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Rosa elegantula
Few roses can be considered four-season plants, but Farrer's three-penny bit rose, Rosa elegantula (Rosaceae), certainly qualifies.
Collected by Reginald Farrer in the hills of southern Gansu, China in 1915, and subsequently named for him (Rosa farreri), the same species was actually collected and introduced more than a decade earlier by Ernest Wilson. It is one of Farrer's seedlings that yielded the superior 'Persetosa', however, with its darker flowers and bristlier stems. The stems reminded the celebrated garden writer and grower of Farrer's original seedlings, E.A. Bowles, of “some furry caterpillar with a waxy-grey body and rose coloured hair”. The tiny flowers (hence the common name) open salmon-pink from coral buds and are followed by delicate orange hips in autumn.