We're in luck. Both family friend Christine Nelson and sister-in-law Anna have remembered the proper name of Roma's Rose.
It's called "Souvenir de Madame Leonie Viennot," and is known as a vigorous climbing tea rose. Turns out Christine too had cuttings of this same rose from the Ronaldsons in her gardens in Mahoenui.
Can't really find any information on who Madame Leonie was, but I have learned that tea roses originated in China. The name "tea" either came from their fragrance, which was thought to be similar to boxes of tea, or a nurseryman whose name was Tee.
Horticultural legend either way from the sounds of it, and this particular Piopio rose is clearly a legend in its own right given the various offspring it has spawned around the district.
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