Thanks, I suspected as much. I wonder how many people take the bait for rose seeds on Ebay?

No, that's a florist rose, can't remember the name of it, some sort of magical name, but not 'Abracadabra', Simsalabin or something like that. Right, it's 'Simsalabim' indeed.

Your friend has been believing stuff she read on ebay, unfortunately. Someone trying to make money selling hips from one of these plants. Caveat emptor

Here is a link that might be useful: Simsalabim @ helpmefind

Thanks, Hoovb!

The miniflora Memphis Music also has that coloring. Seeds? No.

Here is a link that might be useful: Memphis Music at Helpmefind.com

This post was edited by diane_nj on Thu, Jun 6, 13 at 13:33

Yep, that's Simsalabim, alright and I grow it. Mine came from a cutting of a florist rose, but it's very rare to see even at a florist. I manage to propagate one or two plants a year of it, and it regularly sells at our rose society's auction above $200 for one plant. The problem is that it is a VERY unstable sport of a solid color rose, and it tries VERY HARD to revert to solid. When you propagate it, you must be careful which wood you use for propagation and then you have to wait for a significant number of blooms to make sure it is still striped in the growing cutting. And then whenever it starts throwing solid colors again, which is often, you have to get rid of that area of the plant.

It will therefore never be commercially available, in my opinion. It is just too much of a pain for commercial growers and for the general public. And it also is very susceptible to every known rose disease -- must be sprayed consistently.

The idea that you could get something like this from a seed is laughable. The seeds you get when you send money to eBay offshore are radish seeds.

Education is a form of self-protection.

Do you have 'Red Intuition', kstrong?

I too have this rose, but do not list it on HMFR since I have never had a striped bloom. Same with Hocus Pocus and Abracadabra. All sports that are highly unstable.

I've been fascinated by the name Simsalabim for ages. Does anyone know what the name means? Diane

Diane, see the link....

Here is a link that might be useful: one of many stories about simsalabim

Yes, Hoov B, I do have both red and pink intuition. More florist roses that are susceptible to every possible disease, but at least those are a bit more stable than the Simsalabim clan. There is a scientific explanation for the instability, btw, which they call a "chimera" in the rose breeding industry.

Kathy

hoov,
Thank you for that link with its interesting info. Great stuff, and a great name for such a strange rose. Diane

I have SIMSALABIM and mine only occasionally reverts back to it's mama which is likely (I assume) FRISCO, a plain yellow. Maybe one bloom per season will be all yellow. The only problem I see with the rose is that the blooms are rather small. They don't usually get more than about 2-3". Disease for me is only a bit of powdery mildew in the early spring. Mine's still in a pot, so I imagine it would do much better if it were in the ground. I wonder if it's more of a hot weather rose, and maybe that's why it does better for me.

Does scentimental tend to revert? This is another red/white striped rose, very fragrant, too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Scentimental @HMF

No, 'Scentimental' is not a sport of a solid colored rose so there is nothing to revert to. It was born stripey, so to speak. Mine would vary, sometimes a lot of white, sometimes a little, but I never got a 100% red or white flower.

This grew on a bush with just red roses. I have never seen this happen. Has anyone else ?

Just curious, Beth, where did you get that rose? I'm not interested in having one, just so impressed that people here have such an odd bush and know about it.

angie, yes that happens every once in a while. A few examples of this in photos have been posted on this site, and I've seen it in my garden as well. Odd, but not unheard of.

Mmmm.. I can't really say where I got my plant from. The person who rooted it doesn't have any left and doesn't want to propagate any more as they felt it wasn't stable enough. I'm just thankful I was able to acquire a plant.

This one is also advertised on Amazon:

Black Dragon Rose Seeds Bush Flower Seeds

its very obviously a scam. but alot of people actually buy them!

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Dragon-Rose-Seeds-Flower/dp/B007G2KBXQ/ref=sr_1_14?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1371219254&sr=1-14&keywords=roses

These flowers are real. I bought a rose bush not too long ago and they bloomed last summer with this color

I thought it was the blue dragon rise but they sent me the wrong one. Beautiful though and absolutely fragrant.

Thats either the Black Dragon Rose or its The Purple Dragon