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Species roses
I'm growing species roses from around the world from seed. It's not the best time to be bringing this up, because it's neither planting, stratifying, sprouting nor collecting time, but it is refreshing labels and accounting for I have already time, so things are by no means dull - oh yes and I quite forgot about flowering being around about now 
I'm going to be planting a Species Roses Worldwide Garden
(well not quite, since Australia and New Zealand don't seem to have any) for a lovely retreat run by amazing nun's, just along the coast from me.
If anybody else is collecting species roses, I'd be interested in rosy talk especially on the subject of a few that I just can't get to break dormancy.
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I've grown the odd rose from seed and the pimpinellifolia turns out to be something else. No matter, it smells fabulous.
As to the dormancy question, maybe you could let nature do the work for you.
Hmm, nature isn't quite working lately I suspect, no frosts at all last winter.
Still, that could well be the answer. It's into to the fridge time if they haven't shown up before autumn. Thank you Ceres, I think you have probably answered the question if in a converse way
I don't use the fridge if I can help it because it dries things up so quickly, or if I keep up the watering it ends up rotting the seeds - in other words I keep getting it just that little bit too wrong for the poor things to survive. 
Yes, nature is much better at stratification - perhaps I could beg a favour with someone inland who actually gets frosts, and collect them next spring.
I did get seed to germinate that came from Pakistan - and yet we are not at all dry and arid here, but they seem to have liked the weather anyway, maybe they came from a river bank somewhere? I suspect species roses may be genetically quite versatile. That might be why your pimpinellifolia differs from catalogue examples - it's maybe doing something different on account of where it is growing? From what I've seen so far I think species roses may have genetic histories that allow for other attributes in different environments, soils, climates and so on. Is your rose appropriately spiny? Also, is it white, pink or yellowish, because I've seen mention of these colour variations within the species?
I do love species roses, and in previous gardens I had a few - love pimpernellifolia and their cultivars.
You had no frost at all last winter? Whereabouts are you?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
My pimpinellifolia is pale cream and very spiny. I reckon it could well pass for one of Sleeping Beauty's tangle of thorns.
Good luck with the project Dinah. It is well worth collecting species together to see how they differ and how they have evolved.
I'm half way up a mountain, looking out to sea, on a north facing slope. What I don't get in frosts and flooding however, I do get in winds and storms. The roses seem to love it though.
The spines are very characteristic of pimpernellifolia. It sounds quite true to type. It may be doing very well, growing lots of stems and leaves and getting tangled because it has garden conditions, where as it is usually clinging on to a Scottish mountain for dear life, with little soil for it's roots (keeping it very dwarfed) and frequently having branches broken off in the wind. The ones I have are sitting in pots (ready for planting out next year) and are being sheltered by a wall. These, too, are very leafy and verdant, lots of stems, spines and high ambitions, and it would be a shame to release them into the wild now because I fear they would be decimated by the winds.
I think it is called the plant's provenance? but this term confuses me, because people talk about the provenance of the seed (where it was collected) but also the provenance of each individual plant - and my point is that these can be two very different things.
I inherited this http://www.classicroses.co.uk/products/roses/burnet-double-white/ in a garden in Suffolk - a gorgeous thing
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Roses don't need chilling as rule, though maybe some do. Rosa rugosa, sown fresh by me to overwinter, germinated in October and was flowering by the end of the next summer. Also had a good accidental result from pouring boiling water on rosehips to start the wine making process. Steep for a week then strain and tip on the garden. A forest results
In the sticks near Peterborough
Hi Dove, you didn't happen to keep any seeds did you?? I know they hybridise out in the garden, but it would still be worth a try because it looks a delightful darling of a variation on the theme!
Nutcutlet, I had some sloes germinate unexpectedly after wine making, appearing on the compost heap a few months later - a lovely surprise, I wonder how common it is for this to start the process? I imagine partial fermentation would suit anything tough skinned, that birds eat and spread the seeds that way. Worth looking into and a bit of experimentation!
No sorry Dinah - and it was some 20+ years ago that I left that garden - it was a gorgeous little rose with lovely dark ferny foliage and a beautiful perfume.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I'll look out for seed, and If I find some I'll forward you a few for the recommendation, since it sounds like it is something of a lost treasure.
I could always buy the plants, but if I did that I'd be spending on plants what I could be on lots more seeds. While I'm at the seed germinating I might as well do another big batch. I think I enjoy the seed hunting bit most of all, even if it's only on the internet. My happiest moments have been finding sellers who grow their own native species roses in their gardens. That too is treasure, and a few variations through cross pollination seems to me to be part of the wild rose life story.
I've mostly acquired species roses from the ranges available from seed merchants like 'Plant World Seeds' and 'Chiltern Seeds', but also some good supplies from ebay sellers like 'Treeseedsonline''. Between them, they do have a surprisingly good range, and have, so far, been perfectly good seed that has grown into what they were advertised to be.