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melissa_thefarm

Feedback on these roses?

18 years ago

These are some roses offered by the rose nursery La Campanella which I'm considering buying this fall. Any feedback is welcome; beauty, fragrance, size, behavior in general, and anything else you think is important or just interesting. My garden, as I've said a few thousand times before, has clay alkaline soil, mild temps., lots of sun, drought in summer (and too much of the rest of the time, lately). My roses that are susceptible to it get mildew, though it doesn't do serious damage, while blackspot is not a problem and I've never seen rust. The classes of the roses that I list here generally do well in my garden.

Here's the list:

Mosses: James Mitchell, Jeanne de Montfort, Mme. de la Roche-Lambert, Mme. Louis Léveque, Soupert et Notting;

Damasks: Ispahan, La Ville de Bruxelles;

Chinas (this is group I'm most interested in): Alice Hoffmann, Arethusa, Camelia Rose (catalog description: origin unknown, 4'x3', flowers in form and color like a camelia, in clusters, constant bloom), Catherine II, Hermosa, Hofgaertner Kalb, Le Vésuve, Lijang Rose, L'Ouche, Papillon, Pompon de Paris, Clg. PdP, Princesse de Sagan, Rival de Paestum, Unermuedliche. Also, does anyone LIKE Viridiflora? How do you use it in the garden? I'm intrigued by it, but I don't like to grow plants purely as curiosities.

This is just Part 1; I don't want to make too indigestible a list, and anyway I want to reflect some more about Bourbons and Noisettes, and others rose classes I know even less about. I'm getting interested in Bourbons. Mine don't get as big as what I read about in threads here, and with no summer water they're essentially once-blooming. But they're totally healthy, thriving roses. My handful of varieties are mostly located on a wind-blown hillside in full sun, very dry in the summer, and they seem to be very happy there.

Thanks for any comments on the varieties!

Melissa

Comments (12)

  • 18 years ago

    In going down your list and looking for the roses I have here is what I come up with.
    Mme Louis Leveque: It is a large moss with beautiful blooms, a little rebloom. In my garden where we get very little powdery mildew it always gets some and on the mossy canes too.
    Ispahan: Tough, drought resistant fragrant.
    Aresthusa: Small with pretty but unspectacular flowers. Does get some disease. It's always been well watered here so I don't know about drought. It is hot here in the summer. It blooms in the heat, but not generously. Still worthwhile and charming.
    Hermosa: Grows without care in many cemetaries here.
    PomPon de Paris:I have the climbing version. It is tough and pretty and the first rose to bloom in my garden. It's blooming now. Has some rebloom.
    Noisettes and Tea-Noisettes are tough in my experience. I fuss over my bourbons so I don't know about how they would do under stress.

  • 18 years ago

    I like Viridiflora. I did get it as a curiosity, but I've come to enjoy it. It seems to hold some secret about roses, something that I'm always on the verge of understanding. I have it planted in a slightly shady, all-white bed (Rosa Muschata, Ducher, Krone Princessessen Victoria, and JFK, plus perennials and an Annabelle hydrangea). It has done very well.

  • 18 years ago

    Camellia Rose I have, and it is a very nice rose..it is classified as a Noisette/China where I got it...
    Madam Louis Levarque is nice too..stays clean for me, but I have never had any rebloom it is just in the spring. And then we come to Ispahan...that is a marvelous rose! Very healthy and the blooms are awesome, it has a wonderful scent...I really love that rose! The roses in the bed where Ispahan is..get very little supplemental water and they all do great.

  • 18 years ago

    Ispahan does very well for me on alkaline clay soil. I do water.

    Pretty much all chinas mildew quite badly for me here, as do most teas and some noisettes. Many gardeners rave about chinas, teas, and noisettes for warm climates but my experience here has been decidedly mixed. Perhaps if I sprayed more they would be happier. Most years I do one copper spray and some years also a sulfur spray at pruning time and that is it. Roses that can't get by on that can't stay in my garden. After some initial enthusiastic experimentation, I've removed most roses from these classes. A few have done well and those I have kept.

