Software
Houzz Logo Print
jean_gw

Rubens must die

19 years ago

I have watched and I have waited and I have been patient. For years I have waited for this rose to perform. It has had prime real estate for far too long, and now it must go. I am tired of spindly growth and tiny flowers that brown instantly. Why is it that I see pictures of this rose with large beautiful blooms and I can't get one bloom half that size? In the midst of this horrific heat wave and drought, I have made sure that it was lovingly watered every single day. Rubens spit in the the face of such a gift and sulked when the roses around it reveled in the heat and expensive water. Souv. elise d'Vardon is primed for this spot. So long, Rubens.

Jean

Comments (28)

  • 19 years ago

    Daniel in the Lion's Den. Rubens

    {{gwi:306433}}

  • 19 years ago

    LOL! I had not considered that interpretation. But since you brought it up, Rembrandt was haunted by Rubens or so says this guy. I remain unconvinced that Rembrandt was bothered by much of anything.

    Jean

    Here is a link that might be useful: Rembrandt's Eyes review

  • 19 years ago

    So the lions represent shovels surrounding the offending bush about to be devoured, or dug out.

    Lance

  • 19 years ago

    Any rose that lives to make you look bad deserves the non-performance award. I would say this one has failed to amuse among other things. Put in your pretty Elise and enjoy yourself. Those lions look mighty testy...I won't comment on how Daniel appears...thought the man was a prophet...
    la

  • 19 years ago

    Daniel looks awfully lumpy to me! What are those things called... mussels? Muskrats?? Musktails? Mosquitos?

    Jean - my Ruben is a keeper - blooms don't fry here in full sun. Maybe yours is mad cus your lions keep tinkling on it?

  • 19 years ago

    They are waiting for their turn in the Men's room. A half hour before this scene Daniel stopped at 7-11 for a large Slurpee. His agony is painful to see.

    {{gwi:306434}}

    Rubens adored "lumpy" silhouttes and his paintings often feature pods of 'rubenesque' women

  • 19 years ago

    It's funny how this can happen sometimes. Rubens should be a good rose. It's coming right along at my house. I can think of several roses that I've babied along like that with no results.
    Love the illustrations!

  • 19 years ago

    Thank you! Finally someone else hates this rose. The blooms on mine are constantly brown, the flowers are tiny, there is no scent. But it is always blooming, albeit with those ugly tiny scentless blooms. And it has really grown into a nice shaped shrub.
    I'm with you. Off with it's head!

  • 19 years ago

    As a painter of lions, that one with the switching tail is so beautifully done you can almost hear the low menacing growl in his throat. The women may be fatter than is currently the rage but the lions rock!
    la

  • 19 years ago

    okay, someone please tell me which Rubens you're talking about: hmf lists six different roses as "Rubens." Are you talking about the tea, the hybrid tea, the found tea or one of the three hybrid perpetual introduced by two different breeders during three different years?

    Here is a link that might be useful: Rubens

  • 19 years ago

    Yeah, Luanne, I was going to say looking at those lions helps me understand why Rubens was regarded as the super-genius painter of his day. I could never quite get the lumpy pink ladies.

    John_W's interpretation rocks too.

  • 19 years ago

    With that many male lions, you just know that someone had been marked more than once as private territory.
    Were there "cat fanciers" back in Rubens' time?

    As for Jean's problem: when weeds grow up in my garden, my well-meaning weeding helper has been known to weed out roses that haven't grown. In innocence, they are proclaimed "not roses" and dispatched to an arid death on the lawn before becoming lawn mulch.

  • 19 years ago

    Jean, your Rubens can join my Noble Anthony in rose hell.
    Noble, indeed.

    Carla

  • 19 years ago

    "A red sandstone loam suits this variety best," (F.R. Burnside as quoted by Brent C. Dickerson in The Old Rose Advisor.

    Otherwise, haunted?

    You betcha!

    There's a new kid in town, everybody's talking about the new kid in town... etc. etc. blah, blah, blah.

    Some things never change.

    :)

    MichaelAT

  • 19 years ago

    Michael, same song different line. Great Expectations, everyones watching you. If this is the same rose that got the shovel in my yard it is the tea.

