RE: HMF Admin

Perhaps it bears repeating that the mystery rose photo was an impromptu snapshot taken outside a private gated retirement community seven years ago, and as such the image was not captured in proximity to my home. Going back to check if this rose still grows where I found it would involve roughly a 200 mile round trip and trying to gain entry to a private gated community wherein I have no current relatives. I was on my way home after a long day of visiting with relatives in late November 2000, and I took the picture you see in my initial post because I had just purchased my first 1.3 megapixel digital camera. The rose caught my attention due to its nightlight like glow, which was unlike any rose I had ever seen despite the fact that rosebushes are a common sight on nearly every property in Southern California. I decided last year to plant this variety, which I believe to be an HT, in memory of my departed relative, but I cannot do so without identifying it first.

Please forgive me if I sound somewhat frustrated, but from best I can tell when comparing my single photo to rose books on my bookshelf, the photo I have provided is no better or worse than using a professional guide to help identify a rose, say, that one finds growing on a roadside or on a residential property one might visit or purchase. Published rose reference guides, to my knowledge, do not provide second or third sample images either. Nevertheless, I have often been told by well meaning educators that rose identification is nearly impossible without multiple photos/views! (If that is generally true, most published rose reference guides are all but useless for identification purposes as well.)

The photo I have provided is not a blurry or distant photo, but taken close up and in relatively sharp focus. The photo makes it possible to count petals, and there is even a bud present for comparison. Nevertheless, I acknowledge that the photo has some weaknesses insofar as it does not show more than one flower — which if memory serves was all that was blooming at the time. In addition, the photo was taken near dusk, which is why the leaves aren't that easy to observe for the purpose of gathering additional clues from the color, shape and detail. On the other hand, my ARS encyclopedia doesn’t really depict leaves and buds all that well either.

While Internet/book IDs are tricky as I have previously come to realize, my educated guess is that yellow/pink bicolor HTs are a relatively narrow group of contenders, which I would imagine makes this rose more distinctive looking compared to the thousands of red, pink or yellow single-color varieties that may be easier to confuse. As for the growing conditions, rose growing in California is fairly easy, and roses bloom virtually year around even in neglected gardens (which is why the rose pictured was still blooming in November). For whatever it may be worth, however, the rose pictured was grown in a well maintained, upscale desert retirement community, perhaps 100 miles from Palm Springs, CA. I'm not sure how much of a clue this provides, but I mention it because it might help.

I suspect that anyone who owns this rose would recognize it. Given that no two ARS rosarians I contacted offered the same suggestion, however, I am inclined to agree with one of the rosarians who pointed out in response to my email last year that this particular rose may have been one of the many roses that was introduced briefly and later dropped, which would make it more difficult to identify. (J&P is apparently notorious for this.) This may explain why my attempts to find it via an advanced search here on HMF has also failed (although I confess I haven't looked at all 600 or so results that turn up when searching for a yellow blend bicolor HT).

If anyone can venture a guess as to what this may be, I will appreciate the opportunity to look the suggested variety up in the HMF database for additional examples (which is one benefit of asking my question here, as opposed to somewhere else on the Internet). On that note, even though I have purchased a number of Peace varieties that do not look much like the rose I posted, I am enjoying the fact that my close-but-not-quite roses are at least in the ballpark color-wise, and I would not be disappointed to continue purchasing "might be" roses as opposed to the alternative — having few replies because no one is confident enough to throw out a suggestion.

Aside from the roses I have already purchased, also as mentioned in the initial post, would anyone be willing to hazard a guess based upon the photo I have already provided?