Your pictures couldn't be more excellent, Virginia, and the rose is stunning, but I'm at a loss. The veining of the petals should provide some sort of clue for those more in the know that I am.

Thanks, Ingrid- I appreciate your having a look. Of course, I rather fondly think she's worth looking at!

I've been trying to ID this rose for a while. It seems strange that such a pretty, fragrant and healthy rose wouldn't be in commerce, but I can't seem to come up with a match.

Virginia

I keep popping back to this and looking on HMF, but I'm not a Tea expert. Something about it reminds me of 'Le Vesuve', then I think maybe 'Marie d'Orleans', and others, but none seems to fit. Did you find this, or did you lose the label on something that came with a name, or is it a nursery error, or what?

:-)

~Christopher

Thanks, Christopher. A gardening friend has the parent plant growing in his garden; it belonged to his late wife who liked old roses. My friend thought it had a woman's name, but couldn't tell me where the rose came from.

So far, the roses I've considered as serious "contenders" are 'Mrs B R Cant', 'Leveson Gower' and 'Marie Ducher'.

I now have a 'MBRC' that was a gift so that I could compare it, and I see some similarities, but also enough differences that I don't think they're the same.

I ordered 'Leveson Gower' for comparison's sake two years ago, but mysteriously, it had root nematodes and grew backwards, so I tossed it. It didn't ever make enough progress for a useful comparison.

'Marie Ducher' is theoretically in commerce in the U.S. (although I haven't seen her actually listed as available), and while the HMF photos are similar enough to make me curious, they aren't detailed enough to allow for any degree of certainty either way. I see that she is considered to be strongly fragrant, and that would fit. Also from the HMF 'comments' that she resembles 'MBRC', but with hooked prickles, and that would also fit.

I looked at 'Marie d'Orléans', but her flowers seem to be of the quilled sort, and I don't see that here. The coloring is often similar, though.

'Le Vésuve' does have the rich veining, but does not look very similar in other ways.

I recently disassembled a smaller-than-usual bloom, and it had more than 80 petals. The plant roots fairly easily.

Thanks again,

Virginia

I wonder if it could be Marie Ducher, it seems to fit in many ways.

Ingrid, I do think that's the likeliest ID of the roses I've investigated.

I know that Peter Henderson offered 'MD' in catalogs between 1875 and 1890 (or longer), and Dingee & Conard offered 'MD' for at least 25 years- she's in the 1884 and 1910 catalogs, and those in between- so it's not much of a stretch to think she could be a survivor from that time frame. Especially since she does root fairly easily...

Thanks,

Virginia

Jeri, I was given cuttings by a gardening friend. His rose was growing in dappled shade conditions much like mine, so I had a feeling it would be a good rose for me.

In a way, this was one of the two roses that led to all the others, given that it helped to open my eyes to the fact that roses do not all need 6-8 hours of full sun... at least not where I live.

Lovely photos of MBRC; I know she's quite variable, but I do think my rose is someone else.

Thanks,

Virginia