The MGS Forum
Plant identification => Plant identification => Topic started by: Alice on June 05, 2013, 08:16:14 AM
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We bought this rose some years ago. It has long and very floppy thornless stems. Not so much a climber as a rambler perhaps. Its flowers are small, white and delicately fragrant. It has just finished flowering.
Any ideas as to its identity?
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Alice,
Difficult to say from your photo as it is not possible to see its growth habit.
There are very few thornless roses, might be Rosa lucieae [syn Rosa wichurana] which has also a thornless form.
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I bought this same rose a few years back here in Athens and called it a single Banksia. If you look up Rosa banksia normalis www.classicroses.co.uk/products/roses/rosa-banksiae-normalis/ (http://www.classicroses.co.uk/products/roses/rosa-banksiae-normalis/)you can compare it.
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If it is Rosa banksiaea simplex, the single form introduced long after the double forms, the flowers should have a noticeably violet-like perfume.
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That's a very good way of identifying a rose. Banksias only flower once a year unfortunately so we'll have to wait to next spring to check it.
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Thank you, Oron, Fleur and Trevor, for your replies.
Here is another photo showing more of the plant. It is characterised by very floppy stems, unlike a Rosa banksiae 'Alba plena' (double white) growing next to it which has quite stiff stems. Filippi says that R. banksiae var. normalis has stout thorns, whereas ours is thornless.
As to its perfume, Trevor, it seemed sort of "rosy" to me. As Fleur suggests, we will have to wait until next year to ascertain whether there is a hint of violet in the scent.
Trevor, are you by any chance a wine taster?
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Yes, Alice I taste wine almost every day - tho' my Dr says I should try harder to be less professional and less dedicated!!! tn
Back to the mystery rose. The petal shape reminds me of others I have seen. Fleur take a look at the stipules at the base of each leaf where it is joined to the stem. Is if 'feathery' rather than plain or only slightly fringed? Could be a clue to the species derivation.
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Yet more photos of the mystery rose.
Its branches have to be tied to the support in many places otherwise they don't want to stay up. It also has an irritating habit - the tied branches soon die and the whole business of tying the new ones has to start all over again.
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Looking at the stipules I'd hazard a guess at a form of Rosa moschata of which there seem to be numerous garden varieties. in the 19th C seeds of these were sold as 'Fairy Roses' - the flowers being small, pale and dainty.
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Although this is my first posting I have been following the informative and enjoyable discussions for a long time. I now feel I must share my photos of what I believe is Rosa moschata. I acquired the cutting several years ago from the Agios Iraklidios nunnery. I supplied them with a few potted herbs, a vegetarian cake and a book about herbal medicine in exchange. This week it has flowered for the first time. This is a flower I have been trying to get hold of since childhood so I am proud of it.
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I hope you enjoy posting as much as general "foruming", Charithea.
Congratulations about your R. moschata. I am sure the nuns were very happy with your offerings.
Where do you garden?
I don't think my rose is R. moschata but might be a R. luciae (R. wichurana), as you suggested, Oron.
Fleur, interestingly Peter Beales's website describes R. banksiae normalis as thornless, so it might still be that.
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I garden in Cyprus. My sister who also went with me to the nunnery informed me today that they no longer have the rose bush. It has been torn out because they have been carrying out restoration work.
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We have a young plant of the single white-flowered form of Rosa banksiae, climbing (well, sprawling in an indisciplined way) up a carob tree. It is thornless - and looks very like your pictures, Alice.