With 35 reports thus far, here are the results. I did not ask about some suggested key identifiers, which are shown in bold. If you can confirm their existence on your Duchesse de Brabant, it would be interesting. I don't yet have a confirmed petal shape. If anyone has any leftover petals, flatten a typical petal under a book and describe the shape. I suspect that these are typically cuneate (wedge-shaped). Leaves open wrinkled and then smooth as they mature. Leaf margins are slightly wavy. Leaf texture is thin. Powdery mildew in coastal and central valley of California and in damp spring. Prickles beneath on petiole (mid-rib of leaf). Prickles on canes are scattered. Bloom form is globular (fewer petals) to cupped (more petals). Stamen: filaments are white to cream, anthers dark amber when fresh. Petal color is medium pink with cream to white centers, probably cuneate (wedge-shaped). Petals count: median 54 total, with range from 86-21. For those with a hand lens, the sepal margins are glandular ciliate. More than half report strong/fruity Tea fragrance. Some cannot detect Tea or did not report. Plants often grow to 8 ft. x 8 ft. Feel free to confirm this description or distinguish your plants if you haven't already described each of these characteristics. I would like to report these results to Billy West, one of the Teabags from Oz.

Seil, Though I hate to be the suggester of bad news, it has also occurred to me that you may not have a true Duchesse de Brabant. Perhaps an email to Angel Gardens with a photo attached is in order? Even in the dead heat of summer here the DdB I have seen retained their shell pink color. I have not seen mine bloom that shade of white before. Jeri, I am very excited about these guys! These three Duchesse along with Cramoisi Supeurieur, Champney's Pink Cluster, and Crepsucule will most likely the the first roses to make it into the cemetery. I like to romanticize the whole thing and tell them that they hold my hopes for a better future - one which has roses adorning the rolling hills of the cemetery meadow. I'm sure if they could, they would roll their eyes at me. Josh

What I've noticed with own-root roses is that what you see upon arrival will continue to grow as if it was still back on the mother rose before the propagator snipped it for rooting. So since this usually means a terminal branch was used for propagation, growth from it will continue as though it was a terminal branch. But in the meantime, it's feeding the roots. And when the roots get enough food to generate a new shoot, that new shoot will be more like what you'll see on the mature rose. And, as Jeri said, don't worry about planting an own-root rose too deeply. When I started my garden, I planted them in the native soil, then built raised beds around them. The result was that 6-8" of cane was buried. After a year or so, I started seeing roots being generated along these canes just a few inches below the raised surface. Roses aren't like many other shrubs or trees in that they will adjust to being planted deeply -- by generating roots further up. At this point, fiddling with it may cause more harm than good. Just maintain whatever depth you have. I know others say not to keep mulch at the bases of roses because this will invite disease, but I don't think this is the same thing as burying canes in soil permanently. Mulch will certainly keep things moist, but perhaps isn't "soil-like enough" for roots to form. Here, roots formed on the buried portions of cane only after I added composted manure and used coffee grounds to the mulch layer, in effect creating a "mulch" of soil-like compost with the texture of potting soil. :-) ~Christopher

I googled DdB, and evidently there was a historic person by that name - she was married to the Duke de Brabant, which was a Belgian title. There is even a "Place de la Duchesse de Brabant" in Brussels, so it seems unlikely to me that the name DdB was just randomly "given by some nurseries for marketing in the US", as it now says in HMF. We all know that roses' names were frequently changed for marketing in the US, but this seems like a strange choice (more likely is the name "shell rose", which has also disappeared from HMF as another common name for this rose). Has HMF instituted some new policy to NOT list other, or common, names for all roses? Other roses which I have looked up still have their "aka" lists. I agree with you that even if this rose was originally named CdlB, trying to wipe out references to it as DdB is just silly, and will create nothing but confusion. Not to mention being inconsistent. HMF still lists Madame Joseph Schwartz as 'white Duchesse de Brabant', and the climbing sport as 'Cl Duchesse de Brabant' Jackie