Beautiful, Jeri!

Love him!! How sumptuous! :-)

Really gorgeous! After reading about this rose on a recent thread about fragrant roses, I'm very tempted.

KS, I think it should do well for you.

Howdy Jeri, did you ever get EdB on fortuniana? I have mine planted in the ground in my zone 3 greenhouse. It's one of the few roses I've grown there that is still with me. My space is 16 ft by 32 ft. Roses have to earn their keep. Souvenir de la Malmaison lasted three months before I ripped it from the ground (no shovel) and tossed it out in the snow---mildew, balling and the fragrance of drug store hand lotion. Eew. What a disappointment! Steve H.

Jeri lamented how rotten it was for her. I suggested the issue was that own root, it lacked the vigor to outgrow the climate issues there, so I budded it on virus indexed Fortuniana and gave it to her. I think she'll verify the extra vigor from the better roots helped make all the difference.

Steve H. -- Yes. Kim saved me on Eugene de Beauharnais. Where it was a rusted mess on its own roots (in my conditions, anyhow) it is kissing-clean, budded to Fortuniana -- I can't thank Kim enough for that.

It's also, clearly, going to be a larger plant -- though not a giant, it's already easily outpaced the 18 inches or so of the own-root plant.

Given that, I've wondered if the same treatment would help Souv. de la Malmaison.

I know how wonderful it CAN be, in a compatible environment. Here, though, it was as you described: Mildewed, balled, some of the buds so crusted over with mildew that there was no hope of them opening. ('Indigo' was another that did that here.)

As far as "Memories of the Bad House" is concerned, it think most of it is climate. I have grown that nasty thing own root and I've had it budded, both climbing and bush and it was NEVER worth providing water to in any of the four places I've had it (Santa Clarita Valley, San Fernando Valley, Pacific Palisades). Rust, mildew, balled blooms... Souv de St Anne's was BETTER, but not GOOD. It, like every other "Bourbon" I have ever been cursed to try, had foliage issues in those climates which DEMANDED fungicidal intervention and that I simply will not pay for, waste my efforts doing nor expose myself nor those around me to the toxicities of. There are places it is "the queen of beauty and fragrance". It is NOT in any of the aforementioned places.

And yet -- and yet . . . Souv. in the right place can be a wonderful thing . . .

I think it likes dry heat. I have a neighbor who got one (I was distressed, thinking it would not like it here), and she put it on her back deck, in full sun, in a West facing corner where even people are too hot in the summer. I expected it to die, but it loved it!

Jackie

Jackie -- I suspect you are correct. (It is great in San Jose.)

Santa Clarita and the San Fernando Valley were both dry heat..nope, rust/mildew. It took PRIDE in rusting and mildewing. Jeri, remember all those SdlM at Limberlost? Every one of them mildewed to beat the band and they suffered NO water stress.

YUP YUP YUP.

I keep saying this ... Location, Location, Location.

A dog-show friend asked me the other day, where she could get "Grandmother's Hat." I was happy to advise on that, because I know it will be great where she lives, maybe 15-20 miles from here.

Yes. I knew how bad SDLM was at Limberlost -- but I was STILL stubborn enough to try to grow it. 3 tries!

Oddly enough, SdlM is my best bloomer, mildews a very little only sometimes when it's moist, does not ball and the flowers always look beautiful. It blooms 12 months out of the year. I have crummy soil and intense solar radiation, but it just keeps on looking good, even now when it's been rainy off and on for weeks, not even a spot of mildew. Please, don't hurt me, anyone, lol.

Sure. You live in the desert. that rose likes heat, and seems to loathe humid air.