Briggs strongly encouraged me to try non hybrid tea roses. This seemed like a good strategy, because almost all the existing roses in my yard (all HTs) got extremely sick with rust and black spot over the course of the very moist cool San Francisco summer. So, on with the review.
Reine de Violettes (Wayside Gardens). I saw this Hybrid Perpetual "old rose" growing at Brigg's and thought it was a beauty worth trying. The blossoms (a very bluish violet) are lovely, and I was intrigued by the vigorous thornless branches. This has done extremely well in my garden, blooming non-stop for well over 6 months (still going strong near the end of November). It has grown to about 5' tall in one year, and been very generous with blooms.
The leaves are a pale green, but it has been essentially impervious to the leaf diseases that seem to attack the HTs in my garden. The one odd thing is that the flowers are very delicate -- fall apart quickly (both in the vase and on the plant). Luckily many more come to replace old ones.
Henry Nevard (Wayside Gardens). An "old rose" Bourbon-type, I was fascinated by the huge, deeply cupped and deeply red flowers. This plant grew well and got quite tall, but ran into two problems. First, the blooms almost never opened. They would become large soft buds, then just rot. San Francisco is just not hot enough for them, I guess. Worse, the plant got a terrible mildew, and was just coated in the stuff. In all, a failure, and I recycled it in late August.
Jaune des Prez (Wayside Gardens). A climbing noisette, I planted this rose on an eastern facing wall that is a bit shady. The books said it would do well anyway. As I learned was typical for climbing noisettes, it didn't bloom its first summer. But -- it did grow quite spectacularly. The plant through out long meandering canes up to about 12 feet long, more or less covering the wall and several trellises I've attached to it. I'm very much looking forward to this rose's first flush of flowers next season!
Posted by rich at November 24, 2002 4:50 PM