Cherokee rose

American  

noun

1. the fragrant white rose of a prickly, climbing shrub, Rosa laevigata, originally from China and naturalized in the southern U.S.: the state flower of Georgia.

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Cherokee rose British  

noun

1. an evergreen climbing Chinese rose, Rosa laevigata, that now grows wild in the southern US, having large white fragrant flowers

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Etymology

Origin of Cherokee rose

An Americanism dating back to 1815–25

Example Sentences

The American Beauty is the flower of the District of Columbia, Georgia has the white Cherokee rose, Iowa the wild rose, and New York an unspecified variety of rose.

From Time Magazine Archive

There was pointed out to us a specimen of the frangipanni, a tall and nearly leafless plant bearing a milk-white flower, and resembling the tuberose in fragrance, but in form much like our Cherokee rose.

From Due South or Cuba Past and Present by Ballou, Maturin Murray

In the South, Japanese honeysuckle and Cherokee rose perform this function extensively.

From Manual of Gardening (Second Edition) by Bailey, L. H. (Liberty Hyde)

Then we have the snow-white, but scentless Cherokee rose, with its lovely, shining leaves.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 79, May, 1864 by Various

The Cherokee rose, single-leafed, now so rare with us, seems here to have found a congenial foreign home.

From Due South or Cuba Past and Present by Ballou, Maturin Murray