I know it's crazy, but the fat squirrel ate the evidence before I had a chance to photograph it. I was watering the garden and the squirrel dashed from the bed in which this mystery rose was blooming. He sat on a rock thirty feet from me. He stared at me for a full minute, still munching away.

When I got to the rose in question, I noticed that the two ivory colored blossoms with orange stamens were conspicuously absent. Both blossoms had five petals and were maybe 2.5 inches across on this young band shipped as an unlabeled mystery rose from Rogue Valley Roses. I was hoping to confirm that it is Mrs Oakley Fisher, even though I thought the flowers were not yellow enough to be that rose.

Anyone wish to hazard a guess ?... It may be a year before I get photos.

Do you want me to send you my squirrel trap?

I guess a picture of the squirrel wouldn't help...

Squirrel trap? What's the matter with a shot gun!!! =)

alan

Well, there may be people here who would object to the random blasting of "cute" little squirrels. More like tasty little squirrels!

a quick aside on the rose, squirrels notwithstanding, there are Golden Wings and White Wings that sound similar.

Our nearest neighbor has 8 acres. We have 2.4. Other neighbors have two+ acre lots. And these lots are mostly kept native, and are covered with many dozens of scrub oak trees. So this neck of the woods can support - I don't know - maybe 200 squirrels. Maybe ten times that. The idea of moving this many squirrels just depresses me.

The shotgun idea sounds like fun except for the fact that we are very much in town. Long before I shot 200 squirrels I'd be relocated, I fear. Also, I don't have a good recipe for squirrel fricasee.

Hoping the barn owls move in soon.
...

The stamens of Golden Wings (per a photo in Botanica's Roses) look a lot like the ones on the mystery rose, with red filaments and yellow anthers. The color of the flower looks a little closer to White Wings. They are both good guesses. (And White Wings was a new rose to me.) I guess it could also be Mermaid, though its foliage is not as glossy as I'd expect for that rose.

If it's Mermaid it will triple in size by next week. That should help with the identification. And, no, the picture of the squirrel didn't help. Nice shot though!

Walmart sells air pistols that are much quieter than shotguns. My neighbor has one and we have many fewer squirrels as a result. I keep asking Santa for a red rider bb gun. PA actually has a "squirrel hunting season" so it would be perfectly legal to shoot them then, if you had a hunting license.

I hate the tree rats. The like to plant black walnuts in my garden. They are too lazy to dig the uncultivated soil, arghhh.

OOOOh, BBgun. Great idea.

Uploading files from my camera I found this, which I had forgotten about:

That could be Mermaid (or Macartney rose). Do the stamens stay on and yellow after the petals drop- like Mermaid?

Not sure yet, they disappeared simultaneously this time (see above.)

Right.