Baty's Pink Pillar, What Might It Be?

12 years ago

I have a plant of Baty's Pink Pillar that I got from the Antique Rose Emporium in Texas around 1995 or so. It is one of my favorite roses and quite, quite beautiful IMHO. I'm very curious about it's real identity.

This year for the first time in many I was ordering roses again and called ARE to get more from them (what a great place!) and asked about Baty's Pink Pillar. They said they longer carried it, and hadn't determined its real name. Darn!

Now to the BPP itself. From the ARE catalog of 1995 it was in the found roses section and described as repeating, light pink, fragrant, and growing 7 to 8 feet tall. My BPP blooms in flushes, in big sprays (individual flowers are about 3 to 3 1/2 inches across), have only a light, elusive but sweet scent, and are light pink (hint of lilac tone no yellow) and packed with petals. Has thorns but not very many. Leaves are sort of light green, and new growth is always green, never with even a hint of red or purple. My plant is very healthy and has never been sprayed with anything. I have never seen any mildew, rust, or blackspot on any leaves. It is shade tolerant.

For me in California, BPP has been a very vigorous climber (but not as rampant/spreading in habit as a climbing Cecile Brunner). It is now more than 20 feet tall and growing into 2 trees! When I got it from ARE I transferred it into a bigger pot and placed it in the shrubbery while deciding where to plant it. BPP rooted right out the bottom of the pot and anchored itself it place, and also exploded out the side of the pot! It was so happy and so beautiful I decided to leave it where it was.;) It has suckered a little bit too (but nothing like a gallica).

Does it look familiar to anyone? Any guesses as to what it might be? I think it is a beautiful rose and would love to find out more about it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Baty's Pink Pillar on Help Me Find

Comments (5)

leelf1
12 years ago
I was just wondering the same thing the other day when I was working on spring pruning. I have two from ARE, and in my climate (coastal Long Island - very different from California!!!), this is a great rose as well. Waves of flushes, very little BS in a no-spray garden, and virtually zero winter dieback. Too bad it is longer being offered...
Tessiess, SoCal Inland, 9b, 1272' elev
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks for the info! I didn't know if it could grow in a colder climate, and now I know it can.

From your post it sounds as if BPP dies back a little during the winter. Could that give us a hint about it? Is it possibly a climbing tea?

Btw, is yours the same light pink color as mine? I ask because I found another picture on the web of someone else's BPP (also grown in SoCal), but in a more humid area near the coast, and hers is a darker pink.
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cemeteryrose
12 years ago
Mine is just about ready to bloom for the first time. My impression was that it was a darker pink, and that's how the buds look. Got it from Jeri - who got it from ARE, or at least so I think -

Doesn't seem to be a tea - more modern - very few prickles, glossy, healthy foliage -
Anita
Tessiess, SoCal Inland, 9b, 1272' elev
Original Author
12 years ago
Hi Anita,

Yes, it is Jeri's plant I had in mind. I saw a picture of it on the web, and the photo shows a much darker pink than any bloom I've ever seen on my plant in all the years I've had it. Consistantly very light pink flowers. That picture though looks much different. Very beautiful, and I like it! But it doesn't look at all the same. Could it be the difference in temperature and humidity that makes the flower be so much darker in her area and lighter in mine? And mine is in a lot of shade too. You are up north and also, it seems, getting the darker flowers?

I still have my ARE catalogs, and it shows a lighter pink bloom (slightly pinker than mine), the listing from the 1995 catalog, page 4, states "7 to 8 feet. Z6/R/Fr/lp"
Hotter at ARE accounting for the paler color????

Melissa
jerijen
12 years ago
Melissa, I would say that almost certainly temperature and other environmental conditions make the difference.

Take heart! It sounds like the rose is far happier for you than it is for me, but I have not the heart to remove it, for when it's good, it is very, very good.

I have read opinions that it might be a Cl. Florrie.
I believe that it is said to have been given by a lady of 80+, to the lady from whom ARE obtained it. And that the elderly original owner had grown it for many decades, and had forgotten its "real" name.

Jeri