I'm not familiar with that one and hope it's good. I originally thought of "In Search of Lost Roses" by Thomas Christopher which is a marvelous book. WELL worth looking up if you're not familiar with it. https://www.amazon.com/Search-Lost-Roses-Thomas-Christopher/dp/0226105962 

@roseseek " In Search of Lost Roses" looks amazing. Our library doesn't have it, so I just bought it--early Christmas present to me. Thanks!

@User it's a very good read with some very interesting history. The author is alive and well and posts on Facebook. I had the pleasure of hearing him speak way back in the "dark ages" at a Huntington Old Rose Symposium. He is also hysterically funny and a heck of a nice gentleman.

William Welch came to Knoxville to talk at Tennessee. It was well publicised and I was shocked that I didn't see any other rose society people there. I was a newbie to one of the clubs and was just beginning to realize how modern rose centric they were.

His talk was excellent. A lot of the photos were of roses at a weekend home he had, and I thought I saw that he had used the most viciously thorny ones below all the windows accessible from ground level.

@User the rose rustlers is a great book, and a good read.

However, I like Thomas Christopher's book

I was going to say, this book is very good . . . But the ultimate is Christopher's "In Search of Lost Roses." It was SO good that I've read and re-read it, and I greatly enjoy talking with the author. So good, in fact, that it sent my husband and I on a 3,000 mile odyssey across the U.S. to see one particular rose bush . . .

missing-rosebush.pdf (goldcoast-roses.org)

Jeri, that is a wonderful read! You captured the different places you visited so well.

I'm so glad I bought "In Search of Lost Roses," and that it's on the way here. I should be done with "The Rose Rustlers" by the time it arrives. I'm enjoying this book. Last night I read the part about the founding of The Antique Rose Emporium. Over the years I've read enough about the old roses to understand in general their history, but I realized I don't know much about how they came to be found and identified here in the U.S.

Pam Puryear sounds fascinating. Too bad she is no longer here. I imagine she would have been a lively contributor to this forum.

@jacqueline9CA I'm so envious you were able to rustle roses on your own property. I haven't done a lot of looking around my city, but over the years I have run across a Ducher, a Louis Philippe (or Cramoisi Superieur?), and a hedge of Mutabilis. They're all gone now, though. New owners? New gardening plans? Who knows.

@jerijen Thank you for the story. I agree with Ingrid. It's a great read. Did you ever ask Thomas Christopher about the mystery?

I did. But Tom had recorded information from a well-known "Old Rose Person," and had taken it at face-value (as I would have done, in his position). Had I not driven all the way across the continent to see it myself, I'd never have learned differently.

Part of the reason I made that journey was that I had learned that my G-Grandfather was in the area with Confederate forces when the surrender was signed. I knew that he had made it home to his family, months later, "barefoot, starving, and riding on a mule" -- only to find "everything there changed."

So, the story was personal, to me, and we brought it full circle, later, when we found this China rose in the family cemetery he established in Texas, not far from his grave

Jeri - Do you know if that rose you posted a pic of above in your ancestor's family cemetery in Texas is Old Blush? It is lovely no matter what it is. I have always sort of wanted Old Blush, but never did anything about it. I just looked it up on HMF, and, as makes sense, the best pictures of happy bushes of it are all from warm climates - Italy, Southern France, Greece, Fla, etc. The above rose seems to be very happy in Texas, too. If it is not OB, do you have an opinion on who it might be?

Jackie

Jackie, my best guess is that it could be an open=pollinated seedling of Old Blush.

I have grown OB here, and I do grow "The China From Adina", and they are somewhat similar, but not the same. In some ways, it reminds me more of 'Five Yuan'.