(1976)  Page(s) 45-46.  Includes photo(s).
 
"The Romance of the Oregon Mission Rose" by Lewis Judson. Includes picture of the author with some information about his other publications.

This brief article tells how the plant which became known as The Mission Rose arrived in Oregon as a possession of Mrs. Alanson Beers in May 1837. She was part of a reinforcement group for the Oregon Methodist Mission. On July 16, 1837 a double wedding was performed in a grove near the Mission, with Daniel Lee officiating at the wedding of his cousin Jason Lee to Anna Maria Pittman. Jason Lee then officiated at the wedding of Cyrus Shepard to Susan Downing. These were the first all-white weddings in that county.

Mrs. Beers had brought a present for the Shepards, and felt bad that she did not have a gift for the Jason Lees, so she gave her rose plant to the new couple. Passing on a slip of the rose became a tradition in weddings performed at the mission.

The individual plant that Judson wrote about had survived in the same location for 99 years as of 1973. It had been given no care except for occasional dustings of wood ashes and removal of dead growth.

Judson writes, "the whole bush is only slightly over two feet across these many years later."

"The blossoms are multi-petaled pink, slightly over two inches in diameter, and continue to bloom into the late fall if given an occasional watering. It is decidedly not a cutting flower to be compared to the present day hybrids with their great shining blossoms of various colors and shades, but it does possess a quiet charm of its own." (p. 46)