"Cass" wrote

Thanks, Allegra. I have some cuttings and will take more. The video
store knows nothing: they describe it as "just a wild rose." But then
it occurred to me that I'd better look at ramblers - because that
button eye is apparent in many Barbier ramblers and because I don't
remember seeing this rose flower at other times of the year. But in my
mind's eye, that is not rambler foliage: it is noisette foliage.

Any pink glow to Gloire de Dijon? Button eye? There are apparently many
very good GdD offspring that are better than the parent. Pictures are,
again, hard to come by.

I'll get Alice's input, I hope.

Hello again,

funny because at first sight I thought it could have been either Primavere
or Leontine Gervais with too much sun exposure ;) Gloire de Dijon has
very little if any pink to it that I know from personal experience. It has
the
color of sabayon left to dry in the surface, that opaque dense and yet
somehow translucent yellow that it is not yellow but the soft creamy and
dark color of wet chamois. In full sun turns into one of the Kimberly-
Clark hybrids and blows to kingdom come in the most disagreeable shade.
But given morning sun and afternoon dappled shade it is really a joy of a
rose.

My experience with most Barbiers come from my grandmother's house
in Provence, hence the reference to Primavere that I have never found here.
I have seen what passes or pretends to be Primavere, but it is a Spring of
a different color than the one growing in Provence. Again, soil, cultivation
practices and sun may be more influential factors than what we like to
believe. Leontine Gervais is more like your found beauty. Depending on
how cool the weather is it can appear to have here and there a touch of
pink, but what I really think that happens there is that somehow due to
climate or soil it has somehow picked up a recessive gene from either one
of the once removed parents or grandparents and acquired that tinge
of pink. What is the fragrance? To my nose anyway if not all, the majority
of the Gervais smell of apples. Not the leaves but the fruity scent of an
apple when it hits your nose after you take the first bite.

What fragrance do you detect? It must be a rambler after all, and as far
as wild, well, unless they are in the middle of nowhere, a new construction
has to have been pretty good and sane to protect a rose among the rumbling
of bulldozers and construction equipment, né? So we have to assume that
it was somehow either planted there after the place was constructed or it
was there and the place was built around it. I am sure the guys at the video
place wouldn't have the slightest, but if you have the time and the
inclination
some time a fast look at municipal records (readily available at your county
library or the "hysterical society" where you live, may bring forth some
info
about what existed there before and maybe even some link to some older
member of the community who may know something about it).

One good way is to check both churches and cemeteries around to see if
you find another example. If it turns out to be a sport, likelihood is that
you
are not going to find another like that beauty of yours. And that will
deepen
the mystery, but I will like to know the color of the foliage, prickles, how
many petals, fragrance and of course for the heck of it, rub the leaves and
see what they smell of if anything.

Don't you just love a mystery? She who does....


Allegra