I agree - definitely not Belle Portugaise. The blooms and leaves look very much like Duchesse de Brabant (aka Comtesse de Labarthe), an old tea rose. If it is DdB, it will re-bloom.

Jackie

Another thought - DdB is not technically a climber, but it certainly could be trained as one. In my garden the bushes of it get to be 8-10 feet tall free standing and supporting themselves. Did you see the original plant when it was growing on the historical home? Our 1905 Victorian in Northern CA had a DdB when we moved in. From family lore (my DH's family has owned this house since it was new), we figure that that plant was at least 85 years old, if not older.

Jackie

There's supposedly a climbing sport of DdB.

Nik, don't tempt me! I looked Cl DdB up on HMF, and some of the pictures from Australia are amazing - just my kind of rose - massive, but elegant. If the banksia lutea or the Cl Cecile Brunner which are growing up my 3 story house (both selected at a local nursery when I had no idea what I was doing), ever give up the ghost, I will try and remember Cl DdB - my bushes of it do so well here, it would be a good choice.

Jackie

Duchesse de Brabant was my thought, as well.

Thank you all for helping me! I will abandon the idea that this is 'Belle' and consider it Duchesse de Brabant. One question, though, about the climber. Would there have been a climber at the turn of the 20th century? The first cutting of this rose (this is its great-grandchild) climbed to the second floor of our house in Fresno, CA.

I took a cutting of the rose at the Guthrie-Bianchini House in Cambria, CA. I do not recall it being a climber. But I took two cuttings that day, 25 years ago, so I may have forgotten a lot. It definitely looks like the rose you all describe. And it is a rebloomer.

According to the web site Help Me Find/roses, Cl Duchesse de Brabant was discovered and put into commerce in 1900.

Jackie

Thank you all once again for providing me with a name for my beloved rose. I called it 'Cambria' after the town where I took the cutting, but now I know its real name. After all these years . . .

Just looked it up on HMF; now I'm tempted, too!

Photo of the Guthrie-Bianchini House from the Cambria Historical Society.

Yes, that's the property where I took the cuttings.

There looks to be a climber on the front porch, could that be your rose?

How amazing! What a piece of history! Lisa

Though the bloom shape is similar, my 'Duchess de Brabant' has rose buds of a different shape, and the pedicels are a different color, and grow in a different manner, also the leaves on my plant appear to have a thinner substance,.

I'd love to know what your rose is, the history is amazing.

Lux.