'Ruby Voodoo' is a rose I bred in Denver in July 1998. The Mom was the Hybrid Perpetual 'General Jacqueminot' from 1853 in my front yard, the pollen was from the Hybrid Tea 'Stephen's Big Purple' from the Cranford Rose Garden in Brooklyn when author Stephen Scanniello hosted me. The rose was chosen for commerce by the Colorado Plant Select Committee and is available retail, own root, from nurseries in Colorado and a few adjoining states. In Colorado it is incredibly cold hardy with no protection each winter. I love the Victorian look of each bloom, and the fragrance is a potent "Old Rose". I get a small royalty for each plant sold. High Country Roses in Denver sells it mail order and mailed me recently one for free to test here in Florida. One leaf was damaged by shipping but it already is growing well in an 18 gallon Water Wise Container Garden, lots of new growth. I'd be amazed if it grows well here since it so loves Colorado! Pics of the blooms were taken by people in Colorado...it'd be nice to see and smell the blooms again. I love the parentage!

This was suggested to me as a likely candidate for the true ID of "Shirley's Pink".....I am inclined to agree!

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.25259&tab=36&qn=2&qc=0

The original "Fairmount Proserpine" in Denver's Fairmount Cemetery.

Just before sundown I took pics of the Mystery Rose I bought YEARS ago in Thonotossassa, before I knew this house existed, while here from Denver landscaping for my customers. LONG story so I'll just say it grew in Denver, then Tampa, then gave it to my neighbor Shirley one winter when I stayed here a few months. No thorns on new growth, BARELY blooms here, and just in spring but the fragrance is simply incredible. I also took 4 cuttings and stuck them at sundown in a pot. My best guess all these years has been 'Reine des Violettes'.....study name is "Shirley's Pink". In JUST the right conditions in Denver, 'Reine des Violettes' can be amazingly purple, but is usually a shade of pink. This own root one has been in Tampa for 15 years. I gave Shirley a gallon of an awesome organic feeding solution, and after she waters it a second time I will give it a deep mulch for better health and to see if it can bloom more often.

My favorite rose breeder hands down, Warren Millington whose breadth and imagination are vast! Check out the pics of his MANY hybrids!

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=7.19509&tab=21

New blooms on "Secret Garden Musk Climber".....unbelievable cinnamon oil perfume!

LONG story...in 1995, three years before I bought my Tampa house, I was here from Denver in a rental car to service my landscape customers. I was told to visit a very old rosarian woman in Thonotossassa, I bought this rose from her potted collection and took it to Denver. Most of her roses came from northern Georgia. It was in Denver under glass in a pot, then in a Lutz garden north of Tampa, then I gave it to my neighbor Shirley here around 2000. Each spring she brings me one of the VERY few rose blooms, each with a fragrance that is simply incredible...it blooms just once a year here in Zone 9B. It has zero thorns, greyish-green leaves, gets maybe 5 feet tall here. She cuts it back each February, gives it chemical fertilizer now and then. I just gave her a home made one gallon jug filled with various wonderful organic nutrients mixed into water. Tomorrow she will apply it and give the rose a deep watering. I have always felt it likely is the Hybrid Perpetual 'Reine des Violettes' from 1860. She left a LONG cane uncut and told me to take it for cuttings tomorrow. The fragrance will take your breath away....my neighbor Theresa was simply amazed when I gave it to her!