I’ve always wanted to visit.

They are in great shape.

Wonderful tour, window.

Thank you.

In the photo, Purple Rain’s foliage seemed paler than what I would have expected. Approaching yellowish. Was it that way in person?

I remember Peter K writing he had planted an allée of PR from his house in Maine down to the sea.

What a great treat and atremendously helpful presentation, Windowsill Gardener. Thank you!. Do you know if PRRG publishes a list of the roses they grow?

Moses.

Dancing In The Dark impressed me the most. Of course many varieties there were just over a great flush or were just commencing a fine flush, but at the time of your visit they were 'between acts,' and were obviously passed over because they did not fit your itinerary. This means you are going back in a fortnight to give us a second feast for our eyes? Please? 😁

Moses.

Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden roses are:

1. Pretty much completed transition to new varieties replacing older, disease susceptible varieties. The new varieties are selected for excellent disease resistance.*

2. Minimally sprayed with fungicides.....the garden is NOT completely no spray. Whether conventional fungicides or organic, or both are used, I do not know.*

*AI provided information.

Moses.

I don't like the black spot I see on PRRG's True Bloom True Gratitude. Which rose I just planted at the back of my rose bed a couple weeks ago. I am attempting to grow it as a stand alone bush, and not as a climber. It appears, Windowsill Gardener, that your bush shot of it shows no support the I can see. Perhaps that's the intention of the staff there, to see how it does as a tall shrub. Hope they and I are successful.

Thank you again, Windowsill Gardener, this post gives me much study material! 🤔

Moses.

Windowsill, that tour was spectacular! Thanks so much for taking the time to share it with us: bush shots and close-ups, and with the info on what we're seeing :-D

Windowsill, I really enjoyed this. The plants do look great.

Susan -- You are so sweet. I was just so excited to see so much to admire in the garden. Sometimes I go in mid-summer and there's not much going on. But I thought the timing might be good today based on roses I've been seeing in my own neighborhood.

Rifis -- It's worth at trip sometime if you can make it. Since I don't have an outdoor garden, it's how I get my true rose "fix." The Brooklyn Botanic Garden's rose garden is lovely, as well, and has a somewhat more romantic, informal feel. That's so cool about Kukielski planting an allee of Purple Rain; I can only imagine the effect. That bed of it at NYBG looked like some sort of fantastical rose carpet. No, I don't think the foliage was pale in person. I was shooting in really harsh early afternoon light and I think it's glare of the leaves.

Moses, it's funny -- I always say I'm going to visit for the spring flush, and then instead I visit at these odd times and it's a suprise to see what's in bloom; sometimes not much at all. I think every Kordes rose in the garden must have made some sort of agreement that mid-August was when they were going to put on a big show haha.

But as it happens, I actually will be going back in three weeks because my mother will be in town and she's a big rose lover, too. There were some varieties starting to bud that I hope will be blooming when we go back.

I thought of you because I know you are always on the lookout for black-spot-resistant varieties. Well, I also have to share what must have been the scariest of the black spot victims, this unlabeled rose. Yikes!

Poor rose.

Yes, the gardeners there had two large True Gratitudes growing as tall free-standing shrubs. I see what you mean about the black spot on that one I photographed. But in comparison to some of the roses that had rampant black spot and defoliation, it looked good!

I don't think they publish a rose list. The Brooklyn Botanic does have have a database that includes their roses, but I've never found one for NYBG. However, their rose curators are extremely nice/helpful via email, and you could try requesting one: https://www.nybg.org/about/contact/

Here are some other roses that looked healthy; not all perfect, but good in comparison to some of the black spot victims. No real suprises here, but I'm sharing since I know you are passionate about finding healthy rose varieties.

Beverly

Savannah

Mandarin Ice

Ruby Ice

Wedding Bells

Belinda's Dream

Summer Romance

Actually, this one was a surprise to me. For some reason, I thought Celestial Night was one of those roses that was healthy out West but not here.

Plum Perfect. Francis Meilland, which looked quite well, in the background.

True Inspiration

Years ago, they used to have an Earth-Kind trial bed located in a completely different part of the garden, and I loved visiting it. I think they gave the roses no care after the second year, or something like that, if I recall correctly. I loved checking in on those roses and seeing how they did on their own, some wonderfully well, and I miss those beds. But it was just a limited-time thing.

One important thing fellow Roses Forum friends. Anybody who gardens with roses who lives where black spot is absent cannot comprehend how difficult it is to grow roses with pristine foliage where black spot is epic in its demoralizing effect. Seeing such pristine foliage almost in every of Windowsill Garden's photos is nearly impossible to achieve in black spot country. What you take for granted in low humidity California and elsewhere so blessed, we where it's humid dread the summers.

Moses.

