weather has been crazy again here in WI. When I left work on Mon it was 96 degrees. It took me 35 mins to get home and the temp dropped to 64 when I got home. I go from needing to turn on the AC to turning on the heat.

Heather

Heather - wow!!!! Awesome roses! Your Alchymist has the most beautiful flowers!!! Boscobel's flowers are sublime!!! I wish it had fragrance...I would buy it! I can't believe your Pink Martini bush(es)!!!! Soooo many flowers/buds!! Wow!! They are all wonderful!!! What do you think of the fragrance on your LEH?

Carol

Oh, your Alchymist is incredible! The blooms on form and rich apricot tones are just perfect! I was sad to loose most of the growth on mine this spring and so no blooms this year - hopefully next. Boscobel looks healthy and wonderful, too. It’s good to see Wise Portia - I rarely see it now.

You have such I incredible Rose's. Wise Portia, LEH and Louise Clements, wow. How hardy is Louise ?

I actually can't remeber LEHs smell. I'll sniff her this weekend and let you know. It has been raining like crazy here the last couple of days so I can't get out there today. My LEH is beautiful but she has always been rather small and sometimes has pale leaves even though she is fed the same as everyone else. I may have to move her eventually to make her happier.

I love my Alchymist. It is own root and is huge even in my zone 5 freeaing temps. She has hit the height of my roof. Unfortunately, she is going to be moved and chopped down as soon as she is done blooming. She is taking up too much high value property and only blooms once and does get blackspot later in the season. I'm giving her an entire side of my garage to crawl up and spread out instead of on the front of my house. The blooms are beautiful though. If she were a rebloomer, I'd probably keep her where she is.

My Louise is own root and I've probably had her 4 years or so. She does not get large in my zone. Probably around 3 feet. I do even bury my own roots deeper here since I get such harsh winters. I've never lost roses before due to winter and I lost probably 10 this year. I did have to prune everything to ground level this year. I wouldn't say she is cane hardy here, but the color of the blooms glows.

Oh my gosh you have Pink Martini. I got lots of questions for ya but I’ll try to keep it to a few. Has she been thru a winter yet? Is she from Palatiine? How’s the vigor, it looks fairly large already. I hope this one is a good northern rose.

Love your pics, hcarne. Especially since most of my roses are in rest cycle at the moment--which is a good thing since the JBs also showed up this past week!

Kate

Hmmmm...it's too bad that your LEH doesn't get very large. I have two that I got free from Hortico, because the roots/plant was so small. They've started to grow a little bit. :) I want them to get largish...3 feet or so. Here's hoping...maybe next year.

Carol

wow The Alchymist looks amazing

Patty, I've had Pink Martini for maybe 3-4 years so it has been through a few winters. It is from Palatine and the multiflora does well for me here. Everything on multiflora gets large for me (or what I consider large here) and is pretty cane hardy. Although, Summer Sun did have to be pruned quite a bit this year, but Pink Martini didn't. I'd say the flowers in some ways remind me of Pomponella, but darker pink and not as cupped or ball shaped as Pomponella. I don't know that makes sense. It blooms in tons of clusters like Pomponella. It does not get as tall for me as Pomponella,or quite as wide but it is getting wider, Mine is probably 4 feet tall and 4 feet wide. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Patty, I can echo hcarnevale's positive comments on Pink Martini. It's mostly cane hardy for me here in zone 5, and my word that rose LOVES to bloom. It's in crappy soil, part shade at best, and has big oak tree roots about 8 feet away. With all that, it's simply covered with blooms most of the summer. Nothing stops it. I think it's moving into my top 25 of my many roses, and I'm probably going to do the relatively rare move of duplicating this rose elsewhere in the garden. It's a show stopper for me.

Cynthia

Oh my thank you so much hcarnevale and Cynthia. Just great to get reports on a rose from other northerners. Multiflora is very good here as well adding additional size to the roses.

These are beautiful pictures. Your Alchemist is beyond gorgeous! It's also great to hear about Pink Martini. I wonder if multiple or would do well for me and my bass to play. It does grow around here... Does that matter?

Outstanding roses! Oh, The Alchymist, how I want you!!!

Oh how beautiful!! Pink martini looks fantastic and alchemist! I have been wanting that forever. Your roses look so beautiful!

I think Alchemist is one of those "roses of a lifetime". I had it in my first garden and it was unforgettable. So sorry I didn't take a picture of it for my album.

This was in z6 central Ohio. I also had Constance Spry, a once-blooming David Austin climber which covered a 14 X 16 trellis on one end of the house.

Thanks for sharing your pictures!

I think it's interesting how you go along and you think you know most all of the roses and then all of a sudden something new pops up that has not been on your radar and I'm looking at you pink martini.

Ok Hcarnivale, If you were to choose a row of 3 of either Wise Portia or pink martini which would you choose? Do you have a favorite between the 2 and why? I need the 3 or 4 of something and it doesn't need to be very tall. I love the bright pinks but I'd like your impression of the 2 of them.

So that no one would be surprised. The only reason that I haven’t gotten Pink Martini yet is the name change, color and bloom size. I could have sworn that I had this rose long ago as Pink Flower Circus/ Pink Veranda. Pretty sure that I had all of the veranda roses at one time. Maybe not this one thou. The bloom size average is 1 1/2 inches and is listed as a salmon pink. So as Hcarnivale said it would be a lot like Pomonella only in salmon pink. Pomonella is one of the healthiest roses ever developed. So I hope PM is as well. Decisions decisions

Patty, I was just reading some old posts on pink martini and you are right it did used to be part of the veranda series but they removed it because it got too big so you are correct.

Kristine, it is hard to say which one I'd choose. Pink Martini and Wise Portia are very different from each other. In my zone my Wise Portia only gets maybe 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide. It is own root which tend to be smaller in my zone than grafted roses and especially roses grafted on Multiflora. Wise Portia has large blooms on a small plant where as Pink Martini has many small blooms on a large plant. I love the large romantic blooms of Wise Portia and I'm sure she has more scent (being a DAR) than Pink Martini, however she can blackspot a bit late in Summer here. You are 3 zones warmer than me so I'm sure even an own root Wise Portia would be larger for you than me. I'd also guess that a Pink Martini grafted on multiflora would be a monster for you. The disease resistance on Pink Martini is exceptional. Do you have much blackspot pressure in your area?

Thank you hcarnivale, that helps a lot. Yes, we do get blackspot And for some reason it does seem worse this year on roses that have never had it before . I do like the bigger blooms may be wise Portia would be more suited to what I'm looking for. I already have Ivers rose and it's pretty big but the blooms are pretty small . The color of Wise Portia gets me every time.

I love Lady Emma Hamilton, great garden pics!