Hi, Florence,
Your Ghislaine is really pretty. Do you have it going up a trellis? Glad you were able to get out for a walk today!

Mine is three years old and blooms with about 4 hours of morning sun; it is trained up and around a pine tree. It's easy to do because it has very few prickles. I really look forward to its spring bloom. It doesn't get any disease here either.

Thanks for posting, Gean

Florence, it's difficult to believe that a rose can look so lush and bloom so well in a mostly shady location. It makes you wonder whether all those strictures about 6+ hours of sun are misleading. I know that some of my roses, such as Mutabilis, receive much less sun than that and still bloom really well. I guess we don't really know something until we try it outselves. Lovely picture!

Ingrid

Wow, Florence, that's a lovely rose. I've been pleasantly surprised that there are some roses that can tolerate some shade.

I like the dark green of the foliage as a backdrop for the blooms of G de F.

Gosh, mine looks terrible and I thought it was because of the shade. There must be another reason.

Almost any rose will do much better in full sun. In the northeast, full sun is even more important as our growing season is much shorter than say Z10 CA. Our climate is also very different and the roses don't rest much after flowering as they need to put out strong growth and ripen it before fall puts an end to the growing season.

This 'Ghislaine de Feligonde' is still in the pot ghetto unfortunately as I am still trying to find the perfect spot for it. But it is in a large pot and was cut back severely this spring to balance the top with the roots which were trimmed during the re-potting.

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Florence,

I can't believe how dark the leaves are on your rose. I've got mine in full sun, and the leaves are much much paler green...yellowish. I wonder whether I need to grow her in the shade?

Robert

I am desperate to hear about roses that will take at least partial shade and so it's lovely to see Ghislaine de Feligonde as a possibility, especially as she's a climber and pretty thorn-free. I'm hoping that because our sunlight is so strong here in California that even in partial shade many roses will get enough light to bloom adequately. Thanks for the pictures -- what an exquisite rose.

lbuzzell, check out the hybrid musk roses. They have a reputation for thriving in shade.

lbuzzell, here is a link to Woodland Rose Garden site by Kent Krugh. Click on the "shade" tab at the top. He gardens in Ohio on wooded land. The tables he lists with various roses and how often mentioned as being shade tolerant in the literature is helpful. The articles are also interesting and helpful. hth

Here is a link that might be useful: Woodland Rose Garden

Palustris--I love the picture of GdeF on the old Cape Cod house----and the picture of yours is really lovely----
I guess this rose takes after her namesake who braved the dangers of no-mans land to rescue her DH.

Ibuzzell----I have several roses that do pretty well in my shady garden----

Pam----I think sometimes we just get a "dud"--GdeF is worth trying again---
-

Florence

GdeF was like a bright shining beacon in the deep shade

Isn't that the coolest visual effect? :-)

I have a Fragrant Cloud at the edge of a heavily shaded area. It only gets maybe four hours (less?) of full morning sun during the summer and so (obviously) it doesn't bloom the way it would in full sun, but I don't care. When it does bloom those flowers just pop out against that background of heavy shade! The effect is just lovely!

(Obviously I like its flower color! ;-) )

I grow Ballerina, a Hybrid Musk, in shade. It gets maybe the first 3-4 hours of sunlight in the morning. Then it's in shade the rest of the day. It puts on a huge first bloom, May thru beg of June, then blooms sporadically thereafter. I think the rebloom would be better in more sun, but I'm still very happy with its performance and can't think of another rose (other than another Hyb Musk perhaps) that would do as well.

I grew Blanc Double de Coubert in pretty much full shade and that didn't work so well. It grew very weakly and flowers were few. So even a couple of hours I think helps a rose a lot.

Finally, I'm growing La Marne, in all day dappled shade (under a 50-yr old podocarpus tree). It took a while (4 years?) to get established. This spring I finally got a good first round of bloom and so far a good second bloom. I think it's the competition from the podocarpus roots more than the shade that's hindered it's growth.

I've been tempted to order Ghislaine de Feligonde, simply because the beautiful story of the Brave Countess makes me cry, every time I think about it. It's hard for me to cry; but to think of a love so pure...

Glad to see all these photos of the equally beautiful rose. And thrilled to know that it will grow in shade. Anyone willing to venture a guess as to whether it will be happy in our hideous Mississippi summers? ...even in partial shade?

Lovely.......the colors are subtle and beautiful.

