Sylvie's Rose

A couple of years ago our seriously green thumbed friend and neighbour Sylvie did a rose propagation workshop at the Chateau of Azay-le-Ferron. I was the lucky recipient of one of the cuttings she had taken from the chateau's rose garden. Ever since it has lived in a smallish plastic pot and moved around the garden and courtyard, developing roots and growing a bit. My attention to it has be shamefully intermittent, but it has survived several cold winters and some hot dry weather. It's clearly indestructible.

It's also beautiful. This year I potted it up into a really big pot and it has put on a lot of growth and flowered for the first time. The flowers are the palest palest pink (or white with a pink blush in rose speak). It has the most glorious scent. I am delighted with it, and impressed by its tenacity as well as its outstanding all-round rosiness.

Sylvie told me when she gave it to me that she couldn't remember what it was called. I've consulted some books and I think it might be a centifolia of some sort, but rose taxonomy is a black art, and I am by no means sure. Anyone who has any idea what the name of my lovely rose is please speak up!