I can only comment on Jacques Cartier, aka Marchesa Boccella, having once grown it in my own garden. There is a large, local public rose garden within an arboretum near me, with which I once had an affiliation. The rose garden there had six, mature, magnificent Jacques Cartier bushes. I was there when they were planted in about 1990, and there in about 2005 when they, at the peak of their glory, and for a whimsical reason, were dug up and discarded. The reason presented was to make room for new, modern roses. Sadly, I had no power to prevent their demise.

The JC bushes came from old Pickering Nursery, CAN., as bare root, multiflora root stock grafted. They were grown in just average, mostly clay type soil, sloped so well draining, and generously watered as needed all growing season long through a very good in ground watering system. The 6 JCs took of growing like gang busters and within 6-7 years time they reached a maturity that leveled out every year there after. The mature bushs attained a 50" height by season's end every year, with a spring pruning of no more than being reduced to 30" height.

Flower production on those Jacques Cartier was incredible. From spring flush until fall the bushes never let up. They were dead headed faithfully, sprayed with insecticide and fungicide every two weeks, which kept their foliage pristine. The 3" quartered, button eyed, medium/light pink blooms came in short necked clusters of 3-4 flowers. Their fragrance was powerful and intoxicating. Flush after flush of blooms came non-stop from spring to fall. The bushes were winter hardy to their tips in zone 6. The bush form of these were very vertical, tall and not proportionately wide, but narrow. 50" tall x 24-6" wide is pretty much their bush habit, tall and narrow. The bushes thrived on their multiflora root stocks. When the bushes were removed they literally had trunks from which all basal growth emerged 10" above ground level, no lower, ever. They looked like very short trunked trees. All growth was extremely vertical, svertical, rebar strong with rararely having a stem bending, even after a heavy rain and strong wind.e removed they literally had trunks from which all basal growth emerged 10" above ground level, no lower, ever. They looked like very short trunked trees. All growth was extremely vertical, vertical, rebar strong with rararely having a stem bending, even after a heavy rain and strong wind.

Flower production on those Jacques Cartier was incredible. From spring flush until fall the bushes never let up. They were dead headed faithfully, sprayed with insecticide and fungicide every two weeks, which kept their foliage pristine. The smallish, 2.5"-3.0," quartered, button eyed, medium/light pink blooms, came in short necked clusters of 3-4 flowers. Their fragrance was powerful and intoxicating. Flush after flush of blooms came non-stop from spring to fall. The bushes were winter hardy to their tips in zone 6. The bush form of these were very vertical, tall and not proportionately wide, but narrow. 50" tall x 24-26" wide is pretty much their bush habit, tall and narrow. The bushes thrived on their multiflora root stocks. When the bushes were removed they literally had 3.5" diameter trunks from which all basal growth emerged 10" above ground level, no lower, ever. They looked like very short trunked trees. All growth was extremely vertical, rebar strong with rarely having a stem bending, even after a heavy rain and strong wind. When they were removed they literally had 3.5" diameter trunks from which all basal growth emerged 10" above ground level, no lower, ever. They looked like very short trunked trees. All growth was extremely vertical, vertical, rebar strong with rararely having a stem bending, even after a heavy rain and strong wind.heavy rain and strong wind.e removed they literally had trunks from which all basal growth emerged 10" above ground level, no lower, ever. They looked like very short trunked trees. All growth was extremely vertical, rebar strong with rarely having a stem bending, even after a heavy rain and strong wind.

In my garden, Jacques Cartier performed poorly. Mine was own root. I could not find a grafted JC. It sprawled and grew weakly. After a few years I shovel pruned it. Not being grafted could have been the reason. To perform at its best, I think JC must be grown grafted. It was developed at a time when roses were routinely grafted. Possibly, rose breeders then took this into account, and depended on good root stocks to augment their roses to give peak performances. If I could find a Jacques Cartier on multiflora, I would be very much inclined to try this great rose again.

Sorry, I don't know anything about Yolande D'Aragon.

Moses.

@Moses How would you rate IT'S fragrance? 😊

On a 5 star scale, definitely 5.

Moses.

One last thing, although the foliage of Jacques Cartier is pretty abundant, it always looks slightly wilted. This is natural to it.

I would be careful about purchasing an own root JC.

@Moses A 5? Wow, must be amazing. . .

And great to know!

And when you say "be careful", is there a false/faulty JC in the trade or?

Yolande d’Aragón hands down! It has a much stronger fragrance than Jacques Cartier imo, but I love the delicate blooms of Jacques and it has a bushier habit compared to the more upright growth of Yolande. I think they both have thier place. I have only had JC for a year though, so it could be a rose that takes time to develop it’s full fragrance, plus it hasn’t repeated for me, so far. YdA had both repeat (not stellar, but it’s there) and a strong fragrance from the start.

Wonderful! Thank you @Nollie

I should add, Ian, that both are grafted (on Laxa, as the vast majority of roses in Europe are). The grafted versus own-root as well as your particular conditions play a big part in how roses perform of course!

Nollie, most certainly! I think that I will be buying both Jacques Cartier & Yolande D'Aragon own root. Though they will have to live in a pot, probably

Ian,

I'm going by how wonderfully the Jacques Cartier grew grafted on R. multiflora root stock in the public garden, and how pitifully it grew for me in my garden on its own roots. It did take the JCs in the public garden to get to their 3rd.-4th. year to reach their stride. Their repeat bloom was as good as any top modern hybrid tea. Their disease resistance in a no spray garden, I cannot verify since in the public garden they were on a rigid spray schedule of both a conventional insecticide and fungicide. At home here, my sad JC had no chance to do anything more than fizzle out. I believe being grown own root was the reason. It just needed to be grown grafted, and possibly best on R. multiflora, to excel as the ones in the public garden did.

Moses.

@Moses How strange!? One of them type of roses I suppose. . . ?

Thanks anyway. Great to know such information!

Ian,

Maybe I should have given my JC more time? Who knows?

Moses.

Ian,

Many older varieties of roses, especially hybrid teas of years gone by, were bred to be grown grafted, which was the standard means of reproducing roses commercially then. When I started in roses in the early 1960's, own root roses were unheard of! Roses then, except for mini roses, were never meant to be grown own root. It didn't matter how good or bad that they did on their own roots.

When the own root rose era came to be, from the 1990's on, it was found that many formerly grafted varieties were wimps on their own roots. They became obsolete in the new, own root era except for the most vigorous ones. Nowadays, particularly after the introduction of the shrub roses: Bonica from Meilland, and the Knock Outs by Will Radler, roses are bred to excel on their own roots, and wimps are discarded by the rose breeders in their first cull.

Moses.

You should have gotten a real JC and not an MB.

I had an own-root JC that came from Royall River, who got their roses from Canadian wholesalers. Keeping it under 6 ft was a challenge.

Because of the confusion over the ID - are these two different roses? Why is there this massive difference in performance? (It doesn't seem to be virus related) - *where* you get this rose from matters more than any other rose I can think of.

Unfortunately, we lost it to RRD.

The controversy over the rose of dual names, Jacques Cartier=Marchesa Boccella continues.

The R. multiflora grafted Jacques Cartiers were from old, long closed, Pickering Nursery. They grew in the public garden near me. My Jacques Cartier, own root, sold to me by Heirloom, went by the same name, Jacques Cartier.

Moses.