Website/Catalog  (2018)  
 
Rosa virginiana Miller, Gard. Dict. ed. 8. Rosa no. 10. 1768.
(name conserved)
Virginia rose, rosier de Virginie
Rosa lucida Ehrhart; R. lucida var. lamprophylla (Rehder) P. V. Heath; R. nanella Rydberg
Shrubs, forming dense thickets and hedge clusters. Stems erect to ascending, (2–)10–30 dm, densely branched; bark red to purplish red, glabrous; infrastipular prickles paired or single, usually curved, sometimes erect, or declined, appressed, stout, 6–10 × 4–10 mm, ˂base glabrous˃, internodal prickles or aciculi rare, smaller, sometimes absent. Leaves 5–8(–11) cm; stipules 14–25 × 4–9 mm, auricles flared, 3–5 mm, margins undulate, irregularly glandular-serrate, surfaces glabrous, eglandular; petiole and rachis sometimes with pricklets and aciculi, glabrous, puberulent, or sparsely pubescent, stipitate-glandular; leaflets 5–7(–9), terminal: petiolule 6–14 mm, blade narrowly elliptic to ovate, 17–32 × 6–16 mm, membranous, base cuneate, margins 1–2-serrate, teeth 10–18(–23) per side, gland-tipped or eglandular, apex acute, sometimes obtuse, abaxial surfaces pale green, glabrous or pubescent, eglandular, adaxial deep green, turning purplish red in fall, lustrous, glabrous. Inflorescences corymbs, 1–6(–15)-flowered. Pedicels erect, slender to stout, 7–14(–25) mm, glabrous, sparsely to densely stipitate-glandular; bracts 2, broadly lanceolate, 16–25 × 4–6 mm, margins entire, sometimes serrate, gland-tipped, surfaces glabrous with few hairs, eglandular. Flowers 4.3–5.5 cm diam.; hypanthium subglobose or depressed-globose, sometimes globose, 3.5–5.5 × 5.5–6.5 mm, glabrous, stipitate-glandular, neck absent; sepals spreading or reflexed, lanceolate, 20–40 × 2.5–4 mm, tip 6–12 × 0.5–2 mm, margins usually pinnatifid, rarely entire, inner 2 usually entire, abaxial surfaces glabrous, densely stipitate- or setose-glandular; petals single, pink to deep rose, rarely white, 22–26 × 25–30 mm; ˂stamens 140˃; carpels 26–40(–65), styles exsert 1–2.5 mm beyond stylar orifice (1.5–3 mm diam.) of hypanthial disc (3–5 mm diam.). Hips orange-red to red or red-black, globose to depressed-globose, 8–12 × 9–13 mm, fleshy, glabrous, stipitate-glandular, neck absent; sepals deciduous, erect. Achenes mostly basal, fewer basiparietal, 8–14, tan, 3–4 × 1.5–3.5 mm. 2n = 28.
Flowering Jun–early Aug. Grasslands, woods, cliffs, maritime heathlands and grasslands, ditches, old fields, edges of wet spruce woods, rocky ledges, damp thickets, swamps, streams, shores; 0–200 m; St. Pierre and Miquelon; N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que.; Conn., Del., D.C., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., N.H., N.J., N.Y., Pa., R.I., Va.; introduced in Europe (Austria, France, Great Britain).
Rosa virginiana is primarily coastal from Newfoundland to New Jersey. Distribution extends inland along estuaries and streams for relatively short distances or, rarely, outlying populations as in central New York (glacial lakes of Green Lakes State Park). Some collections from the District of Columbia and adjacent Virginia are R. carolina × R. virginiana, indicating that at one time, the hybrid and both parents existed in the region.
Disjunct introductions of Rosa virginiana are found along railroads, highways, and ports. The species is introduced in Ontario, eastern Michigan, and Virginia.
Rosa virginiana Miller was conserved over R. virginiana Herrmann in 2011 (W. H. Lewis 2008b).
Shrubs of Rosa virginiana form thickets and hedge clusters having erect, stout stems that densely branch, and in Newfoundland reach to six feet tall. These are armed with stout and relatively long infrastipular prickles, erect or curved and broad-based. Leaflets are lustrous adaxially, stipule widths are 4–9 mm, and sepal lengths are 20–40 mm; these traits differentiate R. virginiana from the closely allied R. carolina.
The majority of plants determined as Rosa virginiana from the Allegheny and Appalachian mountains (for example, in West Virginia) and from the Midwest (for example, Indiana) are R. carolina subsp. subserrulata. In the eastern United States, putative hybrids and their introgressants with R. carolina subsp. carolina occur from Massachusetts to New Jersey and, rarely, south or north of these states. These are the nothospecies R. × novae-angliae W. H. Lewis.

Website/Catalog  (28 Apr 2015)  
 
https://gobotany.newenglandwild.org/species/rosa/virginiana/

Article (newspaper)  (Jul 2013)  Page(s) 2.  Includes photo(s).
 
