I am a zone 6 sometimes Zone 5. This bush is at a neighbors house and he has past so I cannot ask him the name.

-It is planted as a hedge.

-It blooms May-June and it has a second small amount of blooms in July.

-Fragrant almost smells like a gardenia. But gardenias are not hardy in my zone.

-It is in the front of the property where it would get the most damage from snow, cold and road salt.

- I do not know how high it actually grows because they cut it as a hedge height of 4'.

It could be a Dog Rose...Rosa canina. Some folks call it a Hedge Rose because it makes a good hedge.

Edited because I had to look up the botanical name and find a photo:

or Rosa rugosa

Beach Rose (Rosa rugosa) would be my guess too ... no particular reason, it's just the first that came to mind when I saw your photo.

Hummm Rose never came to mind because there are no thorns.

The township has taken over the property for taxes they will probably cut it down. When they go to take it out I will ask for a piece. I love the fragrance and it is hard to find fragrant long blooming plants in my climate.

Yep, they look very similar.

Cinta said:

According to this link: http://www.seedaholic.com/rosa...
"The cultivar Rosa canina 'Assisiensis' is the only dog rose without thorns."

Wondering...Is there a Rosa rugosa that is thornless or nearly thornless other than the red one?

Instead of a cutting why not try to get permission to dig up the entire plants?

Cinta, I'd ask them for the entire plant! Maybe they will allow you to dig it up to save them the trouble?

There are Roses that are thornless and almost thornless. I'm not certain about these two but the bloom in your photo reminds me a lot of Iceberg:

Rose (Rosa 'Iceberg')
Rose (Rosa 'Ducher')

@greene beat me to it.

I haven't had time to read this through but some info on Thornless Roses: http://www.allaboutrosegardeni...

Both Iceberg and Ducher repeat bloom. I agree that the leaves have the look of a Rugosa; I don't know off-hand whether any are thornless. Perhaps @zuzu will know.

All I know is when I saw Cinta's photo my eyes saw what looked like rose leaves; my brain kicked me and said 'dog rose'. What the heck a dog rose is I have no clue but it was buried deep in my memory from somewhere when I was a child.

Whatever it turns out to be I say grab it!!
Yes, get permission or just relocate the plant as a 'good Samaritan', but grab it. After it's yours you can propagate it 'til the cows come home.

I once went to the city to request permission to rescue some plants during a road widening. The man at the desk looked me right in the eye as he said very loudly so his co-workers could hear him, "I cannot give you that permission", but he was smiling and shaking his yes in the affirmative.

I see a lot of thorns in image #1

are they not part of the plant in question?

frankrichards16 said:I see a lot of thorns in image #1 are they not part of the plant in question?

Wow, good eye Frank! I see tons of thorny branches on the left in that photo ... never looked that way before your above post.

Okay let me go back tomorrow. I have not looked at the plant since April. I went all the way down to the bottom of the plant looking to see if it was a bulb. I know the top limbs did not have thorns because I pulled a flower off There was a weed next to it. I will check and see if it is part of the weed or if it is the bush.

Digging would be hard for this old woman. It is a 24' long and 4' tall hedge. I just know as soon as the borough get started with tax property they take out all the hedges, fences and plantings in the boundaries, it makes it easy for them to do the survey and mark the boundaries. Then they cut the grass and put it in the real estate hands to get them sold fast.

`They will cut the hedges down to the ground.

Try to talking THEM in to digging out one. Heck, offer water, cookies, whatever.

I will try Carol. I have been known to do whatever is necessary to get what I want.

Maybe Cherokee Rose? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Probably not the Cherokee Rose as it would most likely not be hardy in Pennsy.

Cinta is in zone 6b and MOBOT shows Zones 7 to 9 for R. laevigata: http://www.missouribotanicalga... so maybe it would grow in 6b with the right conditions?

Photos in database for comparison: Cherokee Rose (Rosa laevigata)