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'Débutante' rose Reviews & Comments
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Who can explain to me why a rose that starts blooming for the first time in July is nicknamed the Mother's Day Rose?
I ask because I have a pink, once-blooming Wich rambler that is *always* in bloom on Mother's Day, and I wonder if it is a variety that was confused in commerce with 'Debutante'. I started calling this rose the Mother's Day rose because I didn't know it's correct name (still don't), and that was before I'd heard of a Walsh rose called or nicknamed 'Mother's Day'.
My rose was planted in SC in the 1950's by my mother-in-law, and she called it a Sweetheart Rose (according to my husband... my MIL died before I met my husband). 'Sweetheart' was an actual variety that was introduced a bit earlier than 'Debutante', but it apparently was also a generic name used by some rose growers for the various pink, double cluster-flowered ramblers of the early 20th century. And, yes, I'm aware that it's also a nickname for 'Mlle. Cecile Brunner'.
Walsh described 'Debutante as blooming first in July, then again in the autumn. Does 'Debutante' flower reliably on Mother's Day in warmer climates? If it doesn't usually bloom until July, the Mother's Day nickname probably belongs to a similar-looking rose. I did check, and Mother's Day seems to have always been held in May in the U.S.
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I have never heard of 'Debutante' referred to as the Mother's Day Rose. For the provenance of this appellation, you would have to contact Ida Sharp at Rose Hill Garden who says this rose is sometimes called "The Mother's Day Rose" because it blooms in many areas around that time...
'Debutante' blooms on the 4th of July in Woods Hole where Walsh had his nursery and in most of the northeast USA.
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Thanks. It looks like that nursery is now closed, but they are/were in Louisiana, so the climate is much more like what we have here. Presumably, their bloom schedule is also similar.
My rose looks more like 'Sweetheart' than 'Débutante', but all those ramblers sported a good bit, so who knows what the original looked/smelled like? In its current incarnation, it's mildew-free, and has charming flowers, but is thorny as all get-out, has no detectable fragrance, and blooms only once.
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