Patricia Routley: In 2000 my mentor and friend, Noelene Drage, gave me some rose cuttings. Her garden at Boya was fairly crammed with old roses and I persuaded her to name her beds so that she knew what was where, and so she named one of her beds hades. It was on the edge of the slope bordering the park with lots of big rocks and that area was “as hot as hades”, she said. Quite a few of the roses she gave me came from this hades bed and I found myself getting confused between this hades one or that hades one and so gave them interim “study names” like “Satan”, “Beezlebub”, “Lucifer”, and “Old Nick” until I could work out what they were. “Satan” was planted in an equally hot and barren area here, to the south of the house in a spot that had never had any amendment or ferty, just the subsoil that the bulldozer had once left. A few twigs are still surviving there, but in 2007 it was rescued and replanted into a new bed nearer the house. Here it had leaf litter and a lawn-clippings mulch, water and as much food as the other roses received. It has thriven and rewarded me every autumn since. The blooms are single, 5cm wide and occur singly or in small clusters, in a simple clear mid to pale pink colour. Refreshing but nothing to write home about. They seem to have come and gone before I can get the camera out. I have never smelt the blooms but someone has written about a resinous perfume from the bud sepals. It is in autumn that this rose performs. The hips turn a shiny red and pretend they are plump glacé cherries and last a long time on the bush. This shiny appearance of the hip is deceptive because although the skin is smooth, it has some very tiny prickles. This year is the first time these hip prickles have been noted when taking some close-up photos. Normally I stand back and stare and admire the exquisite autumn colouring of the leaves, studded with the crimson hips. There are 7-9 shiny elliptical leaves that turn every shade of yellow, amber, orange and red. The bush is an absolute joy in late autumn. Satan” has turned out to be what Noelene sent it down as and there really had been no need to give it a “study name” at all. R. virginiana is a species rose from the east coast of America (Newfoundland to Pennsylvania) and here it makes a 1m high thicket of stiff upright smooth canes that are red-brown, with straight infrastipular prickles. The bush is very slowly suckering – after five years the one cutting has increased to a diameter of 1m. It has never been pruned at all. Another synonym for the rose has been R. lucida (shining or glossy) and that name is certainly appropriate. Everything about this species rose shines.

Newsletter  (Nov 2011)  Page(s) 3.  
 
“Mother’s Rose.” Mrs. Narcissa Prentiss Whitman was one of the first two white women in Oregon country. She had accompanied her husband Marcus Whitman to establish a Presbyterian mission along the Walla Walla River. Her daughter Alice, the first child born to white Am-erican parents in the territory, at age two drowned in that river. In 1847 Cayuse Indians attacked the mission—some say it was because of a clash of cultures, others that the Indians believed the measles epidemic that decimated half their population was the fault of Whitman’s medicine. Mrs. Whitman, her husband, and eleven others were massacred. Fifty-four women and children were taken hostage, and after five had died of wounds or illness, 49 of them--for a ransom--were released a month later. This incident is known as The Whitman Massacre. To honor the memory of Narcissa Whitman, in 1939 Mary Drain Albro and the Pioneer Rose Association planted five “Mother’s Roses” in the small rose garden at Whitman College in Walla Walla. These rose bushes were of the species, Rosa virginiana.

Article (magazine)  (2009)  Page(s) 30.  
 
R. virginiana L.   Source RJBM [Réal Jardin Botanico Madrid] Chromosome Number 28

Book  (2004)  Page(s) 220.  
 
R. virginiana Origin North America. First noted 1817. A dense shrub, with plenty of light green leaves. Medium-sized, single, lightly scented, pink flowers in midsummer, followed by plump, round, red hips. Very colourful autumn foliage. Superb for hedging. 4' x 4'. Zone 4.

Book  (2002)  
 
Rosa virginiana. Virginia Rose.
Zones: 3-8; sun, part sun
Soil: Moist to dry
Native to: Woodland gaps and margins, thickets, dunes, roadsides, and fencerows; Newfoundland south along the coast through New England to Pennsylvania and Virginia and occasionally inland to Missouri
Size: Height 2-4 (6) feet, width 3-6 feet
Color: Light medium pink; blooms in early to midsummer
Probably the most common wild rose along much of the East Coast, Virginia rose is a disease-resistant, drought-tolerant colonizing plant with shiny, leathery leaves that turn deep red or maroon to match the young canes before they fall. Flowers are borne singly or in pairs on short axillary branches on the older canes, and these are followed by brilliant scarlet fruits that remain reasonably plump and visually effective for most of the winter. In a garden situation, R. virginiana will increase its diameter by 6 to 12 inches each year, becoming a mounded patch of stiff, upright canes set with stout, infrastipular thorns but no bristly spines. Flowers come in a flush in early summer, then sporadically a few at a time over the next 6 to 8 weeks.

Article (magazine)  (2001)  Page(s) 393.  
 
R. virginiana Mill. Ploidy 4x
Pollen fertility 98.5%
Selfed Fruit set 90%
Selfed Seed set 7.9%

Book  (2000)  Page(s) 60.  Includes photo(s).
 
Rosa virginiana / ‘Rosier de Virginie’ / Rosa lucida/ ‘Virginia Rose’ = Botanique – rose moyen. Description… Tout amateur se doit de cultiver ce rosier plein de charme; il constitue d’excellentes haies. Amérique du Nord, avant 1807. RHS Award of Garden Merit.

Book  (Nov 1998)  Page(s) 11.  
 
R. virginiana Height: 5 ft. Flowers: single, pink, fragrant. Hips: orange, round...