II find that this plant forms new growth and flowers very quickly - about once a month. It is more productive with more water, and I situ...Read Moreated it on the east side of my property so that it gets afternoon shade. Located there, it is much redder and does not have so much of a tendency to fade to fuschia.
Though we have an excellent climate for roses down here, Im finding this variety to b...Read Moree slow to establish and set flowers as compared with my other new roses.
*UPDATE- it was slow to establish but has picked up speed and is now perfectly satisfactory.
Indeed, this is not a red rose. It's an intense blue-flushed magenta and the colour varies widely between blooms, from the 'darkness' of the name to a medium shade, especially with age, but oddly, some buds are much darker than others from the outset.
Looks like it will be quite a low, compact bush compared to my teas. No black spot yet; my 'nana' garden is well ventilated but we're having a cold, damp spring summer thus far and these DA roses are holding up well, contrary to expectation with so many growers complaining that they're pretty but disease prone. I have not found that to be the case, even with mondo aphids infesting the buds etc.
With it's slightly pendant blooms (in my garden) Im finding the petals are not so damaged by rain as some other varieties- in a local nursery, Falstaff, William Shakespeare and Othello are pretty much buggered by the weather, whereas my Dark Lady flower (singular) was unaffected. So if you're in a dodgy spring/rainy locale and are looking for a darker DA rose, this would be my pick.
The foliage is particularly attractive, being elegant, profuse and a pleasing mid green that sits well in a mixed situation.
Fragrance here varies, ranging from medium to strong according to the weather and time of year, Ive found. Never super-strong though, like MMerrill or Sharifa Asma. A soft true old rose scent with nothing whacky or funky about it.
I acquired this rose thinking it was a dark red in color. Instead, it blooms in my garden as an intense pink. Don't know if it is diff...Read Moreerent cameras, or different soils, or what. But mine certainly wasn't the dark red I was expecting. But it is a gorgeous rose. I didn't find mine to be particularly fragrant, but, again, that may depend on time of day, the scent that my nose picks up, etc.
II find that this plant forms new growth and flowers very quickly - about once a month. It is more productive with more water, and I situ...Read More
Zone 9b, coastal Otago, New Zealand.
Though we have an excellent climate for roses down here, Im finding this variety to b...Read More
I acquired this rose thinking it was a dark red in color. Instead, it blooms in my garden as an intense pink. Don't know if it is diff...Read More
According to David Austin's 2009 Handbook of Roses, the name for this rose is from the Dark Lady of Shakespeare's Sonnets
Very smelly rose with nearly 100 petals per flower- dark red-purple colored