If GoldenAge is still active here, I'll apologize -- answering their query only nine years later! Our 'Maréchal Niel' came to us from Greg Grant, in Texas. Details of his finding it can be found on pp. 114-115 of the book "The Rose Rustlers" by Greg Grant and William C. Welch. 2017. To summarize, Dr. Bill Welch discovered it in the back garden of a home in Bryan, Texas. Greg sent it to me. We tested it for the viruses causing rose mosaic disease shortly after receiving it, and it was not infected. It has since been tested by PCR and remains free of all known rose viruses.

We graft nearly all of our roses on 'Fortuniana' rootstock, and that's what I did with this rose. The result was easily the most vigorous rose I've ever grown, quickly climbing to the top of a 16 ft (3 meter) structure. The description here says it occasionaly repeats, but for us, it is seldom without at least a few flowers.

It deeply resents pruning, and I have killed a plant of it simply by pruning one back toward the top of an 8-foot (2.44 m) trellis.

While I often chip bud roses, I find this one very difficult to bud -- most of the buds die. However, it is extremely easy to cleft graft, so that's how we propagate it (with leaves, under mist).

I'm posting photos today, of our plants.