doubt the stated parentage of this rose, as both 'New Dawn' and 'Mme. Hardy' survive winters here virtually unscathed. Yet the rose I grow and call 'Colonial White' has always suffered severe winter damage in my garden. This rose was sold to me seven years ago as 'Sombreuil', yet clearly it is not. In this country, many roses sold as 'Sombreuil' have turned out to be 'Colonial White'. The identity of my rose is still unclear to me.

Huntington Botanical garden in San Marino, CA grows a beautiful climber they have labeled as 'Sombreuil'. Nestle has an illustration of 'Mme. de Sombreuil' from 1867 which depicts a more loosely double bloom with no center button eye. See my photo and Nestle painting below.

In a paragraph about 'Mme. Hardy' found in Norman Young's excellent book "The Complete Rosarian", he states:

"A repeat-flowering climber, Colonial White, was raised from Madame Hardy in the United States a few years ago. It has much of its parent's beauty and fragrance and deserves to be better known."

There is a very good photograph of 'Colonial White' in this book, and after reviewing it, my rose looks little like it.

I initially planted this rose on a trellis, but soon learned how difficult the task of wrapping the straight, stiff and thorny canes around the poles would be. After three seasons, I uprooted the plant and put it in a pot where it languished, yet always produced a few magnificent blooms, the best in fall. Now I have put it back in the ground in a more sheltered setting and we shall see what happens.
kbk 2004 March 3

"The time ought not be far distant, even though war should continue, when every city of importance will have its public rose-garden, to which war-worried and -wearied ciizens may turn for that recreation and change of thought which makes efficently for renewed endeavor"
-- J. Horace McFarland, Harrisburg, Pa.
From the preface of the 1918 American Rose Annual