| Here's one for you folks to think about - an unidentified large red rose that has been in my parents' garden since before they owned the house. The previous owners must have planted it, but they never said what it was.
Here are some key traits of this mystery rose.
1) It is over 30 years old since my parents bought the house in the late 1970's. Since they didn't have a lot of free time after moving in, the rose was probably not newly planted even then. The house dates back to the mid 1960's, so it's possible the rose goes back that far as well.
2) It produces medium-sized red flowers with many petals - it doesn't really look like a hybrid tea to me, but I'm no rose expert. Flowers appear regularly throughout the growing season, often in clumps of about 5 from the same stalk.
3) The rose is incredibly tough. It grows near the overhang of the house (where water has trouble reaching) in full sun, and it thrives on neglect. Hybrid tea roses (Tropicanas - blackspot magnets) were planted in a bed near it, and over the span of a decade or more, they all died despite receiving a lot more care than this old fella. It does get some blackspot, but it just keeps on growing.
4) It is huge. At full-size, I have seen the flowers atop sturdy canes stretch up to the second story window above it.
I'd love to know what this rose is since I like roses, and though the unaffordable housing in the area gets in the way of me having a rose garden, a durable red-flowered monster like this fellow would be nice to have.
I've attached a late season photo of the flowers on this rose. Any help ID'ing it would be appreciated.
| 
