In my garden the difference between roses that bloom once per year and roses that are said to repeat has generally been that roses that bloom once go whole hog and produce a flurry of flowers in early summer whereas the repeat bloomers make one flower in the early summer, then they proceed to die. Amazingly this has never completely convinced me to give up trying to grow remontant roses. Occasionally a remontant rose will put on a good spring show for me. I've never had a good fall show from any rose. So this is an interesting topic to me.
Last year:
- La Ville Bruxelles bloomed once and had dozens of tiny neat flowers. Ditto Ipahan.
- Crocus rose put on a good show in spring, but skipped making roses in the fall.
- Falstaff, in its third year then made six roses in spring, none in fall.
- Abe Darby, also three years old and three feet in each direction was too busy making foliage all year to make more than a token bloom.
- Baronne Prevost bore a total of two flowers: one in spring and one in fall.
- Rainbow Sorbet was the star of the remontant roses in my garden with three in spring and two in fall. I was so impressed that this year I bought two more!
- Amatsu Otone, a hybrid tea rose, made one blossom. But it is still alive, miraculously.
- Nicole was purchased as a number one grafted rose and is starting her third season. Nicole has not reached six inches tall and has not yet bloomed. The fact that she is not dead testifies to the fact that in terms of health and durability she is in the top 20% of roses. And that she is a remontant rose.
