Magazine  (Dec 2019)  Page(s) 4. Vol 41, No. 4.  
 
Margaret Furness, editor.
Much work has been done on early importation lists and old catalogues, but of course we don’t know which are yet to be discovered, or what was imported privately without records being kept. Could “Mrs Something” have slipped in as Gaspard Monge that way, or as an understock?

Magazine  (Jun 2019)  Page(s) 4. Vol 41, No. 2.  
 
Margaret Furness, Editor
Patricia Routley’s research did not find Gaspard Monge in early importation lists or catalogues. I’ll continue with the study name “Mrs Something”.

Magazine  (Mar 2019)  Page(s) 7 & 9. Vol 41, No. 1.  
 
p7. Margaret Furness.  
"Mrs Something", maybe Gaspard Monge. See next page. Photo: Ed.

p9.    *Ed: This is the name under which it is grown in the UK, but in Germany it is disputed. Spring-only, scented, suckering, can ball, will climb through other plants. In Australia it is a survivor in every state, even in a derelict garden at ‘Balladonia’ station on the edge of the Nullarbor (annual rainfall 263mm). Its many study names include “Mrs Something” (see the autumn, winter and spring HRIA Journal issues of 2011; photo page 7).

Magazine  (Jun 2011)  Page(s) 34. Vol 33, No. 2.  Includes photo(s).
 
Patricia Routley. That Rose Again.
There has been confusion with the "Mrs. Something" (syn "Brooks Rose" - and syn umpteen other "study names", see the Autumn, 2011 journal page 4) and the Hybrid Multiflora 'De la Grifferaie' (cover photo, Spring Journal of 2010). I don't have 'De la Grifferaie' but from looking at the references on I see differences. I have compared the two on my keyboard and have shared my musings on the "Brooks Rose" (in normal typeface) - against 'De la Grifferaie' (in italics).

Bloom: Neat, a flat cupped dense swirl with yellow-green pointel.
Shapeless, malformed (note: Quest-Ritson 2003 does say "flat").
Colour: Lilac or silvery-lavender-mauve pink, fading slightly at edges.
Various shades. Carmine, purple, magenta and lilac, fading unevenly to blush and white.
Perfume: Very fragrant.
1933 Scentless (the first mention of perfume in my literature). 1936 Faint damask. 1980 Deliciously scented.
Sexual parts: No anthers. ?pistils. Not fertile
Few anthers. Smooth pistils. Is fertile.
Receptacle: Prickly hairs extend up the pedicel and on to the receptacle.
Not seen and there is no mention.
Bush: Suckers slowly to about 1m.
Suckers vigorously.
Leaf: Blue-ish green Basal leaf small. Texture under: pale, matt, with the odd silky hair, mainly on the ribs. The hairs only visible with a hand lens.
Colour ? Basal leaf very small. Very downy under.
Stipule: Edged with glands and hairs - not feathery.
Edge is much frayed in the multiflora fashion.
Canes: Green
Red or dark wood.
Thorns: Mostly thornless, or groups of thorns toward the base. Thorns may fall off with age and this needs further observation.
Up until 1976 references say ‘De la Grifferaie’ had thorns. From 1980 onward it became thornless.

I would never dare suggest that W. J. Bean in his 1980 edition of Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles got the two roses confused, but the way 'De la Grifferaie' became thornless and deliciously scented from 1980 puts wicked thoughts into my head. As for “Mrs. Something” being an understock, surely this rose was deliberately planted for its perfume and utter beauty. I have put many photos of my rose on and am a little closer to what our "Mrs. Something" (syn: Brooks Rose) might be.

Magazine  (Mar 2011)  Page(s) 4. Vol 33, No. 1.  Includes photo(s).
 
Front Cover photo. .

p4. Leonie Kearney. The Foundling From Everywhere. My rose came to me about ten years ago and the lady called it “The Lebanese Rose”; however, I have also seen it locally named “Mrs. Something”, so it was common in old gardens and could be an understock. My plants grow to 1.2m tall and 1.2 wide, always with long canes coming up from the base so gradually spreading. The long canes have sometimes no thorns and sometimes small groups of prickles (not very sharp). Foliage is like an old rose (hybrid perpetual), slightly bluish green…. Flowers are gorgeous pinkish mauve double flat quartered and they come as a bunch on the end of the canes and then come off the canes below in shorter bunches….Perfume is so delicious you need to keep sniffing it….Flowers only in spring.