    Rosefolly

  • 18 years ago

    I would suggest Ducher in the China group. It is a workhorse. Buff

  • 18 years ago

    Viridiflora..

    Like ordering a steak and getting served the bone. Or lobster and the waiter brings out the shell. Or Monet's Waterlilies done in pen and ink. Or the 1812 Overture, but you just get to hear the cannons. Or fireworks, all duds.

    I could go on and on but, you get the drift.....

  • 18 years ago

    If I could grow just one moss, it's be Mme. Louis Leveque; a good doer, beautiful blooms. La Ville de Bruxelles is one of my top 5, maybe even top 3, damasks; I love the huge blooms with their many, many petals. At the arboretum, roses need to be tough due to somewhat less than optimal sun and no doubt competition from tree roots. Bourbons are not worth garden space there, with the exception of Maggie-- and maybe Mme. Isaac.

  • 18 years ago

    Le Vésuve I have up on a hot slope, where it blooms constantly. The individual flowers are just so-so but it creates a big splash of pink in the distance without any effort on my part except once-a-year light pruning. It was a bit slow to establish.

  • 18 years ago

    We have grown Hermosa for years. It's a tough little rose, and one we've found in old cemeteries, along with its child, Champion Of The World.
    I LIKE Green Rose, but it does not like my alkalinity, I think. And it likes some heat to excell. It mildews for me, as well, as does its sport parent, Old Blush.
    The red Chinas, OTOH, are all disease-free for us.

    Le Vesuve is terrific for me. Mildewed for the first few years, but (as has been common for us with many Teas and Chinas) cleared up and went disease-free, once really mature.

    Jeri (en route home from the Sacramento City Cemetary)

  • 18 years ago

    I don't think it's possible to go wrong with Hermosa.

    Colleen

  • 18 years ago

    The China/Bourbon hybrid Hermosa is a great rose!

    {{gwi:239449}}

    Mme. Louis Leveque really is one of the most beautiful moss roses. Like a dry climate.

    Ispahan: probably the best onceblooming damask: great scent and long 5-6 weeks flowering time. Big rose! 8 feet tall and arching canes when blooming, more upright rest of season.

    La ville de Bruxelles. A damask that can have very beautiful flowers on a spreading shrub with low arching canes. Not as scented as other damasks.

    I grow viridiflora as curiosity and have 4 plants in my cutting garden for bouquets. I like the sepal-flowers and the spicy peppery scent.

    As for bourbons that I think will do really well in your climate: Prince Charles. A burgundy velvet red and very fragrant rose. Grows well own root. Once blooming and more tolerant of drought than other bourbons.

    You can get cuttings of all these roses from me. I also have Slaters Crimson China. I got your Email and replied.

  • 18 years ago

    Thank you all for your comments! I mean, basically they ALL sound worth trying, though the mildew on Mme. LL is slightly scary.

    Niels, thank you! I believe I will take you up on the offer of cuttings. I got your e-mail, and I THINK I wrote you back (?) Didn't I? I need to get you my rose list. I'm afraid an exchange between us is going to benefit me more than it does you: you have more sources for roses than I do, and I can probably grow most of what you can offer, while your climate excludes most of the warm climate roses that are my forte. So your rewards may be stored up in heaven, along with gratitude and good will on earth. But perhaps I have a few things you might like. The cutting exchange and list of roses to import from the U.S. are definitely on my mind. Where did you get your Slater's Crimson China from? That is a rose I definitely want to have. I bought it once from an Italian nursery, and it not only wasn't SCC, it was possibly the only healthy rose I've ever had that I wanted to throw on the burn pile, only my husband wouldn't let me.

    Jeri, Old Blush mildews for me, too, and all in all it has its fair share of faults. But every once in a while it is simply the best rose in the garden; and you know it will never die.

    Rosefolly, It's going to be very interesting to swap rose notes with you! Your experience with the warm climate roses is so different from what I would have expected, going by my own garden.

    I'm still wondering about Bourbons.

    Thanks again, and goodnight all.

    Melissa