My Indigo‘s blooms fried when temps shot up to 94 degrees a few days ago. Indigo grows (and sweats it out during unseasonable highs) on the west side of my house. Hopefully, I’ll have a few more open blooms this weekend and can photo those. The color change from deep fuchsia-plum to inky violet edges is a sight to behold! In the meantime, here are some Indigo buds with long, showy sepals.

Nollie, your roses are beautiful with the magical droplets of water on their petals! I had to dig and pot up my RdR so that a wall could be repaired, but her potted remains are blooming anyway. RdR has to be one of the most resilient, deliciously scented and seductive old roses. YdA is surely one of the most divinely scented.

Damask rose Botzaris budding up for the show.

Damask rose La Ville de Bruxelles has started opening.

I totally agree with your depiction of RdR, portlandmysteryrose! I wish it would rebloom better for me though, but it’s in a pot and probably outgrown it by now. It does stay a beautifully rounded, compact shrub of around 2 1/2 ft in there though, so I’m in two minds whether to move it to a spot in the ground..

I love your Jacques Cartier, one I have been considering. I tried Indigo but it hated my hot summers - the blooms were poor and stunted.

Nollie, your RdR is such a lovely pot rose! It is picture perfect! I might be inclined to keep yours as is, too, if I were growing it in your garden. The structure of the plant is so nice even after bloom. I did finally receive scattered blooms throught the summer from mine, but it had to grow 20 years and reach huge proportions. Deadheading and a very light pruning after bloom helps, but size and age are probably the most influential remontancy factors. I’ll post a photo of before the move and after the move later in the thread.

Indigo really hates hot sun, it seems. Mine lost some of its dappled shade recently and absolutely fried. I think it will either need shade replacement or a move. I encourage you to try Jacques Cartier. It fades faster in hot sun than morning sun only or dappled shade. And it will bloom well in dappled shade in hot climates in my experience. JC is one of my favorite roses. I have a tiny, tiny garden and grow 3, including my climber! Carol

The Resilience of Rose de Rescht

In late winter, much needed repairs were done to our front stone wall, and we had no choice but to remove and pot up the plants in the beds. Twenty-year-old Rose de Rescht was literally hacked to pieces and potted up, and I kept the largest section as a replacement. Fast forward 2 months. What is left of RdR has leafed, budded and begun to bloom in its nursery pot. This charming and deliciously fragrant old rose is a true survivor!

Before:

After

For perspective, here are a few more of RdR pre removal. You can see the stones in the wall falling apart in one of the photos. (Sigh.) I know that RdR will recover pretty quickly and become its glorious self again. Three years will make a nice shrub. Five years should be spectacular.

RdR is at the top in the background.

I’m going to keep RdR at about half this size when it bounces back. RdR had filled literally 1/3 of the entire bed!

More Botzaris

Well, given the size of yours in your the before photos Carol, I think I will keep RdR in a pot after all! I do deadhead and shorten the odd cane, but it seems to maintain it’s shape with very little help from me. I will treat it to a larger pot and fresh potting medium in the autumn.

You have some real beauties.

Nollie, Thank you! I absolutely love your potted RdR! I am considering releasing my RdR into the bed on the west side of my house where Indigo is currently sited. I may dig and keep my Indigo in a pot on the cooler east side of my house with other potted roses like aggressive Charles de Mills. I keep him well contained. I hope RdR will tolerate the hot west sun and being wedged into the oven micro climate between my house and fence better than Indigo does. Indigo truly hates to burn!

A freshly opened Indigo bloom which is much pinker than usual due to the hot spell a few days ago.

The other blooms which fried in the sudden heat.

One of my most deliciously scented and favorite raspberry blooms: Paul Barden’s Crested Damask. Just look at those sepals ruffled around the silky petals like a jester’s collar. I love this rose! I need to free it from its pot and let it grace my garden beds.

Sounds as if you pack a hell of lot into your small garden, Carol. Finding space in the ground is always difficult for me too, even though I have three acres. Most is steeply forested rocky terraces with just a few areas around the house on the lower terrace plantable - with the help of raised beds and a HUGE of added organic material. Every year I vow to reduce the number of pots, but they just keep multiplying..

