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Patricia, no, I actually think that my rose is most likely to be the real Dr. Grill. It wasn't a foundling. I did purchase it as Dr Grill from Honeysuckle Cottage Nursery, it's just that we don't seem to know where they sourced their stock. It isn't the Dr Grill that appears to be William R Smith or Amelia Anderson, judging by appearances and fertility, balling etc.
Regarding why I think it is likely to be the original (no evidence of course, just considered speculation) boils to down to a number of factors. Firstly, it matches the descriptions of being variably coppery yellow to fawn pink, which mine is. I do believe it has similarities most with the Moon illustration particularly in the colouring and the commentary say that the colours are faithfully represented, but also in the formation of the flowers. The growth habit matches the early descriptions being angular/awkward. It always opens well, at least I never remember seeing it ball. Secondly, when I look at the parents of Dr Grill, particularly Souvenir de Victor Hugo, I can see strong similarities with my rose, particularly with the incurving central petals, the high centred form and the coppery colour. When I look at the picture of Parsefal which has Dr Grill as a parent, I can easily see my rose in it. I do believe that the early breeders must have seen something special in Dr Grill to use it in crossing with the early Hybrid Teas. When I look at some of the other European Dr Grill's here, although the colours seem correct on some, some of them are somewhat insubstantial in form and I wonder if a breeder back then would have used such a rose to create roses like Antoine Rivoire, Mme Abel Chatenay etc. Thirdly is the scent which isn't strong but is distinctly hay scented. Not too many roses claim to have such a scent. I know you can't smell it, you'll just have to take my word.
Lastly, Dr Grill was available at least in Sydney to at least WWII and possibly later, it certainly isn't inconceivable that bushes survived and cuttings were passed around. I speculated in another post that Honeysuckle Cottage Nursery might have sourced it from a local nursery that had some rare old HT's. I mentioned Columbia. I now remember Korovo was another of the old HT's being sold there that I don't think was in the catalogues of the time. This is purely speculation on my part but maybe they sourced my Dr Grill from there and it came from a old known local plant.
Anyway, as I said previously I don't know that my rose is the correct Dr Grill, but that could probably be said about any of the photos of Dr Grill here, so it would be a pity to give it a separate listing, especially as the case for it being correct is reasonably strong in my opinion.
I can certainly stop spamming the Dr Grill section with my photos if you like, but because it is so variable and beautiful, there always seems to be another shot to post.
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