'Claire Rose' is a nice rose, but is quite stiff and upright. It blooms only sparingly in July and August, and has average disease resistance. It Blackspots quite badly in my climate, but then most Austins do. Sadly, it is almost completely devoid of fragrance. Still, the individual blooms, when at their best, are extraordinary.

Is it true that the blooms on Claire Rose can last up to 10 days and do they really look like SdLM?

Yes. And everything trospero said.

I ordered Chaucer, and am 99.9% sure I was sent Claire Rose instead. I'll link my post about it below. I took some pics with my camera phone. It's a dead ringer for SdlM.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chaucer/Claire Rose?

I had 3 own-root specimens of Claire Rose around 10 years ago when I lived in the Santa Clara Valley of CA. Each plant produced 3 or 4 strong canes similar to Eden/Pierre Ronsard, with a handfull of roses on the top of each cane by the end of the first season. In fall/winter, I took each of the stiff canes and bent them down, pinning them to the ground with piece of U-shaped stiff wire, producing a series of arches. All of the axillary buds along each of the canes broke in spring and produced shoots that were around 3-5 nodes long, ending in a flower cluster. There were perhaps 15 or so shoots per cane and each had around 4-5 flowers, so each of the 3 plants had quite a few flowers. The flowers were very long lasting with little fragrance, and the petals refused to fall off. I trimmed off these short shoots down to 1-2 nodes after the flowers were spent, and they grew again, producing another crop of flowers. I believe that I got 3 or 4 crops of flowers each season using this technique. I did the same thing to The Pilgrim, but was able to self-peg (connect the ends of the 8 foot canes to the crown of the plant) because the canes were much more flexible. I am hoping to get another specimen of Claire Rose to grow at my new home. This technique works for roses that produce tall, vertical canes that do not branch. The strategy is to change the orientation of the canes so that they are not longer vertical, so that the axillary buds can break and produce shoots which will bear flowers. The same thing can be accomplished by tying canes to a rail fence so that they are parallel with the ground.

"Is it true that the blooms on Claire Rose can last up to 10 days and do they really look like SdLM?"

I know the blooms are quite long-lived, and in my experience the only Austin rose that performs well as a cut flower. A week in a vase is not unusual.

In terms of bloom style, yes, this is very similar to 'Souvenir de la Malmaison', the same blush pink, the same muddle/quartered petals arrangement; an outrageous number of petals crammed into one bloom. The petals texture is also similar to said Bourbon, and so if the rose is in bloom during cool, wet weather events, expect the blooms to spoil quickly.

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John's remarks about pegging the plant are very helpful, and will no doubt increase bloom production on what is otherwise a plant very much inclined to present blooms only at the tops of stiff canes. Its really very lovely, and when grown well, I can forgive its its lack of disease resistance.

That's a really nice photo! I love that colour. It looks more of a peachy pink colour to me on my computer screen. I hope the blooms always look like that.

bellegallica - I've checked the link, and the rose you got there don't look like Chaucer.

And thanks John for your tips on pegging.

Yes. It's a little difficult to tell, given the bad quality of my picture, but my rose looks exactly like the picture here.

Jumbojimmy, as I recall you were inquiring a few months ago about Wisley 2008. This rose has a lovely bloom form that is similar in color to Claire Rose.

Wisley 2008 has a sweet fragrance; the blooms have an elegant, formal look to them. They remind me somewhat of Eglantyne, with a beautiful button eye look to the blooms.

James Galway is another lovely rose, super packed with petals. The blooms open up with a bit of apricot in the center of the bloom, and then fade to soft pink. It has a sweet fragrance.