Here are the blooms of my mystery rose. I have waited for them patiently, or not so patiently, haha.

I have posted a few times before, but nothing is ever really panning out as a good identification. I am agreeing with those of you who suggested it is a kordesii. It seems to fit, with the time frame, it's habit/size, etc. But more than that, I am not sure. I am curious also as to if it is a polyantha/floribunda. I am very new to roses, and gardening all around, so I apologize if I sound dumb. Thanks everyone, so much, for your help.

Anyway, my rose, it was a Mother's Day gift to my great great grandmother sometime between 1960 and 1980, most likely in the 1970s. The house passed hands to non-family, but coincidentally my husband and I bought the house, unaware my great great grandmother had ever lived here. The man we bought the house from said it was here and well-established when he bought the place, but that it never put out much blooms for him but was healthy and grew well regardless. The house was owned before that by a few of my great uncles and I really doubt any of them put any effort into caring for her. Considering I found a couple cigarette butts around in her dirt last week when I was checking the bud union/graft site, I am sure they treated her pretty badly.

The first year we owned the house, my mother-in-law came by and pruned her very aggressively, maybe to 12 inches, b/c it was full on the inside with thin (like half pencil thickness) bloomless branches and obviously had poor circulation. It put out a few blooms then and responded well to the pruning and grew a good foot plus and made very thick, sturdy canes. I did not notice any hips, but I was dead-heading it, so it may not have had the chance.

The next year, last year, I pruned it every other week, trying to train it wider, hoping to get even more circulation and hopefully get more of it in the sun. It made many more blooms, and continued to branch out well. In the winter, again I noticed no hips. I have maybe seen a few small, marble-sized green ones but at the time I had no idea what I would looking for. basically, the petals were all gone, but it seemed like the stamens were left behind, on a small green bulb-shaped ball. Again, I dead-headed them, thinking weather of insect activity had removed the petals. So again, I am still not sure it makes hips.

I did not defoliate, being a newbie and not knowing to. Now that I know, I definitely should have, considering the very mild winter and on-again-off-again spring we had. We had one frost, early January, and by then, it was already leafing out new leaves, but the frost sort of stalled her out for the next month or two. She really picked up late March and finally by late April had her blooms finally open.

They vary from 8-14 petals, most often 10, and usually with 1-4 tiny deformed looking petals around the stamen which I am assuming are "petaloids." It has a classic rose scent, the kind you always smell with soaps and stuff, but at times it reminds me of spice or tea. It's color is hard to capture on my camera, but it's a deep magenta. The blooms getting the most sun are very bright magenta/dark hot pink while the blooms more in the shade are a bit more purple. It ages quickly, 2-3 days, and often has shattered or lost some petals in that time. They age to purple, starting on the outside, working it's way in. The stamens are yellow and there is a slight, barely noticable white center, and sometimes the white rays outward up the petals, sort of a shading effect. The underside of the petals is matte and silvery pink, a few shades lighter than the top color, but still a "hot pink" sort of pink. The petals are diveted in the center, like a slight heart-shape. The outermost petals open up all the way and turn backwards, while the inner petals stay slightly cupped. The stamens are very visible. The blooms tend to be in clusters of three, sometimes more. Around the middle or lower part of the bush, there tends to be single blooms. As the summer goes own, there seems to be more and more blooms per cluster. I have a picture from last August with what appears to be 16 buds. But I didn't know to check then, so I can't be sure til this fall and I will check again. It has trouble putting them all out at once, I am assuming from being in part-shade.

As for the plant itself, it's extremely harder and I've never noticed a disease or condition and I've checked every branch and leaf twice this month. Spider mites do like it, but I've treated it and they are gone. It's in a part-shade area that often is moist, so I doubt it's suspectible to mildew or the like. The largest, oldest canes are fairly thorny, large, very stiff (and ouchy!) thorns. The new growth is somewhat thorny, but not very much at all compared to the older canes. The newest growth, closest to the blooms, tend to not be thorny at all but look sort of hairy, but that is only just under the blooms.

New growth always has a reddish purple or pink cast to it, even the thorns. The base of the bush is very sturdy and branchy but around 3 feet, it usually sends off very pliable, non-branching limbs, so I think it wants to climb after that. It blooms pretty much all the time, but it may be more in small flushes, and it blooms from about mid April til mid October, as long as the temperature is willing.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pictures of my Great Great Grandmother's Rose