Rose Wilder Lane was named after the prairie rose (Rosa arkansana or sometimes Rosa blanda), a shrub native to seven states: Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Prairie roses can be grown in many more states, however, from Montana to Texas. The genus name comes from the Arkansas River at Canon City, Colorado.
The photo above is of a member of the rose family (Rosaceae), which contains over 100 species; this particular wild rose grows outside my back door here in Bozeman, Montana. Although now covered in snow, I remembered its beauty today and found the photo I had taken in June, still in the camera.
Wild prairie rose is a small shrub which grows from one to three feet tall, usually dying back each winter. Stems are covered with reddish thorns. The five-petalled flowers are about two inches wide and vary from pink to white to deeper rose, depending on growing conditions. Flowers bloom on new growth only, with three or more flowers per branch. There are many varieties and hybrids of wild prairie roses. One subspecies is Rosa arkansana Porter, named for Thomas Conrad Porter (1822-1901); in 1874, he first described the prairie rose for science.
You can find prairie roses growing on the open prairies, in pastures, and along roads and wooded areas. Laura and Mary Ingalls gathered prairie roses on the Ingalls homestead in De Smet, and there are wild roses still growing in the area. It is not the state flower of South Dakota, however; pasque flower has that honor.
In The First Four Years, Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote that she asked Almanzo what they should name the child they were waiting to be born, and he replied that they couldn’t pick a name because they didn’t know if it would be a boy or a girl. After a silence, Laura supposedly said, “It will be a girl and we will call her Rose.” In Pioneer Girl, Laura wrote this about wild prairie roses: In June the wild roses bloomed. They were a low-growing bush and, when in bloom, the blossoms made masses of wonderful color, all shades of pink all over the prairie. And the sweetest roses that ever bloomed.
A private note to daughter Rose in the manuscript added: You are their namesake, my dear.
