When does it start????

She wants to know if Lauren is a late season bloomer.

jasminerose, I posted this over on the original thread as well, hopefully bart sees one of them.

Lauren tends to bloom early to early mid-season for me. The
first Spring in my garden, after she had been frozen solid all winter,
was actually the earliest she has bloomed. I don't know if it was a
result of the harsh winter, or from the warmer than usual Spring.

Oh, and if you deadhead, she reblooms often in definite flushes.

Something else I thought I should throw out there...the first couple of years Lauren was VERY upright, but nicely clothed in leaves to the ground. It was only in the third year she began to fill out and make a nice full, wide-as-tall shrub. She doesn't seem to sucker, but last year she threw a lot of new canes.

John

Jasminerose, I thank you from my heart for your thinking of me in this way. I thank you for doing it in such a modest,un-self-serving way, that is so illuminating for one and all (meself included; don't intend to forget what you taught me here by doing this),Thank you for understanding what my question was. I am deeply touched by your post.

Thank you for the info, John: I missed your post and will go back ASAP and try to find it.

You are welcome, Bart. Thank you for asking a good question :)

And thank you John for answering in multiple places. I'm glad to hear that Lauren blooms early to mid-season compared to some polyanthas. It would be nice to see pretty blooms before the weather gets too hot. Boy were you lucky to get multiples! Although I don't expect that and really only have room for one.

In my Northern CA zone 9/10 garden, Lauren blooms from April through August/Sept without stopping. It has grown to be 6/7 feet tall, which was not what I was expecting. I had planted it in an oval bed. It was supposed to be a small polyantha to go along with 5 others which I had planted below the central rose tree of Peach Drift. Ha! It had other ideas. Since I like to let roses do what they want, I let it. See below for three stages of its growth:

Baby (the purple one to the right of the Peach Drift standard - already starting to go UP more than the other small polyanthas.

At last - taller than Peach Drift!

Jackie

Oh my, that is beautiful, Jackie. Thank you for posting your photos. I love the purple and peach together and your garden is terrific. I hope Lauren is easy to propagate so that I will be able to receive it from one of the nurseries that offer it.

Beautiful, Jackie! You make her happy! As I posted to the other thread, Lauren flowers in Zones 9a and 10a when all the other moderns begin flowering. There are actually a few flowers on the stressed plant now. It's trapped in a too-small, three gallon squat of depleted soil. It's name sake's mom lost her plant so I harvested cuttings to send her a few months ago and the plant still flowers. It is easy to propagate, even from the flower clusters! Lauren roots easily and grows perfectly own root. Congratulations on four, John! I'm glad she behaves for you. There are other nice comments in the References section of her rose page on HMF.

Kim, does anyone other than RVR sell Lauren? I've been waitlisted for an eternity! Carol

Heirloom has had her. RVR has had her. Angel Gardens has had her. I'm sorry none of them seem able to get their acts together. I accidentally found who does the RVR propagation for them. I shall have to inquire if they can sell directly or only in wholesale lots.

Thank you, Kim. That was a quick reply! How great that we're both night owls in the same time zone. :-) I'm going to try calling all three nurseries that carry Lauren and order or waitlist for several plants if I can. Carol

Thank you, Kim! I think the more we inquire, the more the nurseries will try to root one for us. I'm glad Lauren is easy to propagate, so that we will have a better chance. It's really a beautiful rose.

Good morning, Bonnie! Good luck with that. Julia contacted me about Lauren back in June, after calling all three of those nurseries looking for it. That was nearly six months ago. You would think that if requests meant anything to any one of the three, they would have thought to have started at least a small batch. And, that isn't to say I haven't inquired and requested. I have made the offer to them (and to all who have carried any of my roses previously) that if they produce them, I will help promote them. Pfft.

Kim, if you have any bud wood, perhaps A Reverence For Roses would propagate and sell it. They seem to be responsive.

Cath

Great idea, Cathy! I'd be first in line!! Carol

Kim, you KNOW what I think of Lauren, lol. There's nothing else remotely like her, even among the polys. She's probably the most unique rose I grow (I don't grow the "green rose", no thank you). If Apple Blossom had a sassy sister, that might come close to Lauren's personality, lol. In my garden she's usually much darker than Jackie's photos, with more red, and not fading at all. But my high humidity and lower temps help, as well as evening shade. I tend to like your roses in general, just because they're different. I'm still dying to get my hands on Annie Laurie after the dear deer killed both of mine :(

John

Thank you, John. I'm glad they please you!

Maybe I'll just move into your house, Jackie, while I'm waitlisted. Beautiful Lauren in your garden looks fantastic with Peach Drift! I agree with John. There's nothing like Lauren, even in the poly group! Tapping my foot and impatiently waiting. Carol

Carol, you don't have private messaging set up on GW. I don't know if you could PM me or if you want to send me your email to mine, which is the screen name this is posted under...@aol.com. Thanks. Kim

Kim, I just messaged you, and I'm now "following" you, so if you hear footsteps approaching.... I think I've set up my messaging so that anyone I'm following can send me a note. Carol

Good, thank you, Carol! I just sent you a response!

Got it! Carol

It seems such a shame: whilst David Austin Roses are so obnoxiously"buisness-minded",to the point of seeming kind of unscrupulous,other rose companies and nurseries strike me as being far too lack-a-daisical...Are none of those three nurseries interested in gaining potential new clients by propogating a beautiful, easy-to-root rose whose very breeder approves the propogating???

At least two of them are overwhelmed. It never works out well for any nursery to obtain another nursery's "catalog". Not to pick on RVR, but what's it been, a decade since they absorbed Ashdown's stock? Many are still listed with blank pages, no photographs, no descriptions, nada. They send out mis named stock and no one there even knows enough about them to identify them. Not just the absorbed catalog, but varieties they have offered since they opened their doors. Heirloom has such an extensive catalog, and from correspondence, when it changed hands, there were something like six-hundred (600!) varieties potted in the green houses waiting to be planted outdoors for TEST and evaluation. That, alone, is enough to sink a nursery, and Heirloom has long been one of the more profitable concerns going. That's definitely part of it. The other part is, to remain viable, you have to concentrate on what sells dozens (and more) plants. Those will always be the ones with strong push advertising behind them, such as the Harkness, Kordes, Week's even J&P varieties. The ones pictured on glossy, "living color" web sites and which appear in other advertising. No matte what we may think, it has always been and continues to be "the pretty face" that sells anything, particularly flowers of all kinds. The plant underneath it may be a real dawg, but as long as the pretty face is what greets you, many will buy and plant it.

As sales dwindle and costs rise, you have to focus on what you can generate the greatest level of cash flow from. It depends upon who your market is as to what that's going to be. Even if everyone on the Antique and Rose forums clamored to buy Lauren or ALmD, the total number of plants wouldn't come close to what Heirloom is going to move of the latest Kordes offerings.

Kim, what you write certainly has the ring (death knell?) of truth. Still, it's possible that ARFR might be interested in carrying 'Lauren' and/or some of your other varieties, such as 'ALMcD'?

I feel lucky that I have both of those garden-worthy roses, but it would be nice to know that I could purchase a replacement if disaster should strike.

Thanks, Virginia.