Yellow Rose of Texas
The yellow rose of Texas, which is part of that state's folklore and even has a famous song written about it, actually originated in the
1830's on a farm in New York City near the present day Pennsylvania Station.
There are a lawyer named George Harrison found it as a seedling growing among
other roses on his property and began cultivating it. Settlers soon took the
yellow rose west with them., and legend has it that Texans finally claimed it as
their own when Mexican General Santa Anna, the villain of the Alamo, "was
distracted by a beautiful woman with yellow roses in her hair." We have this
nice story on the authority of Stephan Scanniello, rosarian of the Crawford Rose
Garden in the New York Botanical Gardens, who told it to garden columnist Anne
Raver of the New York Times (6/19/92).