p4. Ed. With information from Patricia Routley; this suckering rose (Bourbon? Hybrid China?) occurs in all states, and has acquired a long list of study names, including ”The Brooks Rose”, “Pat Laws Rose”, ”Appin Public School”, “Campbelltown [Rose]”, ”Lucindale Cemetery [Rose]”, “Dorrigo”, "Cemetery Rose [Rookwood]” , “Ashbourne Thornless”, and as labeled at Renmark, ”Sturt Valley Rd”. The master-breeder of miniature roses imported a similar rose to California where it is known as ”Ralph Moore’s South African OGR”. He hoped to use it as understock, but found it didn’t accept scions well. Maybe that’s why it’s no longer an understock, if it was one, as seems likely. Two visitors during the Brisbane conference thought it was ‘De la Grifferaie’, but it doesn’t match descriptions. It is sold as ‘Charles Lawson’ 1853, but some descriptions of that rose refer to significant prickles. It is sometimes sold incorrectly as ‘Juno’. So what do we call it? I like “Mrs.Something”.

Article (newspaper)  (Oct 2008)  Page(s) 3.  Includes photo(s).
 
Patricia Routley: ......The writer may also forget that she is supposed to write about just one rose and so I will stop waxing and tell you about a foundling rose. ["Brooks Rose"] My bushes are 6-7 ft tall, with lax canes and straight thorns lower down, but the upper branches seem reasonably thorn free. I never prune it, only ever cutting out any dead canes right at the base. It has soft foliage and blooms of lavender pink, very cupped by the outer petals and flattened in a dense swirl. There is a pointel of pale yellow-green in the center. The leafy, foliated sepals cradle the flower and a bud is a very pretty thing. The flowers come in clusters and when the temperature rises a little and rain falls, those clusters can be a nest of pink and brown as the outer petals stick and refuse to let the flower open. I can only advise you to walk quickly past then, and wait for the last blooms when the weather is dry. Then – it is a rose to die for. This rose turns up all over the place. I am sure the pioneering women zealously nurtured and shared this lovely old thing because of its perfume. I collected it from three different places and one of them was on a Denmark fence. Those blooms scented the car for the rest of the journey home and I cradled them in my lap and stared at them for 140 ks. It has been found all over Australia and people gave it their own different “study names”. It still grows on Mrs. Pat Law’s front fence on the bend in Banksia Street, and will be coming into bloom as you read this. What is it called? I don’t know. I don’t even know what class of rose it is. I used to call it R. centifolia ‘Provence’; Others throughout Australia call it De la Grifferaie; Gwen Fagan in South Africa calls a similar rose ‘Blush damask’; and the international website have two good pictures of a similar rose (with buds) under the name ‘Charles Lawson’, 1853. The 13 years of study gently continues.

Magazine  (2005)  Page(s) 56 Vol 27, No. 2.  
 
Pat Toolan. Barossa and Beyond Weekend Ramble. Here we also saw the "Lucindale Cemetery Rose" which proved to be another example of the "Sturt Valley Rose" and the "Echunga Roadside Thornless Rose" which may have been used as a rootstock at some time as it is fairly thornless. The lilac pink, very double large blooms which can ball in bad weather are spring flowering only. In the USA this rose is known as "Moore's Old Rose". so we have another example of a rose which has lost its name and is now known by a number of study names.

Magazine  (2003)  Page(s) 31. No; 25, No. 2.  
 
Shirley Hayward, Queensland. Roses 'Lost and Found' in Australia. "Campbelltown Rose". Damask, pink, found near Sydney

Book  (2000)  Page(s) 96.  
 
Richard Walsh.  Rookwood - Cemetery and Rose Garden.
Many of the roses have been identified, but there are also many that continue to defy the experts.  One in particular, which seems to be everywhere throughout the Cemetery, is simply known as The Cemetery Rose.  It is thornless, suckers readily and has the most gloriously perfumed, centifolia-like flowers in shades of pink and mauve.  This same rose was sold as The Campbelltown Rose by Honeysuckle Cottage and it also existed in the old Appin public school.  These wide spread occurrences all seem to confirm the theory that it was an understock used commonly at the time, which suckered and eventually took over and killed the cultivar it hosted. 

Website/Catalog  (1999)  Page(s) 8.  
 
Damask Roses. "Campbelltown Rose" This one has defied identification to date but is a quite common colonial planting around Sydney. The stems are almost devoid of thorns. It is tall growing and weighed down in season with very double cupped very sweetly fragrant blooms of rose pink.,