Oh for sure get it !

Mine came from hortico , kinda puny. And the first round or two of blooms I was wondering what was happening. But as it grows , by the end of season I was absolutely in love . It is a beautiful rose !! Mine got to a good size too . Then I moved it . Then it got ran over by a backing up mower ( why no emojis here to show disgust ! Lol ) . I’ll be getting it again . No or little fragrance I remember though ,

Thank you, Lilyfinch. I should probably hold off until next year, but I’ve been admiring it, then saw that it was on sale, but I would have to order at least $65 worth of roses to get free shipping and I’ve already ordered way more than I should have!

I have had it for quite a few years - moved it several years ago. It has lovely blooms - but doesnt know if it wants to be a climber or a shrub - looks more like a small climber to me. I have it in a place for a shrub, dont really want to move it so going to put a pretty trellis behind it and see what happens. It blooms all along the long branches. Wish I could figure out what is supposed to be, blooms are pretty.

Judith

I have had it for one season (I have three plants) and it is a very pretty little rose! Like Lily said, it has not much fragrance. Also, I had the same experience as alameda: it seemed to want to become a small climber. I'm going to prune them down hard this spring and see what they do.

One nice thing about this rose is that the flowers last a very, very long time on the bush. I have it planted next to a Pretty in Pink Eden climbing rose and I would SWEAR they were the same rose, except Leonardo is much smaller.

Wow flowers your pictures are stunning !!! I ordered my replacement from northland . Can’t wait to get it . It was vigorous the first year I thought . I want to share a photo from a lovely instagram page I follow , this lady had been so friendly and hers is why I ordered it .. but flowers your photos are even better!

I do think she has some stunning photos and roses y’all may enjoy

https://www.instagram.com/p/BXn8jmeBBzm/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=6ywtumgxttjj

Lilyfinch, Alameda, Rosylady and flowers thank you so much, sounds like a great rose! Love your pictures flowers, the color is gorgeous and it looks very healthy! Great photography!

And thanks Lilyfinch for sharing the Instagram picture, it’s lovely too, hers has so many blooms.

Your welcome. I could lose hours on instagram, all the beautiful gardens to see ! Most importantly, did we convince you to buy it yet ?!

Lilyfinch, thanks again! Yes, I was convinced to order it. I ordered two Leonardo Da Vinci roses, and a Quietness, which is another one I really wanted.

Sara Ann, I hope you love both as much as I do. They're both beautiful trouble free roses.

Lilyfinch, I also follow that account, but had never seen her Leo da Vinci.

flowersaremusic....wow wow wow! Your Leonardo is stunning! Can you tell me how you prune it? And if you remember, how did you prune it in the beginning? I'm tempted to cut mine down hard, but maybe thats's not necessary. I have 3 and they are about 18"-24" tall.

flowers, so nice to see photos of one of your roses. And what a well-shaped, healthy, beautiful rose it is. Such an attractive fence too.

Flowers, every time I see your gorgeous photos of Leo, I kick myself for not getting him already. Now I have no spot to grow him. Yours is just the best. So is Leo about 4 feet plus now? Hortico says he gets to 5 feet, a good sized rose. Diane

Rosylady, I was hoping someone could tell me! It's still young and all I've done is clip off the winter damage, which if I remember right, isn't a lot. I should give it a proper pruning this year. Unless I hear otherwise, I'll take it down by about a third.

Trish, you always say the nicest things. The fence isn't aging to silver gray fast enough, but it is nice to have something for climbers.

Diane, you're right, he's at about 4' I am hoping for long canes I can train along the fence this season. I know you don't have room, but I would LOVE to see what this rose would do in your garden. You're the one who convinced me to buy it.

Leo was on my rose list to purchase this year along with DeeLish, Francis Meilland, and Sweet Mademoiselle. But looking at my 5 HT/ floribunda/grandifloras I planted in 2018 (their stems are all black now after our frigid week, even with mulch they will be dead to the ground I'm afraid) I took them all off my list. Is it truly hardy in zone 5?

Ikaye, Leo is always listed as hardy to z5, meaning the roots will survive. I can't promise you he will never have black canes, but he should always come back every spring. I would go take a pic of mine, but there are a few inches of crunchy snow on the ground with a layer of ice below. So much depends on the kind of winter you get. This year isn't typical for any of us. I hope you give him a try and have great success.

Flowers: Your photos of Leonard DaVinci are Stunning!

Question: For everyone that grows this rose, does it always seem to consistently throw on long arching canes with blooms all along the canes? I’m asking because I have a spot for a moderate mannerly climber. So if this is a rose that will just naturally grow in this way then I think it may be the rose for me. Or do they sell a separate sport of this roses that’s a climbing variety I need to seek out? Please share all your updates and photos. This is one I’m super interested.

