What?!??!?! NOOOO posts?!?!?!? Missed everyone...and appears this forum went into winter hibernation. Spring is here...wakey - wakey!!
Talk to me...what's blooming...or what new excited scented pretties are you adding this spring/summer?
Where for art thou SCENTsational DG friends of mine?
Two Rose du Rescht. I acquired one for my new home and remembered how great the scent is.
Three more Crystal Blanca lilies to go with the scented rose Madame Hardy I installed last year.
A second rose Enfant du France to add to the one I planted last year.
I'm here. Enjoying my autumn damask, citrus blossoms, ligustrum blossoms from my neighbor's natural fence. I used to have Rose de R. but killed thru overwatering. now I've run out of space and nowhere to plant a replacement.
Woowhooo!! Hello everyone!!
Donna - please share...what type of fragrance does the Rose du Rescht have?
Vossner - running out of room? Oh I can relate to that!! Same question for you...what type of scent does the autumn damask have?
Me? I've got the Korean Spice in bloom and believe it not still a few blooms on the daphne. Oh least I forget my wonder dwarf Magnolia - forget every year that those beautiful big pink blooms have a lovely wafting scent!!
im not good at describing rose smells, but it is strong and what I think roses ought to sell like.
You are wonderful at describing scents!! You know though...some lean more toward spicy some more toward sweet...yadda yadda
I'm trying to remember what this rose smells like. I remember wonderful, and it is described as intense Damask (huh), which means that it is like Madame Hardy, which also smells fabulous.
I do know that I used to bring flowers into the house. The scent is strong, and wonderful. Was it a little spicy?
This is such a great rose. It is described as a Portland, or a Portland/Damask. Portland are a phenomenal group of old garden roses. They rebloom regularly. Most are only about three to four feet tall and grow in a vase shape, so you can tuck them into a border. R d R is tough as nails. Its origins are unknown. But it's one of those roses that are advised for the new rose grower because you can't fail. It was one of the first roses that I acquired. I did a lot of research.
I will now have five Portlands. Another beauty is Marchesa Bocchella, aka Jacques Cartier, another easy, reblooming, fragrant roses that I had at my previous home and have two of here. The Portland roses were very much what David Austin has been trying to create for years. Healthy, reblooming, scented, beautiful, disease resistant. Except that these are compact, whereas many Austins are irritatingly sprawling, and these roses are still here after more than 150 years. Why are these roses till around? Because they are fantastic!
Here is Marchesa, in the first four pictures.
And the last has four of my favorite roses:
Gruss an Aachen, Glamis Castle, Quadra and Marchesa.
I know a lot of people have been burned by roses, and I'm not trying to convince anyone to grow them. But if you are thinking about it, these are great ones!
That was perfectively (not a word, I know) informative - thank you Donna! Course now you KNOW I have to order one. 'Spicy' is my favorite scent and I love how you describe their form. Reblooming? Icing on the cake!! If you had to pick two - which would they be? Think low maintenance. And where's your 'go-to' place to buy these pretties?
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!
Rig now in central va the lilac bush just finished, and sadly the next scented flower I'm expecting is the rose bush (don't remember the cultivar) which will be a couple months. Scented foliage however, I have tons of
Jan - what types of scented foliage do you have growing?
Donna - I can't thank you enough...that was a wonderful break down of info both plants and vendors!! I know you're colder than VA but when is the best time to plant roses?
Chantell, I am happy to help. It's so much easier to know what to do when you can get someone who has grown roses and dealt with vendors.
The roses I order are coming in the second week of May. May 15 is our last frost date. But you can plant earlier, and I can plant in June. I usually go to Raulston Arboretum and The Duke Gardens right about the beginning of May, and their roses are in bloom. And they are zone 7.