Yolande d’ Aragón’s blooms, I’m pleased to say, recovered from the rain to open fully:

This and RdR are the only two I have in this class so far, but you are very much enabling me to try JC!

Nollie, I spotted your garden on the archway thread. It’s beautiful! It sounds like paradise with forested areas and roses around the house. I have to use a lot of organic amendments, too. Our native soil is red clay. If you try JC, which I encourage of course, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. Here’s another La Ville de Bruxelles bloom doing what it does best…even in the rainy spring. Your YdA sets a high standard for roses in the rain! Carol

La Ville de Bruxelles

Okay Carol you know my garden doesn't start blooming until after many on here, but I FINALLY have one single bloom to add to this thread lol. This is one of my favorite roses in my garden, flirting with being my #1. High Country Banshee. This is the third year it's bloomed, and is much more petal packed than the last 2 years. Hopefully I can add a full bush shot in a week or two. Thought to be alba/damask.

Beautiful blooms both, Carol and Magpie. Such a wonderful class.

Oh I know all about tough clay soil Carol, mine is hideous, rocky and shallow. Not an easy environment to grow things, but it is our paradise, thank you! We are looking to downsize to a property nearer the more temperate coast in the next couple of years - advancing age and all that - but those plans keep getting put off because it will be such a hard place to leave.

A couple more shots of Paul Barden’s Crested Damask. Gorgeous color, charmimg fringed sepals, strong and delicious old rose fragrance, healthy, easy keeper. I love this rose!

La Ville de Bruxelles sepals.

Those are so beautiful 😍

The same rose, High Country Banshee, this time with a looser bloom. Still just as lovely though.

more Crested Damask

Magpie, your HC Banshee is lovely! It is the epitome of perfect OGR. Like you, I enjoy all the stages of the spring show—buds, unfurling, full blooms. Does it smell scrumptious?

Sandy 🙌 Isn’t Crested Damask AWESOME? Why doesn’t everybody grow this rose?! How do you train yours? I am thinking of trellising mine because it needs to go in a narrow space, but I’m not 100% sure about the habit. HMF says a tuteur will work. 🤔

@portlandmysteryrose I remember it smelling lovely 2 years ago, but last year the hail knocked off the buds, and this year I can't get my nose up to where the few open blooms are. It was set to have a big spring flush this year but the squirrels have stolen most of the buds already :( they've also taken at least half of Hippolyte's buds too, and I've yet to see one open. I only hope that one day these bushes grow big enough to where the squirrels can't reach most of the buds, or else that there are so many that the missing ones aren't noticable. Sigh!

Okay I got a sniff, yes it has a lovely fragrance, strong, & classic rose. The bloom I sniffed was warmed from the evening sun and wafted a bit which in my climate is rare. I really adore this one. Sadly, so do the squirrels.

I have absolutely no idea what the name of my rose I inherited is. It looked mostly dead when I bought the house, and the owners suggested I get rid of it (“someone planted that about 15 years ago and it doesnt bloom”). Look what 2 years of care gave me! What a delight! Very strong fragrance, I am in love!

Madam Hardy

Lovely photos! I only have a few in this category but thought I'd share.

Song of the stars

Found rose i think might be Pompom Spong

A seedling of mine from Indigo. Isn't she cute? A dainty rose in most respects.

@crysta_nebraska, your rose looks modern, from what I see of it in the photos, but it sounds like you did a great job on it, and have been suitably rewarded! Do you have other roses? Have you tried the old roses?

Chris209, seedlings are so much fun! Congratulations on yours.

Indigo with a bonus Mme. Plantier.

Ispahan

Yours is a much darker pink than mine, Mad.

Sheila, it's usually lighter. I think part of it is the lighting in the photograph, but it really is darker this year. I'm having a hard time telling is from its neighbor, Oelleit Flammand, and that hasn't been true in the past.

Wow! I didn't know it could be that dark. Here's mine.

Checking out my "Indigo" when I came across this surprising bloom...