Margie, I've been meaning to thank you for your review of Roses Without Chemicals. I will say that I was just a bit disappointed not to find many of my favorite hybrid tea roses in there: Olympiad, Electron, Double Delight, Midas Touch, or Selfridges; but the book is chock full of very good garden roses, many of which will be much better garden plants than even a very hardy and disease-resistant hybrid tea rose.
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Of the roses listed in that book I grow:
- Grand Amore and it is among the first roses to last a full year "outside the fence" where - in addition to late spring freezes and summer droughts there is the hazard of nibbling animals: rabbits, squirrels, deer, and javelina to name a few. It does require more attention than I first planned to provide it there; but perhaps my expectations were a bit unrealistic. Specifically, I do need to water it very regularly since it is planted in sand.
- Beverly, although not nearly so well as I need to; it's being crowded severely by a rather more vigorous Lady of Shallott. But it is beautiful and fragrant.
- Blush Noisette. It makes for a lovely shrub but too often the flowers fail to open in hot, dry weather. I wish I had grown it in NJ.
- Caramella FT. I love it. Must find space for Brothers Grimm.
- Darlow's Enigma. It's vigorous to a fault cold hardy, and generous with its fragrant blooms.
- Pomponella FT. Very vigorous, making huge heads of pompon flowers. One might raise the question of whether it is more wonderous than beautiful, but either way it's good to have in the garden.
- Roxy. I like it better than most miniature roses. Perfect form and lovely color. I do not find it to be very foliferous. It seems to suffer more from heat and dryness than most of my roses, but I don't believe anyone east of the Mississippi should have second thoughts on account of this.
- Stanwell Perpetual I grew in NJ and I liked it very much, though I think I should have given it better soil. It really was not very generous in bloom.
- Sea Foam I grew in NJ and was very pleased with it in and out of bloom.
