A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Plants and Flowers Forum Mystery Plants? Mystery Rose

I rooted a cutting of a rose from my Granny's yard. I don't know the name of it. Her bush was grown from a cutting from a plant that was 100 years old that she got from one of her aunt's houses. I'm pretty sure it's some sort of Old English tea rose but I can't swear to it. She use to call it her "Egglantine" rose but I may be misremembering. I websearched that name and didn't come up with a pic that looks like hers. She had a female relative whose name was Egglantine (sp) but I don't know if that's the same relative that she got the rose from. I also searched heirloom roses, etc., to no avail.

I have a couple of pics but they're kinda blurry because I tried to get a closeup with a one-time use camera and that doesn't work too well. (Gonna get me a decent digital. :) )

The leaves are tiny and medium green. The bush is VERY prickly. Even the bud leaves have prickly spines on them. I have to use gloves to pull the dead flowers off. It's very ugly when the flowers die because they don't readily remove themselves. They just "curl up and die" and turn brown and sit there.

Help?

i don't know, but it's beautiful, and much like a rose my grandfather grew.

Does this look like it? Picture links
to a page in an online catalogue of a dealer
in old fashioned roses which gives a description
and history. Or, you may find it elsewhere in the
listing.

Neko, that's a gorgeous rose! Unfortunately, that's not it. I have one bloom trying to open on my bush. It's past its usual spring 'breakout' and now will just do random blooms. They don't seem to bloom as well once it gets really hot but I'll try to get a better pic now that I have a decent digital camera.

Thanks for trying!!

This really may be it. Chestnut rose! I've seen pics of this on some sites but this particular set of pics sure does look like it....bush and rose, too.

Also known as Chinquapin rose and Burr rose. What do you think?

http://www.ph-rose-gardens.com/00105.htm

This really does sound like it: "One Tough, Showy rose
It doesn't need spraying. It doesn't need watering. It doesn't need fertilizing. Frankly, it's beginning to sound like chestnut rose isn't a rose at all."

http://www.southernliving.com/southern/gardens/flowers/article/0,28012,422406,00.html

if that isn't it, i'd be shocked! that is the closest you have come. my only question is you mention in the other post that the blooms are about 1.5-2 inches, and the chestnut rose is 2-3 inches. also, they mention the bark. does the bark match and do the blooms get that big? if so, you've solved the question and i'll change the title of the topic for you!!! and i still want one

You can still get one.....if they root.

I may have misjudged the size of the blooms. The 'old wood' looks right, too.
You may have read the post before I added another link to an article about it.
The more I read the info in the link to that Southern Living article, the more I'm convinced that's what this is. I suggest you read it. You may not want it after that. It sure fits to a tea.

Jiffy,

Ref the bloom size. It may have something to do with how much sun it gets as to how big the blooms get. I'm not sure. Also, mine is fairly young. And after remembering my Grandmother's bush (huge), the blooms could definitely be that big.

Jiffy,

Last sentence in the Southern Living article:

"If you hate spraying, watering, and fertilizing, this is the rose for you."

Attention all newbie rose growers: Heads up!! Oh my aching sides.

then this is the rose for me!!! i'm going to check that article now. my roses live in spite of me!

Jiffy,

I think you can change the title. MYSTERY rose IDENTIFIED!! BREAK OUT THE CHAMPAGNE!!

ok, read the article, think you are right. and if you want me to change the title of the topic, just say so and i'll do both of them!

and yes, i still want one

:wink:

Let's toast that champagne to cuttings that don't croak!

Jiffy,

The more I look around the web, the more I wonder if my rose is the Chestnut rose. The two pics from another website that I put links to further up in this thread do look like it very, very much. However, everywhere else I go, the color is wrong. And in some cases, the pics I find don't look like it at all....mostly the flower colors but sometimes the leaf color is wrong. Mine is more a medium green and I've seen very dark green. I don't understand. I realize there is a lot of misinformation on the internet but most of the pics I find are on what one would think is a reputable site. Also there are sketches of the rose in a very old book that doesn't look like mine. sigh... I guess I'll stick with Chestnut rose for now.

The Southern Living article sure did nail it's 'particulars' and 'personality'.

i'm with you on the chestnut rose too. i haven't done the looking you have, but i bet it is that. it just "feels right" if you know what i mean.

Yeh, it does 'feel' right. And I'll betcha my Granny's aunt called it 'Chinquapin' rose. They had a lot of American Indian (Cherokee) in her family. It may not 'be' an indian name but it sure sounds like one.

it is. a chinquapin is a miniature chestnut.
they are native to the gulf coast and i love them. they taste very good.

Cool beans! I'll have to tell my daughter that it is for sure an Indian word. She loves that part of her ancestry. :ding:

i love chinquapins but hate chestnuts. and yes, it is a native word.

we always called them "chinkypins" i didn't know the real spelling for years!

"Chinkypins"!!! Now THAT sounds right!! It certainly sounds like how a true southerner (myself included) would pronounce it in 'everyday life.'

I found a page that referenced its scientific name (Rosa roxburghii) so I searched on that and found a great pic of it. They also have a small pic there that doesn't look like it at all. ??? Anyway, thought I'd share the link since the big pic is so good. The description of the flower color is more accurate, too.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/factsheets/roses/chestnutrose.htm

BTW, Jiffy,

I keep seeing the reference to a 'fruit' similar to a Chestnut. I don't ever see anything like that on this bush. The buds are spiky but nothing comes after the rose that looks like a tiny chestnut that I have ever seen. ?? Maybe I need to check more closely but seems to me I would have noticed after all this time.

Okay, now I have the answer as to why my "Chestnut rose" doesn't have 'chestnut-like' hips. There are about 4 or 5 types of Chestnut rose including a single-petal and double-petal form. It and some of the others produce the 'chestnuts.' My version is multi-petaled and seldom produces that particular aspect of the rose.

So there we have it.

it is awesome i can't wait

How could a species of rose bush become obsolete - kinda' odd, when you think of it.

Unless some fundamentalist environment nuts decided they were harmful to the atmosphere - ha ha! You never know what they're gonna' come up with - roses cause cancer? Yeah . . . we haven't heard that one yet - hope we don't.