The fact that I don't know much about roses in general, less about old roses, and can't tell a rose in the fall from a blackberry bush, doesn't inhibit me at all from writing about the October Gold Coast Heritage Roses Group rose rustling trip.

When my partner, Pamela Stones, and I got back from the trip, we logged onto GardenWeb Antique Roses Forum. Comments and questions about our jaunt were already posted with poignant pleadings, "We want to hear stories!" So I'll try to tell some stories.

I'll use the convention of double quotation marks for lost roses with new study names; single quotes for known roses, secure in their parentage and heritage.

The term "rose rustle" originated with Texans, who scoured highway, byway, homesteads and especially old cemeteries, looking for old roses. Many lost roses were collected, propagated, and whenever possible, given their original names back. Unidentified roses got study names and an air of mystery. For a good overview of this topic (and a terrific read,) I cannot recommend too highly In Search of Lost Roses, by Thomas Christopher. Lots of stories and a good overview of the Gold Country.

Jeri and Clay Jennings of Camarillo organized this outing after an earlier trip last spring. With 400ish old garden roses and a quarterly newsletter for their "Gold Coast Heritage Rose Group," these two can be taken seriously. The Dalmatian on the dashboard of their motorhome I take less seriously.

Clay and Jeri recently spoke at a Santa Clarita Valley Rose Society meeting, and have been involved in the restoration of roses at Rancho Camulos near Santa Paula. We first met them at the Heritage Rose Foundation Conference in El Cerrito last May, and their élan and enthusiasm were contagious. Besides, though both are consulting rosarians, Clay gets to walk the Dalmatians, which is my job in our family.

When Jeri announced the trip we really wanted to go. I've always been a California history buff but somehow have never been to the Mother Lode Country. Throw in sixty plus wineries in Amador County, wonderful scenery, and a bunch of people way smarter than me about roses and I'm packing the clippers and name tags.

As enticing as anything was the prospect of seeing lost roses. Gold was discovered in 1848. Statehood came in 1850 and Nevada City with 6000 inhabitants was soon the third largest city in the state. Eastern nurseries were supplying Sacramento area nurseries with recently arrived European rose stock and other ornamental plants. Poor record keeping back East and a couple of Katrina-esque floods in Sacramento (perched precariously at the confluence of two rivers), the chaos of the Gold Rush with lots of people moving in, out, and dying, and you have enough vagaries to drive a horticulture historian crazy, and an old rose aficionado into ecstasy.

Pamela and I had made the long drive from Lancaster early enough Thursday, October 27, to get to explore a little of Auburn, Grass Valley, and Nevada City. These three towns were once at the epicenter of the Gold Rush. Now they survive on the tourist trade and as bedroom communities for Sacramento.

Our group gathered Friday morning in North San Juan, one of many towns of that area with more history than a future. With the group convened in a relentless drizzle, we walked to and through the small Catholic cemetery. Only one full bloom on an Autumn Damask, but a number of newer Hybrid Teas had bounced back with recent rain. On the way back we passed an old home with a 'Fortune's Double Yellow' the size of a Sherman tank. Across the road from it, a knock on a dilapidated cabin door and a rationale for our existence got us cuttings from a number of unknown fence roses. The occupant wanted something in trade, and I hope a sprig of 'Autumn Damask' grows well for him.

 

The Protestant cemetery half a mile south was much larger. Many more roses were seen around the gravesites. The nearly thornless 'Mme. Plantier,' a Hybrid Alba; R. odorata, which was frequently used as rootstock; and 'Hermosa,' a Hybrid China, all had their proper names. A number of others are still mysteries. Here was the first of many times during the trip that a blossom-less bedraggled rose was meticulously inspected for characteristics, getting more attention than it had in the previous hundred years.

Jill Perry, Curator at the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden, was busy working her way through a list of foundlings, lost from the collection, which she wanted to replace. Karen T.S. Gubert, Pamela and I, all rookies, found ourselves trying to learn family characteristics, while snipping our way to our own heritage rose gardens.

After this cemetery, the group had free time before a drive south to Grass Valley. Some went to North Bloomfield and Malakoff Diggins, home of "Raspberry Ripple," a well known found rambler.

