Ruth,

Roses haven't been blooming when I've been in Cape Breton and NFL and Nova Scotia.

But I do remember a scientific paper about natural hybridization between R. blanda and R. virginiana and if I remember the maps in the paper, one of the areas of overlap and production of hybrids was the area north west of Cape Breton island.

Years ago an ARS annual had maps of North America with ranges of many species. I'll see if I can dig it out tomorrow.

ann - you are amazing, I so admire you!

Ann, do you mean the Gaspe Penninsula when you say NW? I believe I remember a Quebec based research paper that I believe Henry posted because I kicked myself for not being interested in roses back when I did a road tour of the Gaspe from Quebec cite to Perce (sp). As to the posters question ... don't have a clue beyond the Henry contribution ... also remember going wating one should not grow "domesticated" roses and let them get lose into the wild population or we will mixing things up ... purple lostrife (sp) ???? Darn I miss the old spell check ... don't have time these days.

It may have been Gaspe.
What I really would like to know is what's on Anticosti Island, which (at least thirty years ago) was a heavily forested area that was cut, over time, from one end to the other and then the cut area was allowed to regrow, until it's time for cutting came back. Now those survivor roses would have had not a lot of interference.
(I heard about this from geologists who were working on the stratigraphy, the Paleozoic sequence there, and who talked about having to wait for the lumbering to happen to see more of the strat section.

I have a really vague memory of seeing some small roses at Great Morne, but, like you, my interests in roses then weren't great.

Linked is one article indicating that both virginiana and carolina are up at Prince Edward Island

Here is a link that might be useful: PEI: R.virginiana and carolina

Interesting paper on need to protect R. acicularis in New England.

In all my searching, I had missed this paper before. It might be worth a read on a snowy morning.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rosa acicularis

I didn't get it right. The crossing species were R. blanda and R. rugosa. I did find the paper (below, free access) and it has a map showing the occurrences of both to the west of Cape Breton.

If you just skim the molecular work they did, you'll find plots of other comparisons of the two species as well as what resorted from the natural crosses and comments on pollen maturation and when and why and how.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hybridizaation between escaped R. rugosa and R. blanda

Here is a link to the USDA Plant Database search page; I did look to see which provinces had roses listed-some do not, it maybe because no one has submitted any information for that area.

The thing to be careful of is that the USDA has been trying to reduce their webspace, and have tried to lump some species together that may or may not usually be classified as such.

Someone had a question about the roses in France, and I think the discussion basically ended saying that the roses near the Lascaux caves were probably R. canina or very similar. Since that northern tier of Canada has seen Old World migration for a very long time there is bound to be plenty of species that are still tucked away or has mixed into the scheme of things.

Here is a link that might be useful: USDA Plant Database