A bright yellow once-blooming rose identified as the Spinossisima Hybrid Harison's Yellow arrived in my Sparks, Nevada neighborhood nearly 140 years ago. It was carried west in 1870 by James Gault and his wife Jane Nolan Gault, from a small town in Canada, just south of Montreal, Quebec. James had sustained an injury on the trip west and spent a year healing from this misfortune. When he eventually recovered and the family was finally able to purchase land, this long-traveled rose was at last planted in its permanent location.

In the intervening years, the land has been farmed by three generations of Gaults and their descendants. The great grandsons still own a small part of the original ranch and homestead, and on their remaining property are at least a half dozen plants started from suckers from the mother plant. What the family believes to be the original plant is now a thicket, standing about six feet tall, and covering an area approximately 15 by 30 feet in size.

The old wagon road out to Pyramid Lake, now a paved back road, runs past this thicket and for three to four weeks each May, a mass of yellow blooms light up the roadside. In fall, ancient cottonwood trees arching over the road turn a brilliant gold. Though the town has grown up and out, this area has - so far - been largely spared.

South of this old road, the town has filled in completely. To the north there has been little change - some residential development on half acre and larger lots, and conversion of most of the ranchland to the open space of a golf course. The Harison's Yellow thicket has seen it all - from the days when there were no roads and travelers chose the most convenient route through the sagebrush to the old wagon road becoming an overly crowded 'secret' shortcut when the nearby highway is clogged up with traffic. For nearly 140 years, Gault's yellow rose has stood fast through it all.

This treasured Scots rose is a fitting tribute to James and Jane Gault, Canadian born children of Scottish immigrants, pioneers of the open sagelands of western Nevada.

~ Article by Christine, Reno, NV 2009 ~

Harisons Yellow suckering its way along a roadside fence File#I_5039

Close up of same plant. File#D2790