Yours is just beautiful, Hoang! I’m a big fan of Love Song. It’s one of the few roses I have planted in a fake half whiskey barrel, in full sun. Not many roses are happy in that situation in my So CA garden. Love Song seems to thrive on the heat. Since mine is potted, it hasn’t grown enormous either. I’m sure the container is keeping my Love Song’s size in check. If it wasn’t such a pain giving the roses enough water during the summer, I’d plant more in large containers.

I’m impressed with Love Song as a cut flower, as well. The blooms last a long time cut and on the bush. The only thing lacking, as you said, is fragrance. I can forgive Love Song for its lack of fragrance because it’s an otherwise perfect lavender rose. A rose needs to be strongly fragrant for me to be able to get any scent in the dry heat that I get. Love Song’s color is a totally different lavender than Poseidon is. I like them both, although Poseidon wants to be SO tall.

Is yours planted in the ground, Hoang? Grafted, or ownroot? Mine was purchased locally, so it’s on Dr. Huey. I’ve heard Love Song can take a while to establish on its own roots.

Thanks for sharing your pictures, Hoang Ton:-). I especially like the picture with the raindrops on the bloom. The color is wonderful, plus I rarely get to see raindrops on roses here. Lisa

Hi Lisa, mine is planted in the ground and they don't seem to get that big either. It stays relatively small compare to other plants, even in its 2nd year. It is grafted onto Dr. Huey rootstock.

Beautiful rose. Thank you for posting a pic of the pinker-leaning blooms. I purchased LS as a band last year and have it growing on in a pot. The few blooms I got last year were light pink. Hoping it lavenders up for me this year.

Hoan ! I love all your roses there so well cared for an the area is always so tidy .

Hoang Ton,

Beautifully grown and photographed. You are an rtist with the camera. I have my eye on it for my garden. How is Love Song's black spot resistance?

Moses

Hey Kenneth, good to see you hear. I know you from one of those FB rose groups. I do wish to have a backyard like yours so I can collect more DA roses.

Thank you for your kinda words Moses. I find that Love Song is above average for blackspot resistant. For reference I rate Heirloom as poor for disease resistant.

My favorite colour are they fragrant?

Nope

Hoang Ton,

Thanks for the info. I tried Heirloom years ago and shovelpruned it, not for its poor black spot resistance, but because I could never get it to produce anything but deformed flowers.

Moses

I had two at my previous home and like Lisa, they were in full sun all day. They performed exceptionally well. Would definitely recommend.

I got a grafted (on doc huey) Love Song @ 3 yrs ago. It totally defoliated here from black spot whereas most of my roses don't. It was good in the spring when I first got it but once it was super humid and raining every day, in the summer, it quickly declined. I am no-spray so it may be, that this rose needs spraying in my climate. It hasn't totally died but it is pretty much a ghost- just hanging on. I should sp'd it but I like to give them every chance. It could be I got a dud. It is pretty enough I might try again if I found it cheap. It would be a gamble here.

I have a hard time choosing between love song and violet’s pride. Any recommendation that is not “get both”? LOL.

claire

So gorgeous! I like the way you add the videos, reallly nice. I also was eyeing both. I read that Violet's Pride had a tendency to get more pink in the heat, which is a shame because for reasons I cannot explain, I am more drawn to VP but I do not want a rose that pinks up! I prefer lavenders to stay lavender. :) Can anyone with both weigh in?

I think black violet is a deep true colour!

I love your rose posts, however, they make me want to shop from your garden and that is dangerous! ; )

I have both Love Song and Violet’s Pride in S CA zone 10a. I love them both, but for different reasons. Although my Love Song is in a resin half whisky barrel, I believe it would be smaller than Violet’s Pride if planted in the ground. Very few roses can handle the “pot life” in full So CA sun. Love Song can and does in my garden. I do have various low growing plants around the base of the barrel. Those plants keep the barrel itself from being hit by full sun, so Love Song’s roots don’t cook. I get far more blooms from Violet’s Pride than from Love Song. Love Song blooms in flushes, with breaks between flushes. Love Song doesn’t pink up in the heat at all in my garden. It just fades a bit, as Hoang mentioned. Violet’s Pride does go pinkish when it’s very hot and sunny. It’s not an attractive pink, more like a dull Pepto-Bismol pink. She only does that when we get an extremely hot and dry heatwave. She doesn’t do her “Pepto routine” as a summer/fall long thing for me, just on “special” occasions. Violet’s Pride also sometimes has blooms with fewer petals during extreme heatwaves. In the spring, my Violet’s Pride will sometimes have blooms that are fuchsia in the middle, and lavender on the outside. They are especially gorgeous when they do this. Usually, my Violet’s Pride blooms are lavender. My Violet’s Pride is becoming rather large and wide. It’s pruning time, so I’ll cut her back severely. Violet’s Pride is still trying to bloom today, while Love Song seems to be waiting for warmer temps. Violet’s Pride blooms currently look damaged by the up and down weather that I’ve had lately. Her blooms have been exposed to near freezing nighttime temps, rain, then 2 days of 79F temps with very dry Santa Ana winds. This afternoon, the blooms will be drizzled on again.

