Specialty Gardening: Where for art thou SCENTsational DG friends of mine?, 4 by DonnaMack

DonnaMack wrote:
That's tough but I think Rose du Rescht and Marchesa. They are both scented Portlands that rebloom very well. And they are indestructible. They were the first trio of roses I bought, along with Zephirine Drouhin, the famous thornless rose. She's below. Scented like mad, thornless, but you will see a soaker hose around her because if she is unevenly watered she gets blackspot - which she completely blooms through, but the way, but she is not an effortless rose. The soaker hose is to provide her with 15 minute waterings. It drives me nuts when people tell me only what they see as the virtues of a plant, and omit stuff.

Gruss would be my third choice but her scent is milder. She bloomed like crazy last year. The supplier was High Country Roses (not to be confused with High Country Gardens). I had not ordered from them previously but was extremely pleased with the roses I got from them last year. Own root.

And if you need a fourth and like white, Marie Pavie, a polyantha recommended to me by Pickering. Small, everblooming (REALLY), scented, relatively thornless. Tough as nails!!!!


My biggest supplier (tops now that Pickering is out of the picture) is Roses Unlimited. Also own root roses. They have one of the most extensive listing of roses and were recommended to me by Peter Scheider, compiler of the Combied Rose list. Here are some on delivery. Arriving in bloom is not unusual. Own root.

In the fifth, the rose that arrived with a bloom is R d R.

Antique Rose Emporium is phenomenal, delivering two gallon containerized roses. The Zephirine Drouhin in the first two pictures came from them. Almost all my early roses came from them. But the shipping is astronomical. I ordered all my early roses from them but stopped until I got a special offer last year, and I bought three (including my two new Rose du Rescht).

I don't like to criticize companies but there are some highly touted rose purveryors whose plants are very small and very expensive, or take two plus years to bloom at all. And they are not less expensive - often more.

Thanks for asking. I love doing this, because it makes me think about the choices I made and why some of them are very good and some of them are not, and why. If I could give you one tip - David Austin is a salesman. He has some excellent roses, mostly very old ones and they often do not perform as he claims. See the third picture? See the fuchsia rose? That's 'The Dark Lady'. Supposed to be crimson. Uh, huh, until it hits sunlight. Then it's fuchsia. And it's not upright. It sprawls sideways, so it take up a lot of room in bed.

If you pick them well it's a piece of cake. I am extremely anal, and researched about 50 red roses because someone asked me for a red climber. My first rose. Dublin Bay. Hey, it's so good I recommended it to my inlaws, who never stopped raving about it. I have 34 roses - it's about to be 37. Bloom from April until the end of November. But you have to research them and, preferably, see them outside of nurseries or talk to someone who has grown roses for a while. Which is why I love being able to do this. I don't think most reasonable people have the time or interest to research as compulsively as I do.

And then more people will grow Them! And keep my favorite nurseries in business!