|
Official David O. Dodd
Centennial Rose
Arkansas' Official Centennial Rose
The David O. Dodd
Named in Commemoration of Arkansas' Boy Hero and Civil
War Martyr
The Story of David O. Dodd
When the Federal troops held Little Rock, David O. Dodd,
seventeen years old, was too young to enlist, but when
the opportunity arrived, David did his duty and died
rather than betray those who trusted him.
One day Dodd had to go on business for his father from
Pine Bluff, his home, to a point near Little Rock. David
secured a pass from General J.F. Fagan to go through the
Confederate lines with a request to the enemy to allow
him through their troops. The boy heard the General
jokingly remark it was too bad he was not in the army,
for knowing the country as he did, he could no doubt
secure a lot of valuable information. So David took
careful note of the military position of General
Steele's forces and learned more important facts by
mixing freely with the Federal soldiers.
Returning home, David fell into the hands of a foraging
party of Union soldiers. They searched the boy, who had
already surrendered his pass, and found hidden in his
boots the papers containing the information he had
gathered.
He was taken to Little Rock under heavy guard,
court-martialed as a spy, tried, and sentenced to be
hanged. Before execution, Dodd was offered liberty if he
would reveal the names of his informers, but he still
refused. He was hanged, and buried in Mt. Holly cemetery
in Little Rock.
The David O. Dodd Rose
The Aristocrat of Roses
The Arkansas State Centennial Commission, together with
the Federated Garden Clubs, and other organizations,
have named our Rose, David O. Dodd, as the official
Arkansas Centennial Rose.
This great Rose, which we introduced in 1926, is, we
believe, the finest red rose in the whole wide world. It
has everything a Rose should have - size, form, color,
and fragrance. The deep crimson buds open very slowly to
great, big, glorious crimson flowers with plenty of
velvety petals and the haunting fragrance of the old
Damask rose. It is being planted by the thousands all
over Arkansas.
---------------------------------
2009
Kay Tatum sent out some queries to
her Arkansas Rose Experts and came back with the
following information on this rose for me:
The rose you are looking for is a Hybrid Tea,
and it sounds like a good one. There is a
climbing sport as well. Bad news is, it does not
appear to be in commerce, and you might need to
locate it in a garden in Arkansas or in
California, as you will see from the information
below.
Medium red Hybrid Tea. Registration
name: David
O. Dodd.
Origin:
Bred by Vestal (1926)
United States.
Class:
Hybrid Tea / Large-Flowered.
Bloom:
Red. Strong fragrance. Large,
double (17-25 petals) bloom
form. Blooms in flushes
throughout the season.
Growing:
USDA zone 6b through 9b .
This is from www.helpmefind.com regarding
a sport, the climbing version of 'David O.
Dodd':
Medium red Hybrid Tea, Cl.. Registration
name: David
O. Dodd, Cl..
Class:
Climber, Hybrid Tea, Cl..
Bloom:
Red. Blooms in flushes
throughout the season.
Growing:
USDA zone 6b through 9b .
Parentage:
The Help Me Find lists nurseries where roses
can be found, but there are no sites listed
for this rose. Regarding Howard Rose Co., I
clicked on a link on the HMF website which
took me to a story in the 1927 American Rose
Annual about California roses and rosarians.
At least you can see the rose was grown and
distributed by a large rose nursery at the
time, so the chances are greater that you
will be able to find a rose growing
somewhere, maybe in California or Arkansas.
Also, now you know that it was distributed
in California. Here is the text from that
article:
"Down at Hemet, on the edge of the
desert, are the vast rose fields of the
Howard Rose Company, producing yearly
nearly two million roses. Its president,
Charles W. Howard, knows and grows
roses, and loves them as well. All
rosarians know Fred H. Howard, of Los
Angeles and Montebello. Mr. Howard is
the Houdini of the rose-world. The
winner of two Bagatelle gold medals, the
originator of 'Los Angeles' and a dozen
other fine roses, he has you guessing
what great rose he will pull out of his
bag next."
I find the rose was first included in "New
Roses of the World" list in the 1928
American Rose Annual. The only
new information to be found there is the
full name of the hybridizer, Jos. W. Vestal
& Son.
I gave my copies of Combined Rose Lists
(which provides sources of roses) to the ARS
library, so I can't look it up in there. Do
you have a copy of that publication,
possibly from prior years? I tried another
plant search website, and found no results
there either. Likewise, I found no results
in a search for the hybridizer, Vestal.
"Modern Roses" lists David O. Dodd as
follows:
HT. mr. 1926; flowers rich crimson
flushed scarlet, large, dbl., intense
fragrance; foliage glossy; bushy growth;
Vestal.
"Modern Roses" lists 'David O. Dodd,
Climbing' as follows:
Cl HT, mr. 1937; Howard Rose Co.
Hope this is of some help. Good luck.
Marilyn
-----------------------------------
Kay also did some additional research and
came up with:
Taken from an 1936
article celebrating the 100th
anniversary of Statehood:
The David
O. Dodd Rose
The Aristocrat of Roses
The Arkansas State Centennial
Commission, together with the Federated
Garden Clubs, and other organizations,
have named our Rose, David O. Dodd, as
the official Arkansas Centennial Rose.
This great Rose, which we introduced in
1926, is, we believe, the finest red
rose in the whole wide world. It has
everything a Rose should have - size,
form, color, and fragrance. The deep
crimson buds open very slowly to great,
big, glorious crimson flowers with
plenty of velvety petals and the
haunting fragrance of the old Damask
rose. It is being planted by the
thousands all over Arkansas
Additionally I found this
information on the Encyclopedia of
Arkansas:
Arkansas’s centennial
preparations launched early,
expanded rapidly to a galaxy
committee, descended into financial
uncertainties, burst into various
celebrations crisscrossing the
state, and finally rested on the
laurels of an improved, culturally
positive image. Officially
held on June 15, 1936, the
celebration commemorated the date President
Andrew Jackson signed
legislation making Arkansas the
twenty-fifth state in the Union.
Observances before
and after the formal day included
the composition of an official song
and poem, the
designation of a centennial flower,
the issuance of a stamp, the
crowning of a centennial queen, and
the minting of two coins. There were
also plays, parades, pageants,
floats, contests, and exhibits, as
well as a football championship, a
visit by President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, and the placement of
historical markers.
Among the happenings
around the state were the crowning of
the Centennial Queen, Imogene Schneider
ofLonoke
(Lonoke County); the
designation of a centennial flower, the
David O. Dodd Rose; and
the composition of a centennial poem,
“Epic of Arkansas,” by John
Gould Fletcher,
and a centennial song, “Arkansas
Centennial Official Ode,”
collaboratively composed by Laurence
Powell and
John Gould Fletcher. Little Rock’s Fair
Park hosted a music
festival made
up of 1,200 musicians and singers.
Arkansas-grown products (apples, rice, sweet
potatoes, pecans, and sorghum) were sent
to national celebrities, and the ACC
published their thank-you notes.
-----------------------------------
I want to thank Kay Tatum, Paula Adlong & Marilyn
Wellan for their help on this! Wouldn't it be
great to actually find this rose before the
celebration next year? I am not a
flower person and have been known to kill
cactus so I dependent on my readers for
help. Ask your mom and Aunt Sally if
they might have a David O. Dodd rose bush!
|
