Bboy, that was funny. LOL! I had no idea that you could make syrup from hickory nuts. It would have to be some super-tasty syrup for me to make that effort. Seriously, Lucky, I checked out some pics on the web and you're correct, it's a Mockernut, Carya tomentosa. Also, I must applaude you for finding a most creative use for hickory nuts. I grew up with pecan trees and they're my favorites...hickories are new to me. At this point, I think that we'll just try to save the tree and leave the nuts for the squirrels. After I shared your comments with the boss, he offered to put on his snake boots and clear a path for me so that I could try to save this tree. There's a nice Prunus serotina, Black Cherry just down from this one that is also covered with ivy. Thanks to GW, I just found a name for those trees in our area a month or so ago. I'd sure hate to lose that one. I guess the boss had better get out his machete knife again. (LOL) The big one up the street is already getting little cherries on it. Lucky, you know, I just may collect some of those hickory nuts when they start falling this year and give them a taste test. It will be a first for me. Thanks again to all! Bon

I'll take the comfy chair, please. Thanks for your thoughts, brittie and Virginia. Yes, it certainly does look a lot like the pictures of 'Souvenir d'un Ami' on HMF (there seems some doubt if those pix are all "fer sher" SduA). Virginia, it's very fragrant with the normal Tea rose fragrance, very vigorous (but in a shrubby way, not a climber way), very floriferous and continuous, not at all disease-prone (in the most humid conditions, maybe just a touch of powdery mildew). As to thorniness, on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being something like 'William Lobb', this would score about a 2 at most. There's really nothing about it to suggest that it's anything but a "pure" Tea--in everything, it's prototypically Tea. To my eye, it has the look of something from the 1870s or 1880s (but of course an older rose could have a newer look, or a newer rose could have an older look). The very mature bush is about 6-7 feet tall (and would be at least that much wide if I'd let it). The flowers never droop; however dangly the branch which bears them might be, the flowers themselves always manage to look upwards. The hips absolutely never ripen, never have a seed. Likely if I had a list of all the unknown Teas that Heritage Rose Gardens offered, I could pick out which one this was, especially if it had the descriptions too. What I remember about this one was that it was one of two unknowns bought at the same time which, planted in a sandy soil, did poorly; but when I moved them just a dozen or so feet away to a very clayey soil, they responded with vigor and looked nothing like they did in their sandy quarters. Aside from curiosity, the reason I'd particularly like to identify it is that, though still vigorous on some limbs, the bush is getting old, and I'd hate for it to die with me not knowing that there are others out there to carry on its beauty. It doesn't seem to want to root from cuttings or by layering (going by my repeated failures over the last five or six years). It's much more beautiful than my pictures convey. There are times when I'd say that the opening bud and young flower with their tints and form are as beautiful as any rose could be.

THANK YOU Earline! I still have to upload my pics, but I got online today to show 'you' the blooms! How funny is that? Interestingly enough, the center stars on mine are more yellow, not that you can see it with the pictures my camera takes. My plant is hanging really high in my tree, it is too heavy for me to get down by myself with the goofy stick I use, there is no way for me to steady the blooms, so the focus will not go in tight. I still say an older pure strain of carnosa. I noticed that is not a heavy bloomer. It is five times the size of my little 'Krimson Whichever' which had 7 peduncles go ahead and bloom, but only one so far on this one. I only found it by accident, cleaning it up for the June Cactus & Succulent Show. Yours has really put on a LOT of growth in one years time, hasn't it? Its a good plant. Thanks for thinking of me!

carol23. - Thank you. That was the clue I needed. Floral - T. porrifolius was where Carol's clue led me. I knew I recognised it. Ladies, Thank you. Fof