I have found Niles Cochet, and Maman Cochet, growing in several old gardens in our old neighborhood (est 1890s). My Niles Cochet is from a cutting I got from the back garden of a cottage I know is at least 100 years old.

An aside - once I was asked by non-rose neighbors to look at something growing out of their hedge. There was a dense 3 foot tall private hedge growing up against their back fence. Sticking out of it in a couple places were about 12 inches of sad looking tops of some rose canes with little foliage. I convinced them, and helped them, to cut the hedge away and back from the rose by 6 feet, digging up the hedge roots where necessary. The base of an ancient rose was revealed - very large, with only 2 live canes coming out of the mess of dead. I cleaned it up, did some light pruning on the surviving canes, got some rose food for them and fed it, and left. Now every time I walk that way I peek at the rose to see how it is doing. 5 years later, it has grown into a 9 foot tall, 6 foot wide rose, which I am pretty sure is Maman Cochet. They have had to build it a trellis above the fence, because their other-side-of-the-fence neighbors were complaining that the rose was coming into their yard (some people DO look gift horses in the mouth!). The rose owners are now very proud of it.

Who knows how old that rose is - the house was built in the 1960s, but I am betting that the rose is much older than that, as that street has a lot of Victorian cottages on it.

Jackie

Jeri

I think of you as our local rose archaeologist.