Sporting is genetic mutation as is Proliferation and Fasciation however roses ‘sport’ in several different ways:

1. The flower changes colour

2. The flower develops stripes

3. The flower becomes a bicolour

4. The flower changes form

5. A bush sports to a climber

6. A climber sports to a bush

7. A once bloomer sports to a repeating rose

8. Moss appears on stems,buds and calyx

1. It is fairly common for roses to sport to a different colour-the most prolific at this is “Ophelia” an early Hybrid Tea. She sported to many different colours and so did her sports-most of them also sported to a climbing version.

2. Not so common is a bloom that sports to stripes- though this phenomenon occurred with one of the original Gallica roses-“Rosa Gallica Officinalis” (The Apothacary’s Rose) when it sported to “Rosa Gallica Versicolour” (Rosamundi). More recent occurrences are “Candy Stripe” -a sport of “Pink Peace”, and “Harry Wheatcroft” -a sport of “Piccadilly”.

3. A bicolour rose is one that has a completely different colour on the back of the petals than that on the top. “Kronenbourg” (Flaming Peace)is such a rose and sported from “Peace”.

4. Changing form in terms of overall shape and/or petal count. The one that comes to mind is “Souvenir de la Malmaison” –a fully double rose who sported to “Souvenir de Saint Anne’s” ,who is little more than single.

5. Many bushes sport to climbers and in this case the climbing sport is named the same as the bush but with ‘climbing’ tacked on. So we have for example-“Sutter’s Gold” and “Climbing Sutter’s Gold” or “Sutter’s Gold Climbing”.

6. Not so common is a natural climber sporting to a bush-though this did happen with “Felicite Perpetue” when she sported a little bush by the name of “Little White Pet”.

7. Somewhere deep in the annals of time a rose sported to a repeat bloomer because initially all the species roses were once bloomers-but then China had repeat blooming roses and some Damasks were known to repeat. The most recent occurrence of this is when once bloomer “Dr W van Fleet” sported a rose that looked exactly like him but was repeat flowering-this rose is “New Dawn”

8. Some time back in history some Centifolias and Damasks decided to add to their attractions by sporting moss. The moss is fascinating –a sticky,bumpy,hairy and sometimes prickly stuff that grows on buds,stems and in some cases the leaves themselves.It has a resinous quality and to me smells like pine.