Mr. Bunyard addressed a Royal Horticultural Society gathering on July 5 (recorded in their Vol 63, 1938) and said “….of the pink varieties our ‘Maiden’s Blush’ (Fig 107) is best known and there is also the large ‘Maiden’s Blush’ which I think I have now recovered.

Does anybody have any ideas about what rose Edward Bunyard "recovered" in the 1938 reference?
I am wondering if it could have been "Best Garden Rose" which he may have thought was 'Great Maiden's Blush'.

This rose poses a real dilemma for rose historians. It's usually been considered to have a centifolia parent, although damask has also been proposed. It seems to date back to the 1400s, if not earlier. HMF dates Summer Damask from before 1560, and Autumn Damask from before 1632. Rosa centifolia is dated from before 1450, but is itself said to contain damascena in its background, and to be associated with Holland and Provence.

So if Damasks didn't arrive in Europe until the 1500s, what's up with the presence of Damask hybrids at least a century before that? If one regards Maiden's Blush as a Middle Eastern creation from alba x damascena, maybe it could have been imported long before its Damask parent, unlikely though that seems. Centifolias could then be the French and Dutch offspring of Maiden's Blush, and our timelines work.

If that guess is incorrect, either Damasks were in Europe earlier than we know, or R. centifolia would have to be of non-European origin.

Whichever theory one favors, it's confounding to have a child that's officially older than one of its parents!

How long is the bloom time?

THE SCENT!!!!

OH, THE SCENT!!!!!!

Is there a rose with a more purely sweet scent?????

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