I love this post! Some roses are quite confounding. I look forward to reading the response.

I sure don't know most of them. I do try, but I'm terribly American and some roses are not popular enough for me to happen across gardening videos of people saying the names. I don't know how to properly pronounce my "Henri Fouquier", or my "Erinnerung an Brod" or my "Guirlande d'Amour". I don't know how to pronounce Kordes (but I have heard it pronounced as (cord-iss), I have heard the pronunciation of Geschwind which apparently is more like Geschwint, emphasis on the "i" syllable. I've gotten Veilchenblau (still no clue) and Violette (more like "vee-olette") wrong too I guess. I'm bad at this 😅 Everytime I ask Matt from HCR about roses, I apologize in advance for butchering the names.

One thing to remember is that in French, the last letter is not pronounced. I pronounce Meilland "may-yawn". Sunny, I agree with you on Mme. Isaac Pereire "madame eee-sock-pear-air". You'd definintely say the last R... you wouldn't if the last E wasn't there. I think Kordes is "kor-desh", but I think "kor-diss" is fine. Comte de Chambord is "comt (with a long O)-de (I don't know how to write the de in French... it's not "duh", you sort of purse your lips)-"chom (short O)-bore". Henri Fouquier "on-ree-foo-kwee-a (long A). Magpie, I think your Violette is perfect. Sorry so long, but I LOVE weird words and pronunciations. And Sunny, holy cow on Natchitoches!!! When I grew Natchitoches Noisette, boy did I ever butcher the Natchitoches part!

@susan9santabarbara Thank you! I knew how to say Henri but I was at a loss about the Fouquier part.

It's also Nack uh tosh. At least some pronounced it that way when we spent several delightful days in the town. Loved their meat pies, too. Until we were set straight, we did pronounce the town's name Natch-a-toch-es. We were just Idaho hicks. But how do you say Boise? If you say, Boy-zee, you will be laughed out of town. Diane

The very best pronunciation guide for roses is the old Roses of Yesterday and Today catalog. They've changed over the years, and don't carry near the amount of roses they once did. I think they're only online now, and last I checked, the pronunciation guide was gone.

Fun post, but, people, it's not just French and German that are problematic-English-english has some doozies. How about "Worchestershire sauce"? I think it's supposed to be pronounced as "wur-chur-stur sauce"...

Yes, English can be tricky too. Here's the Worcestershire I found:

wu·stuh·shr . Leicester is Les ter. I pronounce Veilchenblau Veal shen blau but I don't know if that's correct.

If Boise is not Boy zee what is it? Bwa zay? Trying to get things right can sometimes get silly.

When I cook andouille sausage I tell my daughter I'm going to buy some An doo lie. She corrects me, as she lived in New Orleans quite awhile where it is popular and says it's An doo e. I think Louis Phillipe is Loo e Pha leep.

@susan9santabarbara nailed those pronunciations! Well done.

I’ve been told by folks who speak (or have studied) German that Veilchenblau is pronounced ”File-shen-blow” (soft O in blow, as in Owl)

About Worcestershire: my parents were English, and they pronounced it ”woosh tur”. Lots of slurring syllables together into a mash with some of those British names.

Our last name seems easy compared to some of the others but LeGault is pronounced Lego.

So I figured that Meilland was mee- yawn

Ah, my county, Norfolk (UK), is known for impenetrable pronunciations. My wood is in Postwick (pronounced Pozzick) while a nearby hamlet, Happisburgh follows the Norfolk tradition and is pronounced Haiz-brur).

I grow a lot of umbellifers, many of which have long and tricky spellings- current favourite being molopospermum pelopponesiacum.

I frequently rename roses, especially if I am not keen on the given name. So any and all monarchist stuff (as a republican...but not in the US sense) gets renamed to Lady Oddly Strange, Madame Tricky Pricky Nightmare...and so on.

I bloody love saying 'humulus lupulus' or clematis viticella purpurea plena elegans...and always use the full name

How is Allegheny pronounced?

This is fun. If you come to Oregon, remember two syllables. Or-gin (g as in guy, and then in, not on or an r but sometimes a soft un)

Librarian

When Winnie Edmunds owned Edmunds and it was based in Oregon, she put in the description for Oregold that it’s ORE-gold, not like the way people say or-y-gone for Oregon.

’ORE-gold’

Ore a gun

Thanks tying it to roses, Ben 😁 it's aalmost a test of where you're from. Most Western states say Oregon the same way as Oregonians.... The further east you get the more pronounciation changes.

Great,all! So how do you say "Cholmondeley"?

I had a book once, (but no longer), called How to Pronounce French Rose Names.

It may be helpful, but amazon has it at a pretty penny:

https://www.amazon.com/How-Pronounce-French-Rose-Names/dp/193225305X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1JIXHZW8E8BMM&keywords=how+to+pronounce+french+rose+names&qid=1674498620&sprefix=how+to+pronounce+french+rose+names%2Caps%2C131&sr=8-1

and as a side, growing up in the Willamette Valley in Oregon, I have never heard other Oregonians pronounce the state as a 2 syllable word. Everyone I knew said 3 syllables, just not Or-y-gun

That's interesting, Brandon. It must have to do with where in the Willamette Valley. Here, people peg 3 syllable Oregon as a mark of being from out of town. 😅

Regional accents can be quite distinct. I remember seeing the movie Raising Arizona as and being shocked at the accents in that movie. People in the Phoenix area where my family sounded nothing like the Arizonans in that movie

I wonder how that translates to rose names. Maybe there are lots of ways to pronounce some depending on where one lives.

Erasmus, it's Boy-see. No z. That will mark you as an outsider. When the French trappers spotted the Boise River with trees growing along side it, and after the grim desert hills, they shouted, "le Bois! le Bois!", says the myth. Years ago, a Massachusetts friend from Worcester pronounced her home town "Woost-ah". And my parents, who lived and worked in western Oregon and graduated from Oregon Universities, pronounced Oregon with three syllables like Brandon mentions. And bart bart, it's Chum-ley. Diane

Thank you. You beat me to Chumley. Here's Mrs. Cholmondeley:

Natchitoches Noisette

If you're in England and it's the right time of the year, check out the rose garden at Cholmondeley Castle, the estate of the 7th Marquess of Chol. There are other gardens on the estate grounds as well. It's gorgeous! Google Chol. Castle Gardens. Diane

It's a bloody minefield of snobbery, here in the UK, let me tell you.

Still? I thought maybe they had outlawed snobbery.

Just don't pronounce it

Ore gone. We will definitely know that you are not from here no matter what your shiny new license plate says.

Or shout your foreigner status! Lyrics from Let's Call the Whole Thing Off which was written by either George Gerschwin or Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong:

You like potato and I like potahto
You like tomato and I like tomahto
Potato, potahto, Tomato, tomahto.
Let's call the whole thing off

But oh, if we call the whole thing off
Then we must part
And oh, if we ever part, then that might break my heart

@erasmus_gw There you go :) I'm not from CO originally. But I love it here, and I would be a complete stranger to the place I'm originally from. CO is home now, even if some people think some of my words sound a little funny.

Some of the above words though, I can't help wonder why they added soooo many extra letters! 😅

Oh, this is SUCH a fun thread!