Good morning Robin:

I'm not sure if you are referring to my post of earlier in the season discussing my then new Night Owl or not. I pulled it up last week though as I had some new questions and a short discussion of the rose followed. Providing a link for you to that below.

To answer your specific question the blooms on my night owl are rather like a light red wine color. I would not describe them as dark or purple. I have not noticed much fragrance at all. I have one picture for you but it is actually from earlier in the season.

Hope this helps.

Kate

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Here is a link that might be useful: Night Owl

By contrast, our NightOwl blooms have been VERY dark. Ranging from deep Merlot to out-and-out purple.
I suspect weather conditions matter in this case.
Night Owl is in no way rugosa-like.
The foliage is subtly quilted:

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But I think that effect comes from 'Rosy Morn,' which has to go back to 'Ferdinand Pichard'
through Ralph Moore's striped miniatures.
(You see that characteristic, less subtly, in Carruth's 'Scentimental.')
It also has a hefty dose of Multiflora.
The fragrance, to my nose, is much like the other Carruth derivatives of 'International Herald Tribune':
Very spicy.

It seems to be impervious to mildew and rust.
I have no clue as to blackspot.
It's setting up now for a big fall bloom, irrespective of the fact that it's still in a 5-G.

Jeri

My NIGHT OWL hasn't done much of anything in two yrs. I think I got one or two blooms this season. Now THE NIGHTWATCH is another story. That thing has turned into a monster this yr. It blooms almost constantly with tons of wonderful ruffly clusters. And it's beginning to show signs of trying to become a climber. It's thrown out a bunch of huge arching canes just loaded with blooms. I can't remember if it has any scent tho.

THE NIGHTWATCH
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What is its parentage? And who offers it?

Jeri

I posted on another thread about Night Owl, but in case you missed it....

I planted my Night Owl in early July of this summer, not expecting it to make much growth in my short summer. Good thing I planted it on an 8 foot arch! It is already at the top of it and still growing!! And it is smothered in clusters of the deepest purple imaginable. The leaves are glossy and comletely clean, without any spraying. It grows really FAST.

I am liking it very much!

Celeste

The deep purple in this photo is accurate.....

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this photo does not do it justice, since the flash went off and made it look more reddish than it really is.....

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So somebody tell me more about The Nightwatch. Never heard of it before and HMF has almost no info on it except to say it is a shrub. I'm really taken with it. Need to know about size, disease resistance, other vital statistics.

Thanks,
Kate

Beth:

May I ask where you bought your 'Nightwatch'. Talk about a rose with a very low profile. Can barely find a thing on the internet about it.

Thanks.

Kate

THE NIGHTWATCH is a Ben Williams shrub rose that was first offered by Hortico under Williams' Dutch Master Series of striped and streaked roses. I got mine from Hortico, but I see that it is now also listed on Roses Unlimited's website too. I've had mine for about 4-5 yrs, and it's been wonderful. Right now it's about 3 1/2ft high and maybe 5ft wide, due to the arching canes. I have it planted in my "Red/Burgundy/White" bed, along with its fellow striped buddies, MEINDEERT HOBBEMA, REMBRANDT VAN RYN and SCARLET RIPPLE, all Williams roses, and all with no info on parentage. TN waaay overpowers the other roses in the bed, altho RVR is holding its own and trying to keep up. It has a more burgundy/purple color and slightly smaller flowers. It almost looks like a shrubby version of PURPLE TIGER. There are quite a few other roses in the Dutch Master Series.

REMBRANDT VAN RYN
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These pics really aren't as accurate as THE NIGHTWATCH ones. This color is extremely difficult to capture with my camera, and to tweak them to the real color distorts the rest of the picture, so this is the closest I can get. Just envision the color as at least another shade more purple.

Oh dear Beth. I was going to ignore The Nightwatch because I didn't want to order from Hortico again, but you're right that Roses Unlimited has quite a few of them. It would be nice to replace one of my Purple Tigers with something that actually grows.

My DH would like this rose, and so would I.
Too bad there's no local source. To order one rose from RU is $$$$!! And we're SO done with Hortico.

Must give this some thought.

Jeri

Wow. Thanks so much everyone for all the great responses and pics! Now I guess I'll have to order them both, AND Rembrandt Van Ryn... OMG, Beth that RVR is so beautiful. Where did you get it?

Hortico featured The Nightwatch on the cover of their catalog last spring, I believe. That's where I first saw it. I didn't see the others in that series.

Celeste, I think I missed your earlier post, but I love your pics. That is exactly what I want - lots of purple. But wine is nice too.

Jeri, I read something about the scent of Night Owl being clove-like. Thought maybe like rugosa fragrance. I'm not familiar with the roses you named, but spicy sounds good. I really like the new little striped mini moss from Ralph Moore. I'm just afraid mosses don't do well for me here - very diseasy - although Mel Hulse seems very different in that regard so far, thank goodness. I'm not anxious to order from Hortico either, and I've never yet ordered from RU. The day will come though, because they carry my recently sp'd special Buck rose, Piccolo Pete. Must replace that.

Pretty neat new roses, I think.

Paul says that Mel Hulse doesn't have disease problems -- so we may have to try him.
I swore off mosses decades ago because we had such mildew problems. But for Mel, I'd take the chance.

Jeri

The roses I bought from Roses Unlimited were much larger and healthier than the roses from Hortico. The only reason I'm hesitating is that I was really only going to get 20 roses and there's only one spot that I haven't already ordered or preordered something for, and shipping charges make it hard to add another vendor when I'm already ordering from 4 or 5 different places. I might have to wait another year for Rembrandt and Nightwatch. I'm trying very hard to convince myself to wait anyway.

Oh, my gosh, Beth, what a gorgeous rose! How big are the blooms? Have you seen Fourth of July? Would you say the bloom looks anything like it? Nightwatch is mighty tempting... thanks for bringing up the subject, Robinia.
BTW, I am trying to save some money for camellias and you all are trying to entice me into spending it all on roses!!! Brandy

Robiniaquest, I got REMBRANDT VAN RYN from Hortico. And Brandy, the blooms are about 3" or so. THE NIGHTWATCH has slightly bigger blooms. More like about 4-4 1/2".

Celeste:

I've been thinking about your great pictures of Night Owl and your arch. I have a Night Owl also that was not planted in a great spot this summer and I was thinking of maybe moving it to the base of my arbor in the back yard. To that end I was wondering if we can see a picture of your whole arbor with the rose growing on it?

I'm asking mainly because I'm concerned that the canes might be too 'stiffish' as I believe Jeri mentioned to train well. Have you found that to be a problem?

Thank you.

Kate