This was first collected in Northern California by Ed Wilkinson for the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden -- and study-named "Legacy Of The Richardson Family."

We collected it several years later. It's growing into such a special rose here that I thought I'd share it. We have been told this spring that the mother plant is gone -- so we are very very glad that a handful of young plants exist here and there.

The more I observe it, the more I like it. There is a suggestion that it may be an early Climbing HT -- but whatever it is, it's disease-free here, and we know it to be a prolific bloomer.

To see a whole album of photos, see:
http://s2.photobucket.com/user/JeriJennings/library/Legacy Of The Richardson Family

Thank you for sharing …

Tricia

It is a wonderful rose. YES! It is very much remontant -- but as strange as it may seem, I love its foliage almost as much as I love its blooms.

We have in mind a really special location for it.

This rose looks very much like an unidentified white climber that I found at a plant nursery in the Miami area. The owner said that he didn't know the name of the rose, and that it had been "grown in the area for 100 years."

Does it bloom in clusters? Mine has a pink blush in the middle, just like the one in your picture, and shiny foliage as well.

How would you describe the scent?

I'll take a closer look at mine tomorrow when the sun is out!

Diane

Those reddish buds and pinkish flowers put me in mind of 'Louise D'Arzens' a bit...

As to the Florida rose, your description sounds very much like the one that an eBay seller calls "Prom Queen". If so, I have it. It's in a pot, haven't made space to put it into the ground yet.

Things that make you go: "Hmmmmmmmmmmm . . . "

This Richardson rose has almost never shown yellow tones, but does have some pink-ish tones, in cool weather. Elsewise, it is icy-white.

But speaking of foliage, do you think the leaves look similar? There was a pretty good leafage photo at HMF, but I'm not sure if it was a good match for your plant?

I think they are both gorgeous roses, but certainly can't say if they might be the same...

I'm linking to another page of LD'A photos, by way of further comparison...

Once the flowers open up, they do look like 'Richardson' to me, but that round shape on new flowers is what I didn't see on 'Richardson', and would have expected to see photos of had it been similar...

I'm not a rosarian, by any stretch of the imagination, but the buds and flowers don't look "completely different" (or completely identical, either) to my eye.

Also, the 'LD'A' leaves (per that one good photo at HMF) don't quite look like what I could see of the 'Richardson' leaves, and then again, somebody rated 'LD'A' as having 'Excellent' fragrance, while none of you seems to have noticed the fragrance.

Nothing much dispositive one way or another, but I still see enough similarity to wonder if these roses are related, perhaps by way of 'Mlle Blanche Lafitte', or 'La Biche'?

What is your thinking about who 'Richardson' does resemble?

Obviously, the resemblance I think I see is mostly coloration, but also shape, but I don't know what clues to look for to give me an idea of a rose's age.

So I'm wondering what you see that tells you this might be an early hybrid tea? I'm not trying to hijack the thread, but a few words (or a link) about what to look for might interest other readers besides me?

Thanks,
Virginia

I'm with Kim. I can't point you toward an individual rose that I think Richardson resembles -- but I get the same overall "character" from it that I see in something like 'Lady Mary Fitzwilliam.' IOW, early Hybrid Tea -- from the time period when there was still a good deal of Tea character in the HTs.

And that makes sense.

The twin graves this rose guarded were from 1896 and 1945. Father and son. (The father having died in 1896, at age 32, when Albert, the son was just 2 years old.)

There is a grave also for Myrtle Richardson, b. 1900, d. 1958. I'm thinking that Myrtle may have been Albert's wife, and that she may have planted the rose for her late husband and his father.

I hate to ask, but did anyone plant a rose on Myrtle Richardson's grave? I rather hope so...

As for dating rose varieties, what I'm getting from your response is that a lot of it is intuition backed by experience with different types of roses? If so, that's fair enough, but it sure would be helpful if there were some tell-tale signs that were reasonably reliable age indicators...

Thanks for your response,
Virginia

Richardson's plant parts are more "polished", "refined" than those of most Teas, Noisettes, etc which preceded them. It just has a more "modern" impression to it than anything older which has been suggested. Kim

When I was doing motorsports photography, a Sports Illustrated photographer asked me how I knew a boat was going to crash, allowing me to start shooting a split second before it lifted. I couldn't give him an answer. It was probably a combination of visual clues, and a change in the sound . . .

In the same vein, I can't explain why I can be pretty sure a rose is really an old one . . . As opposed to a 'Gertrude Jekyll' we found growing by a 19th-Century church -- which just screamed "Austin."

That's not a very good explanation, is it?

And let me tell you -- Kim is MUCH BETTER at it than I am.

And, jerijen, I hope you enjoy your fog- that sounds delightful to those of us experiencing muggy, buggy weather...