My Leo seems to be a small arching shrub that could work as a small climber if I were to tie the canes up. It blooms along along the canes and puts on a beautiful show in the spring with blooming after that. I live 2 hours from Houston and we experienced the coldest weather ever - down to 1 degree with snow and ice. It hit alot of my roses hard, though many are coming back. As for Leo.....most of the canes are still green and seemed not to miss a beat. I have no doubt it will burst forth with bloom in April or May. It is in full sun at the front of my pink bed and I have a small fan shaped trellis behind it. I do trim back canes when they get too long because it is in a smaller space. I have read there is a shrub form but I appear to have the small climber form. I had a photo someplace but cant find it but I guarantee for anyone on the fence about buying it, I dont think you will be sorry. I saw it in a small photo in a flower magazine - it was named - and it was so pretty I found out who sold it [Hortico at the time] and bought it.

Anne, Leo comes in both a shrub and climbing form. I'd start by looking at Hortico's website. And if you can get your hands on an old copy of Better Homes & Gardens (several years back, I now I've discovered I've misplaced my copy), you will see Leo at its finest, on the cover growing all over a Long Island cottage, and in bush form in the surrounding cottage plantings. There is a long featured article inside. They may have old copies for sale, or for viewing. Diane

Finally, I found the BH&G magazine issue with the stunning Leo photos. You can subscribe to view past issues for a fee, unfortunately, if you want to see the article. Just in case you have it squirreled away somewhere, or come across this issue, it is: March, 2015, and the photos really show off the climbing and shrub forms of Leonardo da Vinci. I was mistaken that it is not the cover photo, though. Diane

Could you take a photo of the photo, Diane, and post it here or would that be illegal or immoral? We don't want to see you get locked up.

I might need help from a granddaughter, but we could try. It's a busy time for them, so it might take a few days. I'm not sure what the copyright issues would be, but I won't worry about it. I could kill for that cottage. Sheila, this is off topic, but how is your gopher situation? Are the gopher hawks doing their job? I've got a vole problem right now in the grass--at least they aren't in the flower beds. The kitties are out some, but the weather continues to be wet and cold, so they're mostly indoors. They're my vole hawks. Diane

Diane, we have caught 14 gophers with the Gopher Hawk so far in 2021. (Last year it was 33 total). I have Gopher Hawks set all over. I have 6 roses in pots trying to regrow roots on the patio and I really think they are going to survive. They are almost to the leafing out stage. I have the gopher root cages purchased for them for when they go back into the ground.

The six in pots were from Dec.(1) January(4) and 2/13/21 for the 6th. None since then that I know of have been eaten. Maybe the traps or Milorganite scared them off. I'm not sure. I hate to dig out anything I don't have to to root cage if it hasn't had it's roots eaten. Kitty was hysterical with her plan to dig up the whole property.

I also have some cages for rabbit protection and Tom Cat poison black traps for voles which also seriously did some damage. The voles love clematis too, which really pisses me off.

The fight goes on, but I am trimming perennials and will prune a bit, then on to checking the irrigation system emitters.

I really only lost 3 roses total to gophers before I realized what was going on.

Of course no rose wants their roots eaten off. I hope they can put this behind them and move on with their lives.

OTOH, I'll probably be tugging on the rose bushes as I visit them to see if they are still attached for a while. March 2020 is when I found Alnwick Castle detached and rooted it in the pot. No more got eaten until December 2020 so maybe it is a Winter thing. I hope so. I wish we could chat on my patio.

I bet you could do that, Diane, as long as you give BH&G credit for the photos. It's free advertising for them.

Year before last I tried to get in touch with them about that issue, but their website had me going in circles and hitting dead ends. Even if you paid for the privilege of seeing past copies, here's no guarantee that one is still available. I went through their entire Instagram account hoping they might have posted it. You could post the pic and take it down after a day or so just to be extra sure.

Flowers and Sheila, I did take photos of Leo on the cottage today inside, so I'll see if I can get them up soon. I use an actual camera and download to my files. The photos probably won't look very good, but it's better than nothing. Flowers, I remember when you tried to find the issue on their website. One problem is that Meredith Publications, the old publisher, sold out to some investment company that bought up every magazine you can think of--from Martha Stewart Living to Time magazine. They killed the magazines (Country Gardens) that weren't making money, plundered assets, I'll bet, and sold off the more profitable magazines like Time. BH&G still struggles on, and the quality of issues varies. Sunset was killed off. I keep an eye on all this because they gave free subscriptions to a lot of people like me and my daughter. This went on for several years. Then they tried to get us to subscribe. I'm glad I didn't because Country Gardens was killed just after they wanted me to subscribe. I probably would have ended up with Land Fill Living, or something to take its place. After several years of free Time Magazine, they gave up on me. This is a long digression to explain why it may be difficult to find issues back to 2015--it's not the same company. Diane

Country Gardens was my favorite magazine. I have all the issues but one. I wondered what happened to it.......Southern Living is another favorite that seems to have changed, I dont like it as much. This spring, I didnt see as many garden magazines as normal. That used to be a favorite thing after the holidays - to pick up the gardening magazines and start looking forward to spring.

