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roseseek

Crestline Mulberry unmasked?

roseseek
9 years ago

I've grown Crestline Mulberry for many years (off and on), but it wasn't until last weekend I'd ever seen it and La Reine grown in the same place, at the same time. After collecting cuttings of it to send Malcolm Manners, I went back to La Reine and called the others in that garden attention to the three plants (one Crestline, two La Reine). They looked identical to us all, yet when observed by itself, it's difficult to put a name to the thing. Ironically, no one else has ever been able to state it was, or wasn't La Reine. Leonie Bell studied it and proclaimed it a "Bengal Rose". Clair Martin as never able to identify it, nor have any others who have grown and studied it. See what you think? Kim

La Reine
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Crestline Mulberry
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Comments (15)

  • Tessiess, SoCal Inland, 9b, 1272' elev
    9 years ago

    They do look alike Kim from what I see in your pictures. I grew La Reine for a number of years. I bought it from Antique Rose Emporium in the 1990s. The garden was on property I no longer own, but in the same city as where I live now. La Reine was a very healthy and floriferous rose. In this rust and mildew haven, it was completely clean. Growth habit was short (around 3 feet tall as best I recall), densely-foliaged, and in a narrow vase (pretty rigid too) shape. Color of the flowers was like in your pictures, and the flowers were very fragrant.

    If Malcolm in doing DNA testing to compare La Reine to Crestline Mulberry, I would be very interested in the results.

    Melissa

  • jannorcal
    9 years ago

    Does La Reine sucker on its own roots? Crestline sends out suckers.

  • roseseek
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Yes, both sucker own root. How far and widely they sucker depends upon the fertility and firablitiy of the soil, amount of water, level of available nutrients and climate. Eugene de Beauharnais suckers own root, also. I was able to send cuttings and own root suckers for propagation. Kim

  • fogrose
    9 years ago

    Seems to me that an awful lot of mystery roses get identified as possible La Reine's. Do I remember correctly that Gregg and Phillip identified the Eureka Lemon mystery rose in the Sacramento Cemetery (which now is also in my garden : > ) as La Reine.

    Was La Reine so widely planted in California that this could be so?

    Thanks,
    Diane

  • roseseek
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    It certainly appears so, Diane. Tillitson's and Roses of Yesterday and Today sold it. Armstrong listed it all the way through the 1970s in their catalogs. It suckers easily and grows perfectly well from rooted suckers as well as roots easily, making it a great pass-along plant. For something to be shared easily, it would have to be very easily propagated. Because California had massive wealth all through the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, obtaining anything commercially available in the country posed little problem. Often, roses were available here within a year or two of their European introductions. Money has always "talked". Kim

  • Kippy
    9 years ago

    I meant to take photos but the camera battery was dead, but my newly planted Crestline Mulberry from Kim is doing GREAT. Maybe the reason it is in so many California gardens is just that.

  • fogrose
    9 years ago

    Thanks for the explanation Kim. Much appreciated.

    Kippy, good luck with your Crestline Mulberry.

    Kim, is CM commercially available? I'd like to compare it with Eureka Lemon, although your photos don't appear to be the same as EL which is taller and nods.

    Diane

  • roseseek
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Believe it or not, Diane, Crestline Mulberry was in the first Arena catalog. Syl saw it at The Huntington, liked it and begged bud wood from Clair. Muriel Humenick was going to offer it at one time. I don't know what happened to that. Fortunately, it does sucker so it isn't difficult to spread around...once you get it in the ground. A long time friend in Torrance, in whose garden my photos were taken, has spread it around all over South Coast Rose Society because it grows with no care and no issues in that climate. One member reported she has it on a hill side which gets constant sea winds close to the beach and it flourishes. Mine is trapped in a two gallon can due to no place to actually put it IN the ground, but I was able to give Jeri and Kippy both rooted pieces I roughed out of that can. I'd had to let it go with the old garden, knowing I could get it back from Torrance, which I finally did. If I recall correctly, The Sacramento Cemetery finally has one now.

    In Torrance, both La Reine and Crestline remain around two and a half to three feet. In the old Newhall garden, where I copiously mulched with horse manure, Crestline could easily hit four feet and a bit more. Kim

  • fogrose
    9 years ago

    Thanks again Kim. Now I have a new quest. Will check with Anita Clevenger about it.

    Diane

  • roseseek
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    You're welcome Diane, good luck! Kim

  • mendocino_rose
    9 years ago

    It certainly does look like La Reine. I've begun to realize that these found names are really important too. It is meaningful to know where my La Reines come from.

  • fogrose
    9 years ago

    And some of the found roses could be superior clones of a named variety as well.

    Diane

  • roseseek
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Some of them actually appear to be, Diane. I've never had a La Reine that didn't rust and black spot badly, but Crestline remains far cleaner, far longer than the LR's I've bought. Kim

  • jerijen
    9 years ago

    I have also wondered if that might not be the case. Another example of it is, probably, my "De la Vina Mystery."

  • fogrose
    9 years ago

    My 2012 catalog of roses at the Sacramento Cemetery does not list CM in the collection so am assuming it arrived at the cemetery after 2012.

    Jeri, putting in a hint for this rose to be propagated for the annual sale.

    Diane

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