Serratipetala NOT

Every year without fail, and late in the season, my "Serratipetala NOT" does something really odd. It suddenly sends out big, double, dark red blooms. At first I only see a couple, then three or four, until eventually the whole bush is covered in very dark red, fully double blooms. Yet for the first part of the season it only gets lots of tiny, pale red and single blooms, which are a bit lopsided or "mutated" in appearance.

I have always known that it is not the true Serratipetala, but an imposter. The fact that the flowers change form as the season progresses has lead me to dub it "The China Changeling".  

Here is a photo of the big, double blooms it gets from late season through winter.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Hello, Ian, have you any thoughts of what class the "bush" might live in. Where did you buy it from or is it a cutting ?

It is definitely a China rose, no question about that.

I recall someone from this forum sent it to me a long time ago and they got it from a nursery. But I can't recall who or the name of the nursery.

It is cutting grown, not that this makes any difference. It is clearly a seedling of a China rose and is showing reversion (or should that be "progression") towards something in its past genetic make-up. I had at one time wondered if the branches getting the reversion could be propagated and produce plants with double flowers. But they always turn out being the same. They start off with the tiny, single flowers for half the season, then suddenly change to getting big, double blooms late in the season. This change is evidently a part of its genetics and is perhaps triggered by changes in temperature or day length. I have noticed that the double blooms are more likely to occur following frosts.

I guess Ian, memory is not helping how long ago it might have been since you received it from a member ?

Weird. We grow Serratipetala because Lee likes to put the carnation like flowers into flower arrangements.

I'm not a real fan of the rose. Our's suffer from mildew and don't really flower all that much.

I made a small mistake when I said the flowers start out single. They are actually double or partly doubled, just so small and crinkled that they look single.

My memory is not bad, it's just that my brain gets flooded with too much plant information and over time gets overloaded.  
I know it originally came from a bloke who ran a large nursery down south and he gave it to a forum member who sent a cutting to me.

Balinbear, you may have been the member who sent me the Serratipetala?

Would you have a photo of your Serratipetala?

Interestingly, Peter Beale's Classic Roses website shows a photo of a Serratipetala with large, fully double red blooms, just like the ones mine gets late in the season. So maybe it is Serratipetala afterall.

how far south Ian, are we talking Victoria, if so it could be one of two I think.

Ian

May have been me. I remember sending you a rooted Comtesse de Labarthe plus some others so it may well have been me.

Ours never have anything but the small red carnation like flowers. I do remember Margaret Furness commenting to me when she visited that she heard that the Serratipetala being sold in Australia may not be the correct rose. The one in the Remark Heritage Rose Collection is listed as possibly not being the correct rose.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Hi,  
This is a pic of my Serratipetala, It has been planted less than a year, and from only a couple of buds has grown very strongly, the scent is beautiful reminds me of fairy floss