David O. Dodd Rose

The David O. Dodd Rose was a hybrid tea rose developed in 1926 by J. W. Vestal & Son nursery in North Little Rock (Pulaski County). Named for a young Confederate spy hanged in Little Rock in 1864, it was chosen as the official flower of the Arkansas Centennial of 1936. The thornless hybrid rose was described in catalogues from the 1930s as “a magnificent rich crimson, flushed scarlet with well-shaped buds, carried erect and opening into a large, beautifully shaped flower.”

Although the rose was popular for a few decades, the introduction of newer varieties led Vestal to stop offering it, and their last Dodd rose died in the mid-1970s. In the run-up to the Arkansas Sesquicentennial in 1986, Tom W. Dillard, then director of what later became the Division of Arkansas Heritage and president of the Arkansas Sesquicentennial Commission, announced a search for the Dodd rose, inviting members of the public to write or call the commission with potential leads on surviving rose bushes. Dillard did later announce the discovery of a Dodd rose, but this proved in error, and the rose is now presumed lost.

For additional information:
Dean, Jerry. “Descendant of Rose Developed in 1926 Is Object of Search.” Arkansas Gazette, October 29, 1984, pp. 1B, 2B.

Vestal, Sarah. “Joseph Wysong Vestal’s Horticultural Legacy, Sweet Potatoes to Blueberries.” Pulaski County Historical Review 67 (Fall 2019): 70–83.

Staff of the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas