Roses for '02

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Eric, it has been noted on the rose forum that there seem to be differences within the same zones. For example, northeast zone 5 is different from the midwest zone 5, which is different from the northwest zone 5 and the same roses don't necessarily behave the same. Same for the difference between the mid-atlantic zones 6 and 7 and zone 6 and 7 in other regions. That's why I suggested Karen get recommendations from a rose supplier in her area. Makes it difficult to pick roses. Some David Austins do well, New Dawn is taking over my friend's porch, even though she did have a lot of die back (probably about 1/3 of the plant) last winter. But, last winter was a really bad one here.

Madeliene, last year was my first year with roses, so it's hard for me to say for sure what will do well here, I'm going from what I've read and what's worked for other people. Two roses that I can definately recommend are the two singles I mentioned: Golden Wings, a nice yellow, repeat bloomer, soft fragrance. It's a fairly small bush, should get to be about 3'x3'. It did get blackspot at the end of last summer, but it was putting out so much new growth, that it never looked bad and even though I got it in July and it's pretty small, it gave me 3 flushes of blooms before fall hit. :-)

The other one is Dortmund, a red climber. The blossoms are a beautiful, bright red. I have it about 50' from the house, and from that distance the red blossoms look like butterflies against the dark green foliage. The foliage was also pretty in the fall, it turned a rudy maroonish color. I got it at the end of June, as a tiny baby from a local nursery. By the end of the season one long cane was about 6 feet long, and it had a lot of other new canes starting up.

Both of those will repeat bloom if you dead head them, and they're actually modern shrubs.

My friend in CT. has Rose de Rescht and has had great success with that. The flowers are a red/magenta color, very sweetly scented and it repeats bloom. I've heard some people on the rose forum say they've had bad luck with this one, but I'm going to give it a try.

William Baffin is another good red climber for our area. But, be careful, he is a house eater. I don't have him, but my friend does and he is huge!

Albas are very hardy in our area. I'm going to get a several of them this year. Madame Hardy, which should get pretty big, like 6' or 7' tall, and just about as wide. White blossoms, that reportedly weigh the branches down so the bush has a cascading effect. Very fragrant. Felicite Parmentier is another small one, about 3' high and wide, light pink and sweetly scented. Amelia is supposed to be a very nice Alba, smallish, 3 or 4 feet high. Soft pink. Also fragrant. These are all once bloomers.

I also have Marie Pavie on order, actually I have 3 of her coming. :-) She's a polyantha, small bush, probably will only get 2'-3' high and wide. Reportedly a bloom machine: constantly in bloom with dozens of very fragrant white blossoms. She's going next to the deck by the kitchen, so the fragrance can waft into the kitchen. :-)

I have Jacque Cartier (or Marchessa Boccella, seems to be some confusion on whether these are the same rose or not). It's supposed to be a repeat bloomer, but it only bloomed once for me last year. The bush itself grew to 4' high last year, and has pretty blue/grey foliage. It got a few small cases of blackspot, but I just pulled the affected leaves off and the bush never looked ratty. So, even though it didn't repeat bloom, it still looked good.

The other ones I have were too young and small for me to comment on whether they will do well here or not. La Reine, which is a repeat blooming Hybrid Perpetual did actually repeat bloom last summer, despite the fact that she was only less than a foot high. The blossoms are a beautiful silvery pink and nice fragrance. I think I posted some pics of her, I'll look around and see if I can find them. But, at the end of the year, 2 out of 3 of her canes died. :-( I'm not sure why. I'll have to see what happens to her this year.

General Kleber is a Moss rose -- the buds look like they have moss on them. :-) He grew alot last year, the best of the bunch as far as growth. He's a once bloomer, but I got him as a tiny baby and I never saw a bloom from him. I'm hoping for good things from him this spring. :-) Very healthy foliage, I never saw any sign of disease on him, despite the fact that he was crowded by a nepeta in front, had a white liatris next to him that died of some fungus, and on the other side was Golden Wings which kept getting blackspot.

Then, I have Tuscany Superb. I got him in mid-July, which is a bad time to get a rose, but he put on some growth before fall, never showed any disease. His blossoms are a beautiful, deep purple. Once bloomer, and no fragrance, unfortunately. I prefer fragrant roses, but I couldn't resist the purple blooms! :-) His foliage was also purplish in the fall.

Then there is Belle Isis -- she's the rose that inspired David Austin to start rose breeding, and she's one of the parents of Constance Spry. She stayed pretty small last year, I'll have to see how she does this year.

OK, that should be enough to get you started. :-)