It's lovely, John. You have so many great roses and you grow them well. I sure wish I could grow one of those dark purple gallicas here. Lisa

..simple beauty, with a sea of forget-me-nots... lovely... any clue to its real identity?...

It's so beautiful, John. Thank you! I have buds on a few roses but no blooms yet, So great to see others blooms!

John, those are great photos of a rose I'd heard of, but didn't really know what it looked like. So glad you also added pix to HMF- kudos to you!

Thanks,

Virginia

Thanks for the kind comments!

Marlorena, I remember hearing once that it might be the same rose as Duc d'Angoulême - and it does look similar to the photos on HMF, but there is also a comment on the HMF profile saying "None of the Duc or Duchesse d'Angoulême in literature are mauve-coloured". I haven't looked into that claim, but if it's true, we might have a double-mystery on our hands! Regardless, it's a lovely rose with great bloom color and form, good health and a nice scent.

I had wondered if it might be the same rose as the Texas foundling, "Canary Island Rose", and now I'm still wondering...

Virginia

Thanks John, that's good to know... even if doubts remain...

Virginia, I was surprised there was so little information on HMF about this rose. A friend grows it and encouraged me to order it when I was planning a bed of June-blooming roses, and I had a hard time finding out much about it, but I decided it was worth the risk! So now that I grow it, I'll definitely be sharing what I observe...and hopefully that will help others decide to grow it and possibly identify it one day!

Great background - thanks, Paul! Also, I didn't know you used to care for the old roses at Avery Park. There are some wonderful plants there, but I can see why you asked to propagate the Rush Family rose. It's fascinating to watch it open - the colors are constantly changing.

She's a beauty- I'm glad you found her, Paul, and got her spread about a bit.

Virginia

Wow, breathtaking!!!!!

What a dramatically beautiful rose!

A beautiful mauve Gallica, John! One of my very favorite classes/colors. Lovely images! Your sky blue flowered forget-me-nots provide a perfect backdrop for RFG's plum blooms. (I love the way forget-me-nots fling themselves around Portland like golden poppies do in California.) How would you describe RFG's fragrance? Carol

Thanks Carol! I agree about the forget-me-nots doing so well here - as do bachelor buttons, nigella, phacelia, calendula, and of course foxglove. I've never planted foxglove in my garden, and yet I have a few pop up here and there every year.

RFG has a soft but spicy scent to my nose...which admittedly has trouble detecting Gallica scents. It's strongest as the cool of the morning warms up and by the afternoon it's pretty much gone. As it continues to open, I'll try cutting some for the house where I tend to be able to detect nuances of scent better.

Carol, today's temperatures in the low 60s were perfect for smelling this rose. Even outdoors it smelled fairly strong to my nose - a nice herbal Gallica scent with notes of violets and cherry. This was a relief, because during the recent heat wave I could barely detect a scent. Since the heat returns in a couple of days, I'll be out there snorting up the scent while I can! Luckily, there are plenty of blooms to sniff now:

I like how the blooms age to a slatey lavender color:

Incidentally, Umbra just opened yesterday, and it has a very similar scent, with maybe a little more fruitiness and a bit stronger, too. This bloom was enormous...close to 5 inches if not more:

Wow! Gorgeous. I've been out sniffing roses, too. :-) Carol