An old "modern" rose - Peace
Now seems a good time for a story, so here goes. When we moved into our house in 1989, there was a row of HT bushes along the driveway, which had been planted 50 ish years before by my DH's grandfather. The house had been a rental for 25 years before we moved in, and the roses were basically left to themselves. Most of them were barely surviving in deep shade. We dug those up, and put them in very large pots on our sunny patio. However, there was one rose bush which had cleverly sported to a climber (is that why roses sometimes sport to climbers - a survival trait from the wild in case they are being shaded out by other plants?). It had climbed 12 feet up, and was decorating the top of an old, huge, pomegranate bush. So, we left it growing up there in the sun, and waited. In the Spring, it exploded in very large yellow blooms, and my FIL informed me it was Peace. We live near San Francisco, where Peace was selected as a mascot of the first meeting of the United Nations right after WWII. So, we think that my husband's grandfather was easily able to get one locally in the late 1940s or at latest the early 1950s, which was when most of the other roses in that row were introduced. That made our now climbing Peace rose somewhere around 35 - 40 years old when we moved in (they say that HTs only live 10 years on average - don't believe it! And, it was also grafted on Dr. Huey, which I am sure of because I kept having to get rid of Dr. Huey suckers). Twenty years later, around 2009, when it was 55 - 60 years old, it got a horrible, fast case of downey mildew, which was for some reason attacking several of our roses that Spring. I watched it die from the top down, in only about 3 days. I kept cutting off the dying part, but the dying just proceeded down. I finally realized it was going to die completely. It had put up two new basil shoots that Spring, which were still only 6 and 8 inches long. I cut both of them off in a last attempt to see if I could root them. They were pretty soft, so I had few hopes. Ha! That old old Peace (they say it has "declined in commerce", so maybe being from an early clone was a benefit) was a trouper! One of the cut off basil shoots rooted!
The end of the story is these pictures which I took yesterday of the (now own root) climbing Peace from that rooted cutting, which is about 11 years old, and trained along a fence facing the sidewalk, about 70 years after its parent was planted:
Jackie
Comments (14)
jacqueline9CA
4 years agoRelated Discussions
can't spray old old peace
Comments (2)We don't know how secondary ingredients like spreader-stickers might affect the soil and roots. All you need is a two-hour window of no rain for the spray to be absorbed. Load up the sprayer and watch the Weather Channel or the radar loop on the NWS site. Bayer Disease Contol will stop infections if they aren't too old....See Moreupdate on 6o year old peace rose
Comments (3)Wonderful news! Roses' purpose may be to teach us patience and humility....See MoreGiant old rose..Peace?
Comments (7)It does look something like a Peace rose, but it seems much too tall. Helpmefind.com lists the height of Peace as 4 to 6 ft. tall. And when I used to grow it here in Zone 6 (KS), it only got about 3 ft tall. I also hesitate because it has so many leaves on it--here at the end of the season. Peace is notorious for blackspotting badly, so unless someone has been spraying it all summer, that would seem to be far too many leaves. Even on the semi-close pic, I can't see any BS problems. My other reason for holding back on this identification is purely subjective--while the colors look very much like Peace colors, the blooms do not have the effect that Peace roses usually have on me. Like, a quick intake of breath and a slow expiration as I admire the colors--as in, it makes my soul sing. Which these blooms, lovely as they are, do not even remotely do to me. But it is a lovely rose and I sure wouldn't refuse it if you wanted to dig it up and plant it in my yard. : ) Kate...See MoreOld Rose vs. Modern Rose Fragrance
Comments (74)There IS an "old rose scent". Roses express it in many permutations, that is, with different additions of other scents in more or less quantity. The old rose with the purest "old rose scent" that I have experienced is unidentified from an Indiana farm that was passed down through a number of generations. I gave a rooted cutting to Christopher. I hope that it survived. I am not adept enough at rose classification to say what class it belongs to. It is a once bloomer, medium to light pink, button eye, with about a 2" diameter flower. It is true that the perception of scent differs from person to person yet anyone I have seen who has smelled this rose has been enchanted. I have grown Tiffany, Fragrant Cloud, Blanc Double de Coubert, Rose de Rescht, Reine des Violettes, Souvenir de Claudius Denoyel, Crimson Glory, Chrysler Imperial, Munstead Wood, Proud Land, Autumn Damask (pink), Comte de Chambord, Jacques Cartier, Zephrin Drouhin, etc. and sniffed wild rugosa roses on a beach (clove scent, wonderful but not "old rose"). Also, I have noticed that many of the c. mid 20th century roses with decent "old rose scent" such as Crimson Glory and Chrysler Imperial develop a less pleasing scent as they age. Does anyone else sense this as well? Cath P.S. If you really want to smell the "old rose" scent, buy a vial of true attar of roses. Put the stopper right up to your nose. That medicinal scent is not it. No rose has a scent that concentrated. Then slowly move the stopper away from your nose in increments. You will know it when you smell it....See More
seil zone 6b MI
4 years ago
Kristine LeGault 8a pnw
4 years ago
rosecanadian
4 years agonoseometer...(7A, SZ10, Albuquerque)
4 years agosummercloud -- NC zone 7b
4 years agoflowersaremusic z5 Eastern WA
4 years agomjkjrobinson
4 years agojacqueline9CA
4 years ago
Stephanie, 9b inland SoCal
4 years agojacqueline9CA
3 years agoJust an update - here is the same bush - photos taken on April 27th. Waking around my garden is so soothing and makes me happy in this troubled time -
Jackie
Laura LaRosa (7b)
3 years agorosecanadian
3 years ago
damask_rose_zone9b