Windowsill - nice rose tour!! My faves are the wonderfully colored Candy Cane Cocktail and Easter Basket. :) :) Did you have a favorite rose bush?

Carol -- that bed of Candy Cane Cocktail and Dark Desire had a big wow factor for me.

I was really taken with the blooms of Gypsy Sue, and the plant looked good; I just couldn't get a decent shot since it's kind of growing behind a bench and some signage.

They have a huge shrub of The Shepherdess that is also always a favorite of mine. It always seems to just soldier through some black spot in the summer and then puts on an wonderful display in the fall. Even now it had some lovely blooms.

Yes, windowsill, when I looked again, some PR foliage in the foreground is not washed out by sun, and it’s deep vibrant green.

12 or so years ago that rose garden did publish a list of most if not all of their roses, along with a numerical performance score for each rose no-spray. This was a couple of years after the then NYT nature writer Anne Raver brought Peter K. to the general public's attention. That list was up at the NYBG website; it disappeared at least 6 years ago. I remember Music Box and Easter Basket were near the very top. I think Moses’ Quietness was too. The score was expressed with a decimal; Easter Basket might have been a 9.1, for example. I remember KO was up there, but was not one of the top ten.

It’s a shame they don’t do that anymore. Was the institutional DNA excised when the former curator exited?

Thank you Windowsill! How were the huge climbers and ramblers around the periphery?

Kitasei -- They mostly weren't blooming, but they looked huge and lush by this time of year. In general, lots of new growth, so I bet there will be nice blooms as we get toward fall. My one qualm with the garden design is that it's impossible to get close to the climbers to admire the blooms, as they are at the back of the deep beds (which I know makes sense). Sometimes I'll walk around the outside perimeter of the garden to try to catch some climbers' blooms poking out the back. I did remark on how incredibly lush and robust Rosanna looked! (photos of her below)

yes and bring your snips to take cuttings:). I used to volunteer there!

Kitasei — Very cool that you used to volunteer there!

kitasei: If I go, I can snip cuttings with the on-site staff’s blessing?

After my last question to kitasei, I wondered if I had missed something, as kitasei had included a “)” symbol in his/her comment

“yes and bring your snips to take cuttings:). I used to volunteer there!”

I’ve seen that before, and just passed it off as some meaningless drivel. But just now, I queried google, which replied:

“To a standard English-speaking millennial, a lone right parenthesis ) is usually just a typo or a stray punctuation mark. However, if the context is Russian internet culture, a single closing bracket ) means a light, friendly smile or a casual tone indicator”

Ух ты!

Китасэй, ты русский?

enjoyed taking the tour vicariously through your photos!

Windowsill - yes, Gypsy Sue looks very pretty. :) The Shepherdess isn't a rose that's very common anymore. Nice to see a good shrub of it. :)

I got it wrong yesterday.

It wasn’t ).

It was :).

”meant to be a joke”. oh well

@rifis (zone 6b-7a NJ), Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Smiley face

Windowsill,

Thank you for sharing your garden trip!

Love your NYBG Botanical Garden photos! Demonstrates what roses do well in NY zone 7. I have many of their roses. They need a few DAs that I have that do best , with little/no BS: Silas Marner, MunsteadW, Eustacia Vye, Roald Dahyl, Bro Cadfael., Princess Anne& Bethsheba. . I’ll comment more on great roses later…..

Coriacious from Massachusetts in commenting on Easter Basket at HMFR, reported in 2012, that Easter Basket was (in 2010), given the highest performance rating of any repeat blooming rose at the PRRG.

Easter Basket is a much under advertised rose. The old saying, 'The horse that earns its oats doesn't get them,' really applies to Easter Basket. This Meilland rose was never awarded an ADR. Perhaps it was never submitted for trial by Meilland, or it was submitted and for some reason or another, failed the trial?

Moses.

Please note. I you are interested in growing True Bloom True Inspiration, do not be misled by the growth habit it shows growing in the commonly seen 2 gallon logo pots. With its blooms arranged in a broad presentation in said pots, one would be inclined to assume it is a spreading bush. My experience, and looking at the photo Windowsill Gardener provided, you can see T.B. True Inspiration is vertical in its growth habit, not rigidly so, but not spreading.

Moses.

Moses, I have an Easter Basket I enjoy very much, but it does get some cercospora in my yard. It doesn't really defoliate from it and the foliage looks pretty good from a distance. On the plus side it blooms nonstop and the subtle color changing is really nice, particularly in cooler weather. I have only come across two other people on the internet that I know have one.

@windowsill_gardener I appreciate your pics. very much, it helps to decide what roses are best for my zone 5. What planting zone is New York Botanical Garden's Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garde? Thank you.

@strawchicago z5, Thanks, it's in zone 7b.