My mystery climber is now almost in full flush. I took photos of the first 8 or 9 blooms, it shows nicely how untypical the early blooms can be. 1st bloom in this picture - 30th April, 9th bloom - 2nd June.
The blooms are lightly pink, mostly flat/shallow cup, rosette and/or quartered (I am bad at telling these apart), full with a large amount of small ruffled petals. Sometimes warm pink, almost apricot. Often tinged with darker pink, pinkier on the underside, pink buds. Fading to almost white.
More blooms and buds in various stages:
More photos (pliable growth, not too many thorns but there are some, light/medium green leaves, medium fragrance):
To be honest, I am not 100% sure about the repeat (last year was confusing, it got very dry in summer and then was watered and fed in autumn so it could behave untypically).
I've been thinking if it can be a hybrid sempervirens rambler or wichurana rambler rather noisette or tea noisette. For some time, I've been thinking about Princess Louise. But the latest blooms are too full, I think. But not full enough and big enough for Climbing Souvenir de la Malmaison. Now I am thinking about the Albrighton Rambler, but really not sure. Any ideas?
Those are good photos provided.. I like the way you've done that actually.. first, it's not a wichurana rambler, that should be ruled out... I doubt it's Princess Louise, the growth habit does not look right at all... yours is more like a climber than a rambler... it might be Albrighton but I would expect to see more blooms in a cluster, and they don't look like ''perfectly formed rosettes'' to me.. but it's not a rose I know well, I've only seen it once in a pot.. ...Perhaps send the pictures to David Austin and see if they think it's one of their roses...? and wait and see if it repeat blooms for you... Albrighton repeats, the others don't...
Thanks, @Marlorena. Most of the recent blooms are well-formed (similar to the Albrighton) but there are still occasional odd blooms, usually asymmetrical. I will wait for the repeat (quite curious to see how it will do).
Last year I found it in a bad shape (very dry, that raised bed drains quickly), watered it and fed it. I haven't seen a single bloom from it between the end of July and November. But it produced some buds in November, too late for them to fully open (I only saw one partially open). So it could be a) repeater which was in too poor shape to repeat, b) some of the roses with occasional or bad repeat or roses which require perfect deadheading to repeat c) maybe a nonrepeater which got confused by all that TLC and autumn feeding or weird weather, if this is possible.
I love that Lady of Shallot and the Iceberg rose Daniel, and I have planted an Iceberg climber this past Autumn, so I hope to have a few flowers like this one on it next year.
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...Perhaps send the pictures to David Austin and see if they think it's one of their roses...? and wait and see if it repeat blooms for you... Albrighton repeats, the others don't...
First bloom on Little White Pet. 2nd bush 3ft away in same bed is still only in bud.
Penelope - now fully out and beautiful on wall.
Happy Birthday (and close up above)
Golden Tribute, rather poorly now.
Interesting mutation on Winchester Cathedral (should be all white/cream). Parent was Mary Rose, a pink one.
lady of shallot
Golden showers
Desdemona
Gertrude jekyll
Iceberg
And summer song