2018- the year of fungal diseases

This year I have black spot and mildew all over the roses. I'm not sure if it is a combination of the cold and wet spring, or other factors.

Black spot on the yellow leaves

White powdery mildew on bud

First blooms

It was so wet this spring that the prior buds rotted.  The weather has dried up a little, and warmed up some. I have blooms now. The first couple of blooms are misformed, but they will become normal later.
This rose was sold to me as Old Blush, which is one of the "stud" Chinas. It is usually the first rose to bloom for me in the spring.

Sorocco House Lavender

A rose that came from the Sacramento City Cemetery Open Garden rose sale. Believed to be similar to Madame Lambard (Lombard), a tea rose from 1877/78. It started the summer in my yard last year slowly, but picked up steam and quickly grew to be the second biggest bush of the roses I brought back from Sacramento.
The color changes quite a bit, and could easily be mistaken for more than one rose.

Another stroll through the Sacramento City Cemetery

I said that there would be more coming from the Sacramento City Cemetery Open Garden. Spring is taking so long to get here that I thought I would show this. 

Rosa indica major into the tree

Fortunes Double Yellow

Cuttings

Roses have been passed along from cuttings and suckers. When making cuttings, please make sure that the roses are not patented. Most patents last for 20 years, so if the rose is more than 20 years old, then it is likely to not have a patent.

Here is how I take stick cuttings.

 Start with cuttings, usually 4 to 6 inches long.

 Strip the leaves off of the base of the cutting. Dip in rooting hormone.

Put soil in a pot and stick the cutting in the pot. Cover the cuttings with some type of plastic to keep the moisture in. 

Like a mystery?

Old Garden Roses are full of them. Mostly based off  history and speculation. Granted Modern Roses date back to 1867. However Old Garden Roses' classes are older than that. And it was the old garden roses that plant explorers were paid to collect from China and other countries.
Having read lots of descriptions of roses dating earlier than 1867, a lot of roses fit in one description. Also there were multiple roses given the same name. And the same rose was often given multiple names.
Another factor in the history and speculation is names of roses were sometimes changed when the roses were introduced into other countries.
A couple of roses that could be speculated about are Bon Silene and Mme. Berkeley.
First the easier of the two, Mme Berkeley. Older descriptions of this rose states that it bears hips. Apparently in the 1970s a person found a rose that they believed to be Mme. Berkeley. Old roses faded out of popularity and many were lost. The rose was introduced back into the market as Mme. Berkeley. But alas, it doesn't have hips, so it is not the same as the original. Where did the original go, and who took it's place.
Now onto Bon Silene. Past descriptions for it describe it "seeding freely." Yet when I asked breeders now, they said that they don't get seeds. What happened? There is a recent rose that came from Bon Silene as the seed parent. Are there more than one rose that goes by the name of Bon Silene?

Bon Silene or something else?

So, if you like mysteries, history, and speculation, Old Garden Roses are the way to go.