Lynn

What a pretty rose, and I enjoyed the photo of the Cape Cod house. As a child, I got to visit Nantucket Island and walk around for an afternoon and was delighted by all the roses.

I passed this up before because I didn't think your rose was suitable for my zone (which I normally expect on this forum) but was surprised to see it is z5 at Ashdown.

The shade aspect is impressive, need one that will perform reliably in shade maybe not as deep as that. The clematis, Polish Spirit, is blooming like crazy at the top, not a good time of day to take a photo. It was in a small pot last year, and I had trouble finding one. It needs a rose in front of it to break the uninteresting vertical lines as was the original plan. Maybe 4+ hours is all it gets there.

I gave away the Graham Thomas because it wasn't doing much. Now I could move Thomas Affleck there but don't think it will bloom enough and is not filled out very well where it is now, odd shape. I'm afraid to move Hettie there because I have no idea if she will tolerate shade but needs moving.

So my present two choices might be Ghislaine or one called Daybreak which is more yellow but same type of rose. The main problem is with Jap beetles, both would be a bad, and I am saving myself a lot of grief by cutting all the buds off. Could I do that with Ghislaine and/or Daybreak (still lean toward the latter because it is yellow)? I think they both repeat. Or one of the Austins for my zone that is supposed to tolerate shade. I like the clusters on these others though, don't have any quite like that. Ballerina might do well but it's not what I want for there.

If Polish Spirit will bloom this well for no more sun than it gets, what might that mean for a rose? I have to get something in there plus the soil is somewhat gravelly but otherwise ok especially if I work some more compost in.

I'll probably have to wait until spring to order now which may be just as well.

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I don't mean to hijack a thread, but while I was out there, I grabbed a shot of my Stargazers. One thing about this forum that is so discouraging is that others get things working together better and generally have bigger yards and much nicer roses. I've gotten these white alyssum self seeding and making progress transplanting so they'll line the whole sidewalk, really like the effect. It makes me feel better about other things that aren't going as I had hoped at all.

That ugly dog thing is my hose guide, should replace that before I trip over it, plus it's an eyesore. That ugly fence post I pounded in when my coreopsis fell over, need to get that out of there and those thinned out, didn't know they spread like they do. Also self seed.

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Florence, that is a beautiful rose and so healthy. I love your sweet and beautiful posts, always a treat.

I love the picture of GdF on the the Cape Cod, Palustris, very pretty.

Aliska, what a beautiful corner of the world you have. Your lilies are beautiful and your home looks beautiful.

Oh, Coreopsis is pretty in its way, but it is aggressive!

Aliska, what a beautiful corner of the world you have. Your lilies are beautiful and your home looks beautiful.

Thank you, patricia43. Everybody talks about their roses perfuming the air. Some of mine have a nice scent, but you have to be close. Those lilies do perfume the air while they last.

Oh, Coreopsis is pretty in its way, but it is aggressive!

So I found out. After I read an Iowa gardener complaining that hers didn't come back the first winter I had it return in the spring from planting out VERY late after starting it from a 25-cent pack of seeds. Had no idea spreads so much, almost invasive, have to dig a bunch of it out, and am going to try to single out the doubles (which I think are prettier) and maybe start over with it somehow. There're both in there.

I noticed the healthy foliage on Ghislaine, need to find out what is in my environment that is making so many of mine ratty think I need to feed one huge one. Also looked up Ghislaine, and it's a climber. It might be a good candidate for a replacement for Veilchenblau which is never going to do for me what I've seen it do for others, at least where I planted it. Ghislaine is beautiful rose, and I wouldn't have considered it were it not for this thread.

In the Heirloom rose garden at the Idaho Botanical Garden, all of the roses along the east fence get far too much shade because of the trees that have grown up on the other side of the fence. 'Ghislaine' is pretty much the only one that continues to bloom as beautifully as ever. Many of the others (such as 'Dorothy Perkins' and 'Fantin-Latour') no longer bloom at all, and several of the other roses along the fence are barely even alive.

So . . . just by accident, I would confirm your discovery that 'Ghislaine de Feligonde' is one of the more shade-tolerant roses.

It's a rose that has quite a few reports of doing well in shade. Some of them do, depending on how many petals, and how they are raised. We discovered that with other plants, if they were raised in shade they did ok in shade but if they were raised in sun it's harder to convert them to shade. I want another one - I'm going to get a smaller one and raise is in dappled light so it gets used to it. Thank you for sharing