So it would be good to order now. Don't worry, companies will ask you whether you want to pick your date or have them pick it for you. I always let them pick. Most roses nurseries have guarantees, and want you to succeed. Pickering Nursery, for example, always refused to ship to my zone in the fall. A company in South Carolina asked me to take roses in the fall that I actually was ordering for spring, and they all failed. Then they refused to replace them. That is unusual. But I ordered roses at the same time from High Country Roses (Gruss an Aachen) and they thrived (some of the best performing roses I have ever had), probably because Colorado is, I think, zone 5 and they were raised at altitude, which is stressful. So I am ordering Morden Snowbeauty from them later in the year.
You won't have any problems unless it gets too hot - that is stressful for roses. Planting in late July and August is ill advised. Of course, you can do it if you stand over them and fuss. But life's too short.
So much, everything from Brazilian sage to sweet Woodruff...mostly mint family culinary things, and a baby spicebush
Donna - excellent....I'll make a decision and order next week then.
Jan - got love the scented foliage...sadly it's overlooked so many times. I am thrilled to report that all my new lavender plants made it through the winter and are coming up nice and thick. LOooovvveee lavender!!
Chantell - do let us know what you decided. And don't worry if you make completely different pics than I suggested - and do have fun!
Donna
Hey Chantall-- can't wait to enjoy the smell of my new my PB shrub!
My presently most fragrant plant is my Meyer lemon tree. It's only 2 years with me, potted and already huge, and a PIA to move in an out in fall and spring, but its scent is so heavenly, and I may actually get some lemons this year!
Hey Chantall-- can't wait to enjoy the smell of my new my PB shrub!
My presently most fragrant plant is my Meyer lemon tree. It's only 2 years with me, potted and already huge, and a PIA to move in an out in fall and spring, but its scent is so heavenly, and I may actually get some lemons this year!
Sorry, I was away for a while! I am hunting a reputable source of gardenia jasminoides var "Summer Snow"! I think I have just been burned by http://www.directgardening.com. :(
Other than that, I GOT TO GO TO FAIRCHILD BOTANICAL GARDEN THIS PAST JANUARY! :)
O mi gosh. It was amazing! :)
-Joe
Jeannie - you got that PB from Sally who got her's from mine...trust me....you'll love it!!
JOE!!! How are you!!???!! I am so jealous...how was the garden?? Send an email to the folks at Pepper's Greenhouse if it's no on their 'list' - I actually got to visit their greenhouse....WOOT-WOOT...talk about healthy well taken care of plants!!!
Fairchild was astonishing. Not a lot of fragrant plants were blooming, but there was so much color between the bromeliads, the screw pines, the wonderful crotons, the orchids, and the bougainvilleas that I hardly missed them. It's 75 GLORIOUS acres of tropical wonders. :)
I got to munch on a star fruit I pilfered directly from under the tree (there were dozens rotting on the ground.) The butterfly house is surreal. Everything is immaculate. There were lizards of all sizes, EVERYWHERE!
We stopped by a fruit market outside the Everglades (and the Everglades are SPECTACULAR) that had black sapotes (FANTASTIC over vanilla ice cream), sapodillas (they really ARE like pears dipped in brown sugar), jackfruit (I already loved jackfruit), and canistels (meh, think spiceless pumpkin pie filling, or cold mashed sweet potato.)
The houses across from the Truman Annex on Key West are some of the most beautifully landscaped homes I have ever seen -- long streets shaded by enormous strangler figs and palms of every variety, and riots of bougainvilleas competing with monstrous crotons and clerodendrums.
I was in heaven! :)
-Joe
Directgardening.com actually came through for me. The order fulfillment time was atrocious, and the order wasn't fulfilled until I asked them for a refund, but I got three solidly packed gardenias, two of which are in awesome condition! They're supposed to be Summer Snow. :)
I also got two bare root E. H. Wilson mimosas. They aren't leafed yet, but the wood is green. Hopefully at least one of them will make it. I have them potted in good soil, to plant as soon as they have recovered a bit.
I grabbed a plumeria cutting last year. I am hoping it will bloom for me this year. It's leafing out nicely.
My tuberoses and my tea jasmine are fine, but I think my hardy jasmine has croaked. :(
That's the latest update! :)
-Joe