All things considered, I am inclining to think that the rose currently in commerce as the violet-rose colored 'Enchanter'/'Enchantress' is in actuality the -1837 China/Tea 'Abbé Mioland' (which was still around as such as late as 1927, and so could be a "foundling" 50 years later). The form, growth, and general behavior of the present rose is such as we might expect from a Tea or China rose of the 1830s-1840s, and is not in any way, shape, or form that of what would be accepted in 1903 as a Hybrid Tea, least of all by anyone in the florist trade.

Conard & Jones 1907 has an interesting color-description: "A splendid new Hybrid Tea, very double and delightfully perfumed; clear china rose with lavender shading. A constant bloomer; very beautiful."

Needless to say about this much-discussed rose, there are divergences between what we grow today as 'Enchanter'/'Enchantress' and the original descriptions; and there are also divergences between original descriptions, most referring to it as pink, some essentially calling it a red 'Mme. Caroline Testout', neither of which would anyone looking at the rose we grow under this name today call it. Pierson in 1911 describes it as "very free blooming and a beautifully perfumed pink forcing Rose," which certainly doesn't match today's rose sold under this name. In 1915, Pierson says of it "Pure, clear pink in color; cup-shaped in form; a very beautiful Rose. It is one of the parents of My Maryland and resembles it very much." I don't think anyone would think for a moment that today's 'Enchanter' resembles 'My Maryland' in the least in any way; and it is certainly neither clear pink nor cup-shaped. Repeating much of Dingee & Conard 1905 (and so implying that Vestal after a few years of trial agrees), Vestal 1908 tells us that "Every shoot throws a flower, and the flowers are beautifully made, of remarkable size, and in color clear bright pink, which never fades," none of which fits today's 'Enchanter'. John Cook, the breeder, himself says of the rose that it was "another shell pink rose" (Gardener's Chronicle of America, vol. 19, 1915, p. 226).

Two questions occur: (1), which has been asked before here by jedmar, what was the original provenance of today's material?; (2) given the almost unique color of what we grow today as 'Enchanter'/'Enchantress', if it is NOT that rose, then . . . what is it?--because such a color, as unusual in the past as it is now, would certainly have been noted whenever it came on the market.

My plant is still young, but my observations so far are that it doesn't bloom at its best in hot weather, but really seems happiest in the fall, when it produces lovely purplish/dark pink blooms that smell- to me- of ripe pears.

The foliage is very beautiful and dense, with an unusual blue-gray tint to its medium-green leaves.