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'The Mother's Day Rose' Reviews & Comments
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Who can explain to me why a rose that starts blooming for the first time in July is nicknamed the Mother's Day Rose?
I ask because I have a pink, once-blooming Wich rambler that is *always* in bloom on Mother's Day, and I wonder if it is a variety that was confused in commerce with 'Debutante'. I started calling this rose the Mother's Day rose because I didn't know it's correct name (still don't), and that was before I'd heard of a Walsh rose called or nicknamed 'Mother's Day'.
My rose was planted in SC in the 1950's by my mother-in-law, and she called it a Sweetheart Rose (according to my husband... my MIL died before I met my husband). 'Sweetheart' was an actual variety that was introduced a bit earlier than 'Debutante', but it apparently was also a generic name used by some rose growers for the various pink, double cluster-flowered ramblers of the early 20th century. And, yes, I'm aware that it's also a nickname for 'Mlle. Cecile Brunner'.
Walsh described 'Debutante as blooming first in July, then again in the autumn. Does 'Debutante' flower reliably on Mother's Day in warmer climates? If it doesn't usually bloom until July, the Mother's Day nickname probably belongs to a similar-looking rose. I did check, and Mother's Day seems to have always been held in May in the U.S.
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I have never heard of 'Debutante' referred to as the Mother's Day Rose. For the provenance of this appellation, you would have to contact Ida Sharp at Rose Hill Garden who says this rose is sometimes called "The Mother's Day Rose" because it blooms in many areas around that time...
'Debutante' blooms on the 4th of July in Woods Hole where Walsh had his nursery and in most of the northeast USA.
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Thanks. It looks like that nursery is now closed, but they are/were in Louisiana, so the climate is much more like what we have here. Presumably, their bloom schedule is also similar.
My rose looks more like 'Sweetheart' than 'Débutante', but all those ramblers sported a good bit, so who knows what the original looked/smelled like? In its current incarnation, it's mildew-free, and has charming flowers, but is thorny as all get-out, has no detectable fragrance, and blooms only once.
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The rose I grow as 'Débutante' always has a small flush of flowers in the autumn.
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Looking at the Peter Beales rose catalog on line, it is very clear that the rose sold as 'Debutante' is not the true plant. None of Walsh's rambler roses have that appearance. The flowers are too large and the color is incorrect.
https://www.classicroses.co.uk/roses/rambling-roses/debutante-rambling-rose.html
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Apart from the colour it hardly looks like the 'Débutante' sold and grown elsewhere in the U.K. either and could they not have found a better picture than these miserable flowers lying in the mud!
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According to Dan Russo, Nicholas Weber of the Heritage Rosarium used to sell the correct 'Debutante'. So it is possible that Vintage Gardens received their rose from Mr. Weber. However, their catalog says they received it from Beales. So it is possible Beales at one time had the correct rose and simply lost it and found a rose purported to be 'Debutante' and have been selling it instead. One thing I am certain about and that is that the rose I received from Vintage Gardens in 2003 matched the Lowell family rose found here in Barnstable.
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The David Austin website has far better pictures of 'Débutante'.
Palustris, this is so interesting, thank you for all the trouble and time you are spending on these roses I'm sure by the time you and Patricia are finished we all will have a much better understanding and certain varieties will be correctly named. The only thing that slightly troubles me is that the historical references all mention a pale pink rose but not a rose that is pink in bud that fades to white on opening. Photographs posted by AmiRoses and Cá Berta are far closer to the rose I am growing than to the rose at Woods Hole so I imagine most of Europe are growing this mystery rose too.
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American Gardening 21(300): 633 (Sept 22, 1900
New Climbing Rose Debutante
WE only recently presented illustrations of Mr. Walsh's hybrid of Rosa Wichuraiana and Bridesmaid under the name of Sweetheart, and now show Debutante, for which Baroness Rothschild gave the pollen, R. Wichuraiana being the seed bearer. This is a grand acquisition in the list of rambler roses, being of vigorous habit, slightly larger in all its parts than the former hybrid and having flowers of a very pleasing light pink color which does not vary as the flower ages. The bud is especially beautiful. Our sketches give a good impression of the sprays of blooms and we learn from Mr. Walsh this week that the plants at Woods Hole are again in flower, so that Debutante has a second season of bloom which should add materially to its interest.
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#1 of 1 posted
26 OCT 17 by
 jedmar
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This moves the breeding year back by at least a year!
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