I had the extreme privilege of listening to Belgium's Ingrid Verdegem and the Mother Lode's Fred Boutin talk about roses together last weekend. One thing discussed was that DNA seems to indicate that Archduke Charles and Old Blush are genetically identical!!! That opens up a lot of thought about what other roses are "genetically the same" that we tend to think of as seedings/hybrids. It also brings into question what we are missing in those DNA tests. Something causes Archduke Charles to be distinctly different from Old Blush on a stable basis - and for Orange Smith to be subtly different from AC. What is not being detected in the tests? And how are the tests that are cited as though infallible being conducted? Apparently there are several ways to do it - testing from chlorophyll is the easiest and cheapest and may be the most incomplete. I am definitely no scientist but listened as carefully as I could. Ingrid ended her lecture with a quote from Voltaire -Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd. Goodness knows, I am sure of less and less, the more that I observe, read and listen about old roses. Anita

Kim -- I will -- it'll be later in the year, though. Right now, we're working like the devil to rehab the garden. The results are worth it, and I am BOUND to lose some weight, but still . . . Interesting thing ... One of the roses I tackled this morning was 'Kathrinerl' -- remember that? It was full of dead stuff, but when I cleaned it up, the plant looked great (it may be in too much shade). Whhile I was working on it, I almost stepped on what looked like some short canes, laying on the ground. Turns out that 'Kathrinerl' suckers! We potted it up. :-)

Beautiful! Hi from my Archduke Charles.

Bart, you're not the only person to be confused by this name. But the family Orange has a proud history, and I gather that descendants in the U.S. are proud of their lineage. I suspect that Mr. Smith's mamma gave that name to her son to mark his lineage. He survived the Civil War, and went on to migrate to the California gold fields, where he lived to be 84 years old, dying in 1911.