all lovely. They tend to bloom with the lilacs, I think.

Hi Jackie... I wish I had known you were coming up to Trinity County. You can see my house from Main Street when you are driving by Lee Fong Park on your way to Coffee Creek. Altho' you are always welcome, I have to tell you, I always think my garden is a total mess and have too many projects going at once. According to Alice Jones, in her book Flowers and Trees of the Trinity Alps, there are only three species roses native to Trinity County. All of the other species roses have been brought here by migrating birds, animals and people. The three native species roses are: Rosa Gymnocarpa -- 3 to 9 leaves Rosa Pisocarpa -- darker pink, almost mauve compared to Rosa Califorinia Rosa Spithama -- a low growing rose 6" to 12 " I have seen a few stands of Rosa Californica and a few variations of Rosa Canaia, but haven't been able to identify a couple of other species roses I've found. You can pick up a copy of Alice's book at either the Historical Museum or at Budman's Book Mine. She was a botanist that hiked all over Trinity County recoreding and photographing plants native to TC. I had a chance to meet her when I first moved up here... what a great lady. Smiles, Lyn

What time of year is it ok to trim them up? I know doing anything serious stresses a plant, esp in the heat of summer. I would have to really do some serious trimming to bring them back to a shrub shape. I figured the GA heat would be too much for them if I did it now. Yes/no? Do I do a little bit at a time? My spouse wants to rip them out of the ground they are so unsightly, but I'm going for the calmer approach. I keep saying... "Hey they are about the only thing that survived from the original landscaping". (BTW the "Landscaper" did EVERYTHING wrong. He prepared all the beds by laying landscape cloth over the clay the builder left when they raised the lot and then threw 2 inches of top soil down over the landscape cloth. Topped it all off with about 1/4 inch of pine straw and called it done. Dung a hole the size of the plant's pot dropped it in the clay hole and turned on a sprinkler. WOW! And people wonder why the only beds doing well are the ones we made and redid!) Thanks again!

There's a few different wild roses in your area, there's also invasive multiflora rose. Multiflora has (where the leaf greets the stem) with a long fringe, wild roses will be more like the picture I linked to. If it doesn't have the long fringe, it might be worth letting one grow and see what it becomes. But with the situation you're describing, it might very well be multiflora. Multiflora can root from the smallest piece left lying on or in the ground (either root or stem), if the land has been routinely tilled it will spread like you're seeing.