I love species roses! My local botanic garden, Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont has a really nice collection of California native species roses collected from around the state (and even more in their seed collection). RSABG has R. californica growing on the grounds from Colusa, Santa Barbara, San Diego, and Siskiyou (this plant is spineless), etc. counties, sometimes multiple selections from these counties. I have pics of some of them, but they are not all together in a rose garden per se, but scattered around the garden in the plant communities in which they would be found naturally. This makes it really fun and interesting to see how they grow and what they like. They are not all identical. I have 3 that I have purchased from RSABG: R. californica 'Los Berros' (a selection by David Fross of Native Sons Nursery in Arroyo Grande, California and named for the road, Los Berros, it was found on--Los Berros has larger and darker flowers and larger and thicker leaves than is typical of the species), R. californica 'First Dawn' (a selection from Suncrest Nurseries, California, FD has very pale pink, small cupped flowers and blooms in huge sprays, few thorns), and R. californica grown by RSABG (this is a newly-arrived plant in a 1 gallon pot that I bought at their spring nursery 50% off sale, it has just produced its first flower for me which was a light to medium pink). All 3 are extremely fragrant. Los Berros has particularly "plushy" feeling leaves. It is also very, very thorny whereas First Dawn has few thorns. The latest arrival has almost no thorns. Unfortunately the label on the pot doesn't identify from which county this plant originated. RSABG does have R. nutkana in its plant communities. I have pictures of their R. nutkana from Sonoma county, both this year and last (I'm pretty sure I took some of its hips), but I don't have any pics (easily remedied!) of their R. nutkana var. muriculata from Del Norte county. They also have R. pinetorum and R. gymnocarpa (I just recently took photos of this one in bloom during a neat spring walking tour led by one of the RSABG volunteers). My hard drive now has, I'm afraid to say, easily hundreds of photos taken at RSABG.;) Maybe now is a good time to try out the new photo posting utility for this forum. It always seems to take me forever to get things posted first on Flickr. Hopefully I can get some photos uploaded for you to see and maybe they will be helpful. Below is R. nutkana from Sonoma county.

see here - it's a wild rose, I do not grow it, always pull it out if it sprouts up. Pretty sure it's the 1st rose that was affected by Rose Rosette. see here If you click on photos at helpmefind, you will see a few photos by me where it was growing wild by my old house. It's huge if left to ramble, crossing streets by growing on the telephone pole wires; growing up tall trees. Very pretty site though. History of Rose Rosette Disease Symptoms that were undoubtedly due to rose rosette disease were described in the United States as early as 1941. Spread of the disease in the United States was intimately tied to the history of the multiflora rose, an exotic plant that was introduced from Japan in 1866 as a rootstock for ornamental roses. During the 1930's through 1960's, planting multiflora rose was recommended for erosion control, as a bird sanctuary and food source, as a living fence for cattle, for strip mine reclamation, and as a crash barrier on highways. This recommendation ultimately backfired. Multiflora rose can produce a million or more seeds per plant and can propagate itself vegetatively as well. It quickly spread and is now declared a noxious weed in several states. Multiflora rose is highly susceptible to rose rosette disease, so much so that the disease was initially considered a potential biological control for multiflora rose. Even now, some people suggest introducing infected plants into areas with multiflora rose to control this weed. Most rose growers, however, are very wary of this recommendation because rose rosette disease can spread quickly from multiflora rose to cultivated roses.

I've rooted hundreds of roses over the years, but not truly wild roses. Those can be particularly difficult. But I have grown them from seed. The rose I see most commonly near the roadsides here near Denver is rosa Arkansana. About ten years ago I grew about a hundred from seed and then planted them on a slope. They've totally taken over the slope now. The easiest way I can think of to propagate a wild rose is to dig up a sucker.

Simone Witham, they won't necessarily start germinating in the fridge after 3 mos. They *can* but they don't necessarily... If they've been moist the whole time, and they aren't rotten, then you might sow them in Jiffy strips or small containers with seed starting mix and, in my experience, keep them moist at about room temperature (high 60s). They can also be left to germinate in the fridge. While I haven't done it in paper towels, I have gotten great germination in the fridge in seed starting mix by just waiting a while. It's never been a problem to wait too long either. They've been just fine even after they're an inch or two long.