I don't have a photo, I didn't own a camera on the month that the man brought me the incredibly large rose blossom. I've compared it to every thing I've ever seen blooming at vintage gardens home garden and at san jose heritage rose garden, and my journal notes about exceptional roses, and no description or image comes close to it. From its shape and style of bloom it appears to have a strong H.P. influence. One blossom has a great weight, for a rose blossom, a hardball baseball came to my mind when it was in my palm. The little scrap of foliage on the cutting the man brought me appeared somewhat typical for a H.T. but these were only 3 leaflet leaves. I would guess from those traits listed above that it could be a first or second generation Hybrid Tea. I would think that it would have been bred in a warm climate because it only opens fully in 80+ degree weather No Identification yet, as of March 9th, 2011. I would guess that in the modern age since patenting that such a rose would not have a great commercial value, because of the limitation from its requirement of heat to fully open, I've been looking among H.T.s that were introduced between the 1860's through the 1940's for an identification, to begin with. I've moved since getting the rose blossom and haven't seen the man who owns the rosebush since, but it is still on my mind. thanks all, Luxrosa

Thanks. I looked up Radiance on the web, too, and didn't find Climbing Radiance either. The reason I had ruled out Radiance was because the description I saw of it said it was a repeat bloomer and this one is not. It has one flush of flowers in mid to late spring and that's it. In the past seven years I've never seen it produce even one flower later in the season. I did not mention thorns in my description above. It does have thorns, but if you look closely at the photos above, you can see it is not partcularly thorny. Thorns, except on old canes, are small, recurved, and spaced about an inch apart.

Very hard to tell from that picture, Takate. Do you have any pictures of it on the plant and in different stages of bloom?

I looked at the HMF page for Sonia Rykiel. The bloom form looks like it favors more of a cupped, old-fashioned shape. It appears that it sometimes has an yellow tint to it too, which I've never seen with this one. Mine is always a light pink. Gorgeous rose though. One thing I noticed about the rose today that may help an ID -- the scent has changed with the hotter temperatures. Now it smells strongly of lemonade/citrus! Really incredible scent. I wish there was a way to convey it here.