    Lance

  • 19 years ago

    Daniel reminds me of Richard Simmons in this painting. The lions though are fierce!

    It is clear there are several lit majors here. Probably an art history buff or two.

    I will never look at 7-11 the same way.

    Jean

  • 19 years ago

    I didn't have to kill Rubens. It died on its own.

  • 4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    Sultry, Rubens sure took a liking to you, but I'm not that confident to order one after reading this old thread- Rubens resents it.

    After years of waiting for Rubens to be back in stock , maybe I don't need him after all.

  • 4 years ago

    If a rose has smaller leaves than you expect, and smaller blooms than you expect, which fry immediately, I would suggest it is getting too much hot sun. Of course, we still don't know which of the 6 Rubens the OP was talking about, because that question was never answered. However, if I take a guess that it was the old tea rose, it could be too much hot sun. I just moved a tea rose whose blooms were 1/2 to 1/3rd the size they "should be", and which fried fairly fast. Also the leaves were extra small. I have another bush of the same rose which is growing in full shade. It has amazingly lovely huge full blooms, which change color & last a long time. However, in full shade it is a once bloomer. The one which was in full sun was a repeat bloomer. So, we moved that one into where it gets morning sun until about noon, and then afternoon high shade from a tree. I am hoping that that combination of sun and shade will result in a repeat blooming bush with large blooms. Will let you know how that works out.


    Jackie

  • 4 years ago

    @jacqueline9CA, what is the tea that performs well for you in shade? Im.constantly looking for roses that do well in part shade as the entire front of my house gets a lot of shade.

  • 4 years ago

    I miss Jean, and indeed so many of the people who posted on this thread. Some are no longer with us, while others have simply moved on to other things.

  • 4 years ago

    Rekha - my rose is a mystery "Dijon tea". This means that it is related to the tea noisette "Gloire de Dijon", but is not that actual rose - there were evidently dozens of descendants of GdD produced in the 19th century. My rose "does well" in shade, but remember it reverted from a frequent bloomer to a once bloomer, which many folks would not think was "doing well".


    What kind of shade do you have? Partial? from high trees? From a neighbor's house? Northern exposure, or other? I am asking because the more we know about the conditions, the more likely it is that I or the many other folks on here will be able to help you.


    Jackie

  • 4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    berrypie, Rubens is an absolute angel here in FL. At my old house, I had her right by the front door because she bloomed so much and the leaves stayed beautiful. She stayed around 4ft tall and spread out maybe 5ft but hard to tell since she was near the walkway and my hubby or someone would end up knocking off/branches branches here and there lol.

    I can't recall who turned me on to Rubens but I think it was Cori Ann!


    ETA...maybe start a newer thread to see who else has Rubens and how it did for them?

  • 4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    sultry_jasmine_

    So Cori Ann strikes again ! She got me suckered into buying Madame Anisette- which I do love, but I am not able to resist these roses you and her endorse. I suspected there was a reason Antique Rose Emporium is constantly sold out of Rubens. The attraction to it is hard to fight, and you're feeding the rose wolf !

    $400 dollars worth of doggy vet bills is going to help me control my rose buying this Fall, but if our girl needs surgery, I'll just have to be happy for everyone else that got the rare prize rose Rubens.

  • 4 years ago

    @ladybug A 9a Houston area

    Duchesse de Brabant handles partial shade nicely in my experience. Ditto her sport, M Joseph Schwartz. DdB is my favorite Tea! Carol

  • 4 years ago

    They both grow well in partial shade in my garden. Below are 2 photos - the first one is of my DdB, which was grown from a rooted cutting of an old one we think was 75 -100 years old at the time I took the cutting. The second one is of a M. Joseph Schwartz which was already growing in our garden, and was about 20-30 years old when we moved in 30+ years ago. What I like about the second picture is that it shows M. Joseph Schwartz has sported back to DdB (on left, and on right, and at the top). There was once some controversy re whether MJS was really a sport of DdB, or a seedling - this photo proves (IMO) that it is a sport!


    This DdB grows in mostly sun with some afternoon shade



    This MJS (sporting to DdB) grows mostly in the shade of very tall street trees - so, dappled sun

    Jackie

  • 4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    Incredible pictures Jackie like out of a story book.