Is This Really Papa Meilland?

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This is the rose I bought at B with a PM label. I was a bit skeptical when the blooms first opened, because the petals looked a bit stripy or at least blotted with back red (not easily captured in photos) and as it opened more, the form was definitely not high centered. The early blooms are a bit oval, like a Tulip.

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Whilst I’m getting a nice medium fragrance, it’s not that exceptional Top 10 ARS material I expected.

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It smells a bit like my great-grandfather’s cigar boxes; don’t know, if it was the cigars or the wood, which gave off that distinctive scent, but have detected it before on Julia’s Rose, except it was very faint there. When the fragrance first warms up early in the mornings it gives off also a little rose and some nice higher notes, especially as the bloom opens more, but it’s a bit flat and mostly cigar box at other times.

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ok ..this is a PM...as you will see , the petal count is less than yours and the petals are more velvety

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and this is a blown one...

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A blown one …?

at the end of its life before the petals fall off

IMO. it is not 'Papa', what it is might take time. Another thought would be send a compelation of the blooms to the supplier and just ask if they could ID it.

The petals look similar to my Black velvet, but not the entire flower. Definitely not PM.

This is my PM bud (Excuse Dexter in the background he loves to garden with me lol)

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David, it came from BigW and I didn’t take note of the bag it came in. Other red HTs that were offered there (from memory) include: Red Devil, Mr.L, Avon, Camp David, Kardinal, and Baronne EDR, all high centered forms, and I don’t remember seeing any cupped reds, except floribundas or some orange-reds.
Mine is definitely cupped and very full with a strong deep red that has not faded or changed in the sun (yet); I fiddled with the colours a bit to show the black stripe-like blotches, which are quite prominent earlier on (may help ID), but seem to dissolve over time. It’s a very stunning rose, even James thinks so, and I’m so happy with it.

Teesh, you’re right, just had a look at more photos of BV on HMF and there is one showing a just opening flower, which looks exactly like mine, Tulip like. But other photos indicate it’s not it. There are definitely a couple of misfiled photos in that section, with some showing high centered Tea- and others cupped forms and some showing bloom clusters vs. single flowers. Looks like lots of people are confused about their reds. At least I know mine is not ML or BV.
Dexter looks very happy there among the roses, what a cutie.

He loves gardening with me, I think he thinks he's helping by getting caught in the rose thorns lol. He is so patient and just sits next to where I am standing and watches intently.
Good luck with your red rose. Could it be any of these?
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Ps. Not sure if I can put this link up so please feel free to delete admin

Wow, thanks Teesh, what a great idea!
I think it may be a Sir Donald Bradman; maybe someone here can correct me, if I’m wrong.

Apart from the black, it looks very similar!

The black was very difficult to capture in a photo; that’s why the leaves are so crazy green – I had to fiddle with the temperature to make the spots visible.
I thought they were quite unique and would help people recognize this rose, if they owned one.

I wonder if the black is part of the rose or from the fertiliser too.

LOL

Who knows?

check for spider mites....they can cause this problems.....

Do you mean dark/black red markings in the petals?

Similar to these...

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Oh, that looks awful, I’ll surely keep an eye open for those, but the buds and flowers on my (possibly) Sir Donald Bradman are in perfect health. The darker areas may not be featured in other photos of this rose, because they don’t show up in them, despite being quite prominent in real life, especially early on.