Grandmother Hester's Rose

I was delighted when this rose came back to life this spring.  But really its toughness is to be expected.  The family who gave it to me can trace it back to 1847 in Wilkes County.  Grandmother Hester brought a sprig of the rose on the boat from Scotland and settled in North Carolina. The story goes that the Enloes brought the rose to Macon County and their descendants, the Snyders, gave me a rose.

 Its has clusters of small yellow blossoms, but its most memorable feature is its overwhelming number of mean-looking thorns.  These thorns probably explain its long survival.  Not even a goat would try to eat it.

                                             Arlington Rose

Last summer I went to the Lee Mansion at Arlington Cemetery in Washington.  There was a somewhat similar yellow rose blooming there.  It also had huge, plentiful thorns and clustered flowers.  The bush and flowers were bigger, but I figure they had had a much easier life since the garden was established in 1861.