"Old Town Novato Hybrid Perpetual" was located about a block from the Southern Pacific train station in Novato, California, on a street with homes that date from the time of the San Francisco earthquake.  It lived in deep weeds without any summer water on a steep bank below the main thoroughfare into town. It bloomed continuously, or at least from May through November. The size of the plant was roughly 6 x 7 feet. Unfortunately, the plant has been successfully eradicated by the City's determined efforts using a weed-trimmer to cut it to the ground two years in a row. Now it is gone but not lost. Plants grown from cuttings are safe in both the Historic Rose Garden of the Sacramento Old City Cemetery and the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden.

After eight months comparing "Old Town Novato HP" to the rose in commerce in the United States as 'Ardoisée de Lyon,' I now believe these two roses to be the same variety. My plants of 'Ardoisée de Lyon' were obtained from Ralph Moore's Sequoia Nursery. And while the roses are the same, I believe that OTN is a superior plant with outstanding disease resistance, while 'Ardoisée de Lyon' suffers from blackspot 12 months a year in a climate where it is only seasonal on susceptible plants.

I add the qualifier"in commerce in the United States as 'Ardoisée de Lyon'" because an image provided by AmiRoses appears to be a different rose, with much softer coloring than OTN, more like 'Baronne Prévost.'

OTN resembles another found rose, "Redwood Union Cemetery HP," which is available commercially. I grow both plants, and although both are young, I do not think they are the same rose. "Old Town Novato" consistently has twice as many petals in each bloom. "Old Town Novato" might also be "Jay's Hudson Crimson." Unfortunately, I have not been able to get a plant of "Jay's Hudson Crimson" yet.

I collected cuttings and successfully rooted a number of plants . "Old Town Novato" is very easy to propagate from both hard wood and soft wood.

Each image on this page is linked to a larger high resolution image file.

Inflorescence And Peduncle The morphology of the inflorescence is quite consistent and distinctive. The receptacle is long, narrow and cone-shaped, ending somewhat indistinctly in a pedicel that emerges from the cane in groupings of 1, 2, 3 or 4, but most commonly 3 or 4. The peduncle seems to be missing, as if the pedicel grows right out of the cane. Here is a good shot of the typical inflorescence. The buds often squeeze the sides of the terminal bud. In the worst of a foggy coastal California summer, the peduncle will sometimes get powdery mildew.

New Canes Without deadheading, new growth emerges just below the spent blooms where the pedicels emerged from the cane.  After the hips rot, new growth heads upright immediately below the old blooms with no branching. The picture to the right shows successive growth as well as the blackened remains of the earlier blooms.

This locus of new growth may be another distinction from "Union Redwood Cemetery HP," which will produce new growth from both immediatly beneath the bloom as well as one node lower and all along the canes in a semi-climbing manner. OTN also suckers widely.

Bloom Form And Color The blooms have many petals (averaging more than 90 up to 105 per bloom) and are nicely scented. Under perfect conditions, the scent is strongly reminiscent of 'Mme. Isaac Pereire,' as is the color - - described variously as carmine-red, lilac rose and purple crimson.

Bloom form is confusingly variable in cool coastal weather: outer petals reflexed, centers somewhat cupped, almost quartered in cool weather, sometimes with a button eye, usually muddled. Usually the petaloids immediately surrounding the stamens remain tightly packed and twirled, forming a button eye with no stamens exposed or visible. Reverse of the petals is silvery pink, face is rich pink with dark mauve overtones, making for a very bright color that is difficult to capture with digital cameras.

In a warmer inland climate, however, the form is much more consistent, almost always showing the button eye. And this same form is typical of the 'Ardoisée de Lyon.' The blooms do not withstand high heat unless the plant is exceptionally well-hydrated. In Sonoma County's wine country in 100 degree heat, they fry before a day is done. The foliage and bloom form is very similar to 'Baronne Prévost,' as observed in the Vintage Gardens catalog.

The number of petals on "Old Town Novato" is about double the number found on my young "Union Redwood Cemetery HP," which has only about 50 petals, on the average. "URCHP" has blooms that consistently open to reveal the stamens, something I rarely see on "OTN."

Bush Form, Growth Habit And Armature Growth habit is upright, with rather thin, narrow canes ending in blooms at the top. The plant suckers as freely as can be expected without any irrigation six months a year. The first year in garden soil, it grew to 5 feet in height.

The canes are well-armed with numerous straight and falcate brown prickles.

Foliage And Stipules One of the most attractive things about "Old Town Novato" is the foliage. Considering the water stress and other conditions of this feral rose, the foliage is remarkably disease-free. Novato's climate is benign, with hot, dry summers and cold, rainy winters, at least relative to most of the San Francisco Bay Area. Still, there are many roses that find plenty of fungi even in the best of climates! By contrast, the rose in commerce as 'Ardoisée de Lyon' blackspots all year long in Northern California, whether on the coast or inland.

The only disease of note on "OTN" is powdery mildew on the peduncles. There is no powdery mildew on "URCHP"'s peduncles; instead, in my garden it gets blackspot.

Leaves Leaves have 7, 5 or 3 leaflets. The glandular buds do impart a nice resinous scent.

Note the striped stipule is present on "Old Town Novatol" and on "Union Redwood Cemetery HP."  It appeared to be absent on "Jay's Hudson Crimson."