There's a story behind this rose in my garden. My cuttings came from a seller on eBay who lives in CA. The photos were sooo pretty, I thought I'd take a chance on it.

Supposedly, the original rose came from the seller's mother's garden in the 1950's; she called it "Dr Nichols". The eBay seller had kept it going with cuttings ever since. I received my cuttings from her in 2009. Researching, I found there is no rose registered with this name OR "Dr. Nicholas", which was my first guess at a misspelling. When I saw yet another seller on ebay selling it with the incorrect name, I decided it was REALLY time to pin down the correct, registered name. I can be somewhat obsessive once I get an idea in my head, so I started hunting down mid-century pink climbers. There are HUNDREDS. Thank goodness for HMF! After sifting through look-alikes, dead ends and possi-maybes, I'm now convinced that my rose is 'Doctor J.H. Nicolas', a short climber introduced in 1941 by J&P. Dr Jean Henri Nicolas was J&P's director of breeding, and the breeder of this rose. It was named in his honor after his death.

I'm thrilled to ID an unknown rose in my garden. The good Dr is still in commerce, but I didn't know he was in my garden until recently, lol.

I don't know how I'd survive living out west where there are so many gorgeous roses with unknown names. I'd have to have them all, and I'd go nuts trying to find out who they are!

John