Here's a note on the origin of the name "Fields of the Wood." The rose was found growing at the Fields of the Wood Christian park, near Murphy, North Carolina, perhaps in the 1950s. It was given at that time to Mrs. Mary Hudson of Macon, Georgia. She then gave it to Dr. Charles A. Walker, Jr., in the early to mid-1970s. In the 1980s, Charles gave it to me, and we have propagated and distributed it since, under that name. The park got its name from the King James Bible, Psalm 132:6, "...we found it in the fields of the wood." Many people habitually misspell it (singular "Field" and plural "Woods").

Phillip Robinson also found it in California, and called it "Kocher Red." It was for years listed under that name in the Vintage Roses catalog.

At the Heritage Rose Foundation meeting in El Cerrito, California, in 2005, Dan Russo, from Connecticut, showed a slide of the Brownell rose (1957) 'Rhode Island Red'. I was sitting near Phillip at the time, and I heard him say "That's Kocher Red!" as I was mumbling "That's Fields of the Wood!" It's a very distinctive rose, not easily mistaken for anything else.

I had a very woody, tired plant and it responded well to a severe regeneration pruning.