Pamela and I headed down to Nevada City to St. Canice's Catholic cemetery (Canice is Gaelic for "Kenneth.") and had trouble getting any farther along than identifying some roses as modern Hybrid Teas. Where were the experts when we needed them? At the Chamber of Commerce we found a detailed pamphlet on Nevada County area cemeteries that included some of the cemeteries the gang had visited. When we got back together again, everyone looked at the list of cemeteries with one idea in mind: let's see if there are more lost roses to find.

Group member Sherri Berglund, whose B & B Nursery in Willows specializes in old and found roses, has a mother-in-law who lives in the Grass Valley area. She arranged lunch for us at the Empire Mine State Park with the rose garden volunteer staff. The Bourne family, once owners of this prosperous gold mine, had built a large "cottage," clubhouse and extensive gardens there as a summer respite from their permanent home near San Jose. The mine was sold in 1930. It closed in 1956, and was bought by the state in 1975.

Lunch in the old clubhouse was a delight. Delicious food and a chance to visit with fellow rose lovers on the volunteer staff. One woman at our table ran a small winery with her husband. Something else for the next trip.

For the last twenty five years Angie Slicker has headed the volunteer effort to restore the gardens at the mine, especially the roses, to something approximating their previous splendor. Angie and crew saved what they could and replaced the rest with pre- 1930 roses. The gardens are beautiful again and our group was particularly intrigued by a number of the original roses long removed from their names and background. We were escorted proudly around the grounds, enjoying Gallicas, Albas, Teas, Bourbons, Noisettes and more, thriving again. They even have a map of where all of the roses in the gardens are located. The volunteers propagate their own roses and have many for sale. Pamela and I took home 'Gruss an Cobern,' a fragrant apricot blend Tea we had seen in the garden.

Placerville, once named Hangtown, was our final destination Friday. No one had any rose-related side trips, but it was a picture postcard drive winding through the foothills. We arrived after dark, enough rose clippings to fill a bucket. At this rate, we wondered, where would we put the luggage?

Saturday morning was bright and freshly scrubbed after the rain. We regrouped outside the Placerville cemetery with its 8000 permanent residents. Barb Oliva, involved in the restoration of the old Sacramento City Cemetery, had driven up to join us. Our cemetery has been well-explored before and many in the group ran around greeting roses like long lost friends. 'Talisman,' 'Red Talisman,' 'Rosa Canina,' and 'Cecile Brunner' were among the known roses. Pamela happened upon "Meyers Yellow Hybrid Tea," a Pernetiana family member remarkably deep yellow for its day. "Placerville White Noisette," a peach-white Noisette found some time ago by Phillip Robinson of Vintage Gardens, (and sometimes called "Jacob Zeisz") and a lovely old red Hybrid Tea near John S. Bernardi, Jr.'s grave were just some of the old roses with just their study names. Jeri found a rose in this cemetery a number of years ago, grew it, named it, tongue in cheek, after a southern California rose judge, and got an exhibition blue ribbon for it.

A reporter and photographer from the Sacramento Bee newspaper were nearly arrested, climbing over the cemetery fence, having arranged to come and see what we were up to. The cemetery was supposed to be closed in anticipation of possible Halloween vandalism and, though permission to visit had been arranged, we were still eyed suspiciously. Busted for rose rustling; I can see the police blotter now.

Our next stop was El Dorado, where we visited one of the two cemeteries in town. Though it was not large, many older plots had roses. 'Autumn Damask' was there as was a yellow Tea-Noisette that might be 'Chromatella' and goes by the study name, "Legacy of Dr. M.D. Hinman." A number of other unknowns have found their way back to propagation and can be found on the website HelpMeFind. A beautiful peach Tea on the Sandeford plot will be well loved if Pamela and I can get it to grow for us.

Continuing south on Highway 49 we rendezvoused with Bev Vierra and Lynne Storm in Mokelumne Hill. We drove right through wine country and not a drop to drink. Bev, Lynne, and Judy Dean had worked on a "key" to roses: Field Report of Rose Characteristics, to methodically sort out unknown roses. We saw it in use in a hands-on demonstration at the May, 2005, Heritage Rose Conference. This time out, though, they were going to show us the late 1800's Moser House.

