Here’s an old rose planted next to a Swiss lady’s grave in northwest Missouri. She died in 1894, had no children. The rose survived RRD and weedeaters because it was hiding in a big clump of daylilies. I took a bunch of cuttings. They bloomed in May (zone 6) with pure white flowers around 2 inches wide, nicely fragrant. As far as I can tell, this rose grows about 2 to 3 feet tall. Slightly ruffled, fragrant foliage, serrated leaflets.
I thought I’d taken more pics of this rose because I kept going outside and admiring it. I’ll take a few more tomorrow. Blooms are finished now and I don’t see any new ones forming. She’s prone to aphids and powdery mildew and sawfly damage.
Thorns aren’t much of a problem in this rose, she has little prickles maybe along the stem. Form is kind of thin and gangly in the young plants. Thin little stems.
Ask any questions and I’ll answer them. I’d love to figure out what kind of old rose this is.
I had attached 4 images but since I’m a new user I’m being limited to one. I’ll see if I can attach other images in the following posts.
pic #4! I gave these roses a dose of systemic fungicide and a dose of neem oil. One of them has been developing powdery mildew but the others have stayed clean of it.
I found a pic of the rose from 2023 with a baby hip!
(I called it a gallica but now I don’t think it’s a gallica at all.)
