A number of years ago , the Texas Rose Rustlers had a questionaire posted on their web site for helping to ID roses. Here are the things that they wanted to know: 1--pattern of branching 2--type of inflorescence 3--color of flower & description of color variation 4--shape of petals, also texture, curvature, number & reverse color of petals 5--type of flower 6--shape of corolla 7--flower fragrance (yes or no), if yes--type, intensity & description of fragrance 8--foliage--size, shape, color, color of new foliage, texture, bottom prickles, sheen, fragrance, intensity of fragrance, fragrance description 9--stipules--type & color 10--hips (yes or no), if yes--color of mature hips, diameter, shape 11--prickles (yes or no), if yes--color & shape I wish they still had it on their site as it had pictures to help define & show variations of some of the terms used. All this info is needed to help ID a rose because there are so many similar roses & even then you aren't always 100% sure of some ID's. Pics showining these features of a rose on HMF.com would be very useful.

The EKB roses seem to do well here in SE VA. Out of curiosity I checked to see how many roses I'm growing are on the list and I have TEN. They're all doing great here, mostly in about 6 hours of sun. So far Quietness is a standout, closely followed by the ethereal Souvenir de St. Ann's.

I hesitate to suggest this, since it isn't really what you are looking for, but Modern Roses 12 is worth considering. It is a compilation of about 32,000 rose varieties, with information on bloom and growth habit, parentage, additional sales names, when introduced, etc. And it has 64 pages of full color pictures of roses, including some you probably have never heard of. Even better, it gives you online access to the Modern Roses database. This database contains all the information that is in the book, plus more. As new roses are introduced they are added to the database, so it isn't a static record. The same is true for additional information on existing roses. Further, it is searchable so you can, for instance, find out all the roses that have Peace as a parent simply by using a simple search command. If you want to find all the yellow floribundas, you can search for that. Finally, it currently has roughly 2,500 pictures of roses, with more to come. Our goal is to have a picture included with the vast majority of roses in the database. It's not really the kind of book you can snuggle by the fireplace and enjoy, but it does have an enormous amount of information and more rose pictures in the database than you will find in any other publication. It is only carried by the American Rose Society, so you have to go to their website to get it. I think you will be surprised by what all is included.

That's really pretty, Kitty! I hope it's as great a rose as Medallion was here. That thing was a HORSE with HUGE flowers, but it was also growing in a climate it adored. Of course anyone can name virtually anything they want, virtually anything they want. Patenting is an expensive process, quite expensive, even if you do it all yourself without an attorney. The new laws regarding plant patents state that from the "official date of introduction", which this post is, you have only one year in which to patent the rose, so this post starts the clock ticking. That's why you don't see seedling photos from many breeders unless they have no intentions of patenting them or feel they aren't worth the expense. When you figure it can easily cost you $2,000+ to patent the thing, and you'd be lucky to recoup .50 a plant, the introducer would need to sell at least four-thousand plants just to pay the patent fees. If this mutation avoided Medallion's disease issues in higher disease pressure climates, that might be worth considering. It doesn't seem likely it would be worth the expense, does it? So, you shouldn't worry about anyone else patenting it for their own gain. There isn't anything you can do about producers picking up and carrying the rose without asking you, without a patent. Registering it with the ARS simply gives you prior claim to whatever name they approve for it, but even that doesn't prevent anyone from introducing a different rose with the SAME name. They simply wouldn't be able to register it with the ARS with that name. Commercially, that means nothing. There are only three ways to "protect" the rose. 1. Never let it out of your hands to anyone. 2. Patent it then police it vigorously to force anyone not playing by the patent rules to pay. (expensive and laborious) 3 Trademark the name, which simply prevents anyone from using the NAME without paying royalties for the "privelege". But, it does nothing to prevent them from propagating and selling the rose freely. They just can't call it YOUR name without paying for it. That is the case with all the Austin roses you have seen sold as "AUSpat", "AUSblush", etc. Sure, someone COULD patent it after you've listed it on HMF, as they could any sport. Mutations occur all the time, all over the world. It has been common for the same, or virtually identical mutations to occur from the same rose in multiple places, virtually at the same time, as well as over a period of years. I isolated a solid pink sport of Festival Fanfare, the striped sport of the solid orange, Fred Loads. I submitted it to the ARS for registration years ago as "Festival Pink". The same year, someone in England isolated virtually the same mutation from the same rose and called it "Loads of Pink". I was told Tom Carruth was on the registration committee which considered the two applications and helped convince them to permit both. It was felt as they were half way around the world from each other, no one would ever find them confusing. It is possible your pink sport has occur, or will occur, for someone else, somewhere else. They could investigate patenting it, but it hardly seems worth the effort. Personally, I wouldn't worry about it. If you have all the comparative information about your sport versus Medallion (how it differs, how it's similar), (bloom size, foliage size/color, disease susceptibility/resistance, plant size, fragrance, color classification, name and location of discoverer and when, etc, and would like to send it to me, I'll be happy to get it up on HMF with you as discoverer. There are many questions asked to insure sufficient information is added to the database and the more of them I can answer, the more interesting and enjoyable the rose page is. I think we've all encountered those which seemed they might hold information, only to find a danged name and very little else. Frustrating! Kim