Sheila, I don't know if it's a winter thing or not. The only rose I lost to gophers was in winter years ago. But I lost a couple of tomato plants to them, and they tried to take out New Dawn, but did not succeed. This was back in 2007, and ND was too tough for the blasted gophers. One cane died completely back while the rest of the plant forged ahead. And then, like a resurrection from the grave, the New Dawn cane that had died back slowly began growing again, and triumphed over the grave, crawling its way to its fellows higher up. It was something to see, and took a couple of months. (I should put the previous paragraph into a novel). But back to your gophers, I think you will prevail with the gopher hawks, though what a lot of work, heartache, and expense those rodents have caused you. You almost hope some of them went back to the winery. I'll bet anything that winery is having gopher problems. I need to get serious with the voles. I did put some d-Con way down a couple of tunnels, but I need to do more. It's just too wet currently. As a Doc, do you know what is in d-Con? It's warfarin, so the rodents don't have a nice death. I suppose it's safer than strychnine. Good luck in the upcoming season. I wish there was a "Rent a Badger" Service in your area. Diane

The bloodthinner death of the d-con vs the neurotoxin death of the Tom Cat poison is too horrible to think about, Diane. I just want them to die underground so scavengers don't find them. I have the birds, dog, and feral cats to think of not to mention the badgers I need to attract.

I know this is all horrible, folks, to see another go to the dark side.

I already know. Let's hope Ingrid doesn't see this horror.

I like the "rent a badger" idea until Bart chimed in with the horrible damage she experienced. It's always something.

But Bart is in Italy. Maybe good old US badgers don't damage things like those Italian guys. I just know our badger did no harm (like a Doc--ha), but lethally did his or her job, and I have appreciated it ever since. If the gophers come back, I surely hope the badgers will follow. Diane

That is a good thought, Diane, that U.S. badgers are a different story. I surely could use their help. I do think the surviving gophers have to head back to the vineyard. I hope the word gets around.

My Leo is in its first growing season, came as a tiny thing from Heirloom. It has grown well. From reading others' experiences, I recognize that mine too looks like a delicate little climber and I will provide it with a small trellis. My main concern is that it has flowered very infrequently. Although it has grown many canes and looks lush, I don't see any flower buds at the ends, so am wondering why this is. My roses adjacent to it have been flowering with abundance (Arctic Blue, Celestrial Night, Plum Perfect). I'm in zone 8B in Austin, TX with about 8 hours of sun. I fertilize regularly. Does anyone have any thoughts on why my Leo is not blooming? Should I wait until next season?

I can't believe I haven't posted the Leo photos from BH&G yet. I did post them on the seasonal thread some time ago. HMF says there is a climbing and a bush form of Leo. From the looks of these photos, he must be quite a climber. I'd like to know how this homeowner accomplished this feat of rose growing. The house, owned by Jack Pearson, is located in the Hamptons, Long Island (of course).

Flowers, now I've got to decide which of your glorious roses I should grow: Leo, or Queen of Elegance. Which is your favorite of the two? You have made this very difficult for me. Diane

Comment

9B, Los Angeles Valley area, SoCal. I purchased a 5 gallon mature Leonardo Da Vinci from a local nursery in Jan this year. The label says it’s nurtured by Stars. 50+bucks. I planted it in a rectangular planter which is deep but narrow. I had to trim off some roots to fit it all in the planter. I was quite worried because it had a late start. About a month later, it started to grow new leaves. I have to say that all Meiland’s roses I own have such beautiful deep green shinny foliage. It gets around 5 hours afternoon sunlight, and so far it has bloomed non-stop for two weeks. The flowers have the most delicious Barbie pink with a metal hue. It’s the highlight of my garden. In China where I come from, people call Leonardo Da Vinci “plastic rose” to emphasize its long-lasting blooms. The nickname holds water! Each blossom can hold about three weeks. The temperature here is around 55-80. Two things I’d like to highlight.

1. The fragrance. A lot of people told me that Leonardo is almost perfect, but the only flaw is no scent. But my Leonardo smells quite good. It has very lovely fruit and old rose fragrance. Medium intensity. Maybe because I’m a wine drinker so my nose is more sensitive. But my point is, the mature Leonardo should have stronger scent than the younger ones.
2. Disease resistance. The CL Iceberg I got from the same nursery infected with fungus and I could only spray milk because I released hundreds of ladybugs to eat aphids and it actually worked very well this year. Quickly it spread to Don Juan, and eventually Leonardo Da Vinci. It’s not too out of control so far.

Conclusion: beautiful healthy foliage. Late start than other roses. The mature plant has medium fruity fragrance. Disease resistance is not exceptional but good. The blooms are long-lasting in flushes. Each cane has 3-5 buds and they will bloom in the same time because the middle one last long enough to wait for the others. Highly recommended!

Hongyu Li,

If everyone gave such a thorough evaluation of a rose, it would make the Roses Forum the go to place on the internet on information about roses. Thanks for the details....very much appreciated!

Moses

I used to grow it in part shade where it got a lot of blackspot. I gave it to my nearby rose friend, Dickie. It was great in his garden so I took a cutting and now have my own plant of it growing in more sun. It is much , much healthier in more sun and is overall a good plant.