No one was at home at the Moser House, and, though Clay rapidly befriended the resident dog, we stayed outside speculating on a number of roses close to the fence. Of particular interest was a look-alike for the popular, reintroduced, "Secret Garden Musk Climber." This rose had been salvaged from a homestead that disappeared within two years of discovery when the old owner died and the property was cleared for new homes. It also grows at Descanso where it is devouring an arbor and smells intensely of clove.

Rose rustling is not a contact sport as yet, but I enjoyed the spirited discussion about why this could or could not be the same rose. Lynne even had a book of pressed rose parts for referencing the fine points.

Final Verdict: not "Secret Garden Musk Climber," but probably closely related.

Somehow Sherri and Bev had each gotten the idea that the other needed "Raspberry Ripple", a found rambler from North Bloomfield, and had brought each other cuttings they'd grown. Bev sent me home with hers. Sherri, on the other hand, had 'Cee Dee Moss' for Pamela, the pink and white striped Ralph Moore Moss . Pamela had ordered it up for me Christmas last year, but Sherri had felt it needed more time to grow. I was happy to finally get it, not that we had much room left in the car.

The group was staying predominantly in Angels Camp for the night but some members had to check out some other roses on the way down from Mokelumne Hill. I'm sorry that Pamela and I did not explore a little more, passing up seeing "Center Street Tea" but I know several nurseries have it. (Coincidentally, this is not the rose of the same name from Healdsburg, just to add to the confusion.)

Next, and the final stop of the day was Murphys, a town a few miles east of Angels Camp. The Buena Vista cemetery here was large, cleared of brush and debris, inclusive in its religious denominations and fraternal organizations, and chock full of interesting roses. Jill was working through her list and I kept hoping for 'White Pearl in Red Dragon's Mouth,' an old China whose name aptly describes the white center to a surrounding red double blossom. This rose has been found in Petaluma and may be my favorite rose name (though a Tea, 'Tipsy Imperial Concubine,' is a close second).

We finished our exploring, and a contingent was going to try and find a watering hole after a hard day of rustling. Pamela and I hated to decline but wanted to get back to Angels Camp, eat, and get an early start Sunday morning back to Lancaster. We said good-bye to our compatriots, and pledged we'd meet in Downieville in the spring for another planned rustle. We found a small family-run restaurant and finally got to sample some of the local wine. A fitting end for us to a memorable trip.

Apparently the Altaville cemetery tour Sunday with Bev and Lynne was terrific. Bev and Lynn, as part of their Master Gardener "thesis," had gone through the Catholic and Protestant cemeteries there cataloguing, and, when possible, naming roses and their plot locations. We were sorry to miss Sunday but know we can go back and find our way with the explicit directions they've written.

Since I've been home, I've been tracking down Gold Country cemeteries hoping to find that someone has already compiled the definitive list. I did find a whole book on the Jewish cemeteries of this area. County historical societies and genealogy web sites have proven helpful for my project. New cemeteries mean the possibility of new foundling roses.

A couple from Yuba City recently told me, "Come up and visit. We were raised there and know all kinds of little abandoned cemeteries." The pulse quickens and the quest continues. I met another woman online who recently rehabilitated a cemetery near the town of Volcano in Amador County. I explained my interests and she replied, "Then you'd probably want to see this homestead near me. Big old roses and the older owner told me his mother traded her freshly baked bread with the Indians there when he was a little boy'.

We got home Sunday afternoon and filled four plastic storage containers now reborn as miniature greenhouses with prepared cuttings. If even half come up I'm giving up my day job and starting a nursery! As alluded to, the HelpMeFind website link has a "Found Rose" class, presently listing 399 lost roses "registered" with them.

Those I've mentioned and more with photos and descriptions may be of interest. To contact Jeri and Clay and Gold Coast Heritage Rose Group, start with heritageroses - at - gmail.com and http://www.goldcoastrose.org. They helped with some clarifying information on this article, but errors are attributable only to me. Sherri Berglund's nursery can be accessed at their website - www.bandbnursery.com.

If anyone has questions about our trip, please contact me. I'll be happy to keep right on talking about it. I'm living proof you don't need to know very much about roses to enjoy them thoroughly. John Birsner jbirsner - at - aol.com