(2007)  Includes photo(s).
 
...'Banshee' is sometimes confused with 'Maiden's Blush' or others of the Alba clan...The bloom has alba-like qualities, but that is where the similarities end...

[The author reprints the article "Banshee: The Great Impersonator" by Leonie Bell from the 1977 American Rose Annual and adds photos.]

(Mar 2004)  Page(s) [web page].  
 
"The Damask Perpetuals of the 1840's" by Brent C. Dickerson [copyrighted; used by permission]
1848
—'Dembrowski' (Vibert, 1848) Confused maddeningly easily with the -1842 Hybrid Bourbon 'Dombrowski', which was scarlet sometimes shaded with purple, and was perhaps by Victor Verdier, the following descriptions certainly pertain to Vibert's 1848 Damask Perpetual 'Dembrowski': "8-9 centimeters [to ca. 3½ inches], full, crimson violet purple; the only one of this color so far in this sort, it came frome a sport of the Damask 'Pope' which I [Vibert] enfixed" [M-L48/427]. "Flowers full, 8 cenyimeters across [ca. 3¼ inches], deep violet crimson; sport, enfixed by graft" [M-L49/234]. It was still around in 1862, when Robert & Moreau were offering it with the same description; and Singer recorded it in 1885 as "Flower large, full, very floriferous; color, crimson shaded with dark violet" [S]. Edward Dembrowski, writer who led a revolt against the Austrians in Krakow in 1846.

M-L = Travaux du Comice Horticole de Maine-et-Loire.
S = Max Singer's 1885 Dictionnaire des Roses.

(2005)  Includes photo(s).
 
Désirée Parmentier is the first gallica that I came to know as an unnamed found rose. I grew it for almost two years before I came close to having an official name for it....As a shrub, it is very upright for a Gallica, tending to grow straight up to 6 feet, and a narrow 3 feet across, very similar to the Alba that bears its "sister" name, 'Felicité Parmentier', It seem slikely that this is a hybrid including Centifolia genes in its background. Desirée's blooms are a very vibrant mid-pink that fades to pale around the edges, and they are very full...There are at least a hundred and fifty small petals filling this rounded bloom, and it produces a very fine, strong Damask/Gallica scent. The leaves are typical Gallica, but a bit more coarse than the average....There is some doubt as to the identity of this rose, and it is possible that this may in fact be 'Prolifera de Redoute'.

(Mar 2004)  Page(s) [web page].  
 
"The Damask Perpetuals of the 1840's" by Brent C. Dickerson [copyrighted, used with permission]
1848
—'Dembrowski' (Vibert, 1848) Confused maddeningly easily with the -1842 Hybrid Bourbon 'Dombrowski', which was scarlet sometimes shaded with purple, and was perhaps by Victor Verdier...

(2007)  
 
"Rush Family Rose", date and origin unknown. Described in detail by Paul Barden's website.