I have no experience with black spot in this dry climate, so I can’t help out on that issue. However, I have never seen rust or powdery mildew on either rose. I do get powdery mildew on quite a few of my roses during certain times of the year, rust only occasionally. Violet’s Pride had a giant grafted Abraham Darby planted next to her for several years. Abraham Darby was literally entwined into Violet’s Pride by summertime each year. Abe suffered from extreme rust by late summer/fall every year. Violet’s Pride never had a speck on her, despite Abe actually physically touching her.

As a side note; I grew tired of my grafted Abe’s enormous size and rust issues (although his blooms were gorgeous.) I had my son remove Abe Darby the first, and I planted a new, own root AD in the same place. I’m hoping the own root AD II will remain smaller, and have better disease resistance.)

Violet’s Pride has fragrance. Love Song does not. Violet’s Pride blooms are smaller, but there are more of them and they are sometimes produced in clusters. During Violet’s Pride’s big spring flush, one or two stems make a large bouquet. On the other hand, Violet’s Pride blooms don’t last nearly as well in a vase compared to Love Song’s larger blooms.

I hope this helps a bit. I’ll hunt for some pictures later. It looks like the rain is about to start, so I need to get the patio cushions in, etc. Lisa

Thank you Lisa for that detailed comparison! It really helps a lot!

claire

thank you for the detailed information @Lisa Adams! What a thoughtful writeup. Very relevant to me as I have similar dry heat climate. Violet's Pride is sounding better to me now than Love Song.

thanks Lisa

Own root Abe is a nice plant. Highly recommend it.

I got a love song. It sat there a d never rebloomed. A neighbor wanted to try it. She put that plant in the ground a d it's been great. Tom C. who created it has some standards of love song at the Huntington. Woo hoo! When those are blooming look out! Everybody wants to stand next to them for a picture. They took about 3 years to get established. I gave up too soon.

Kitty, I’m happy to hear you recommend an own root Abe Darby. I loved his blooms, could put up with some mottled foliage from RMV, but somehow DA’s on Dr. Huey have had more diseases than any other roses. I certainly don’t need the extra vigor from grafting in my small yard.

I’ll bet the Love Song standards are beautiful! The blooms are large, and the color is so eye catching. I did once purchase a Love Song standard at my local nursery. I left it potted too long, and it wasn’t properly watered while I was out of town. In spite of my attempts to revive it, only rootstock came back from the base.

Hopefully you get to enjoy your Love Song at the neighbor’s house, Kitty. It’s a wonderful rose in our climate. My older Love Song(that I still grow) was purchased locally, so it was large and a good rebloomer from the start. Lisa

My two Love Song rose plants, which I've grown since they came on the market, are among my favorite roses. I love their large, blue lavender blooms which never go pinkish. My plants can really take the heat and dry air here, but are a bit cold tender during extra cold winters. This winter has been mild, and I don't think they've gone truly dormant. They've been green all winter, as have a lot of my roses. They are getting large, particularly the plant that grows in a more protected spot. The larger one is about 5' wide and 4' tall, wider than tall. Diane

Anyone know how Love song compares to Poseidon/Novalis? They look very similar to me. I have never been able to grow a lavender rose successfully in my garden.

Canada zone 5b is going to be a challenge, jjpeace. I'm pretty sure Love Song couldn't take zone 5b, but you were asking about Poseidon and Novalis, which I can't help you with. I just don't think lavender roses are very cold hardy in general. Someone out there, please educate me about this. Diane

Diane, you get the most beautiful, deep colors and ruffles on your Love Song blooms! I never see the ruffles you show in that last picture. Your Love Songs are incredible!

JJpeace, I know nothing about cold hardiness, but I do grow both Love Song and Poseidon. They’re quite different. If I can answer any questions that don’t pertain to our vastly different climates, I’d be happy to give it a shot:) Lisa

Thank you all for the response. That explains a lot why lavender roses struggles in my garden. I may take you on your offer, Lisa. Thanks

Diane, lovely photos! Do I see Dainty Bess in there? I love that rose. I dont know why I haven't bought it yet.

I grow Love Song in South Florida zone 10. It is hot and humid here during our summers. I do spray for BS.... and LS is healthy for me. And mine has a nice fragrance.

However, if yours has no fragrance, you might ask a couple of other people to see if they can detect any scent from your plant. I say this because I have NOT met a Fragrant Cloud that I can smell. Even the FC that one most fragrant at our rose society show, I could not detect scent. I also sometimes have a hard time smelling Mister Lincoln....