I think I'll replace MAAB with Buxom Beauty. It is evidently fragrant. It's the right color. Hopefully it's more vigorous. I am also tempted by: Grand Amore, Signature, Lorice Wojciechowski, and Annie Davidson.
Kordes Brilliant is going in a hole already dug for it near South Africa and Las Vegas.
Julia Child - four or five of them - are slated for a place where I have killed a lot of other more drought-tolerant plants. I'll redouble my efforts to keep them well.
I'm seriously considering Larissa, Jasmina, and Laguna climbers for spaces TBD - probably along the driveway.
There is one space next to Graham Thomas that begs for a warmly tinted red climber and I have to decide between Grandessa and Salita, or possibly Santana. Whatever it is, it has to also look good with the pink OGRs that are on the other side of it from GT. Maybe I should just move Summer Wine there.
I wonder about the Fairy Tale roses: Kosmos, Lion's, and Caramella. They beckon me, but I cannot yet imagine where they will go in the garden. Probably they will keep company with Buff Beauty somewhere along the driveway.
--- UPDATE on Palatine Roses from Previous Years ---
South Africa continues to bloom and to wow. The plant has some of the most gorgeous foliage in the garden, and the blooms are the most glorious shade of of apricot golden yellow. If I had no sense of smell, I'd be tempted to plant my garden wall-to-wall with these.
I raved recently about Berolina which seems to be perpetually in bloom. The blooms have delicious fragrance, and I happen to love both the precise shade of soft yellow and the scrolling of the petals. I guess if I had to have but one rose in the garden I'd choose this one.
Ascot has grown more vigorously than any rose in my garden. One has three canes at seven ft height in its first year. In places with lots of shade and root competition, it behaves more like a regular hybrid tea rose. It is not so generous with its flowers as one would expect. It is neither so foliferous as most floribundas nor so remontant as most hybrid tea roses. But it does have a good long spring flush of flowers, and the blossoms are a fairly garden-friendly shade of red. I prefer it to L.D. Braithwaite for its vigor, flower form, color, and fragrance.
The six Toscana Vigorosas that I panned in June for their fading blooms have more recently produced darker blooms that seem to fade more slowly with cooler autumn days and with damp soil. So while a month ago I was trying to figure out where to relocate some of them, at this moment I'm delighted with how this exact shade of red ties together the minis Cupcake and Winsome with a nearby red rose Legends as all of them come into bloom simultaneously. They have proven as vigorous as their name suggests. All are stretching out horizontally: three of these TVs have stretched out to five or six feet wide in their first year! And the foliage is a beautiful, dark, glossy olive green. It's the kind of plant you think of as a good landscape plant and then as a rose. Sometimes that's a good thing.
The minis Water Lily and Roxy bloomed through most of the season. Roxy faded a bit after blooming, and Water Lily had a tendency to cling to flowers that had long since dried out, making them roses that would look better if they got daily attention. That said, their vigor and nearly perpetual bloom cycle makes them ideal plants for near a sidewalk.
Moonstone has produced a very chunky bush in its first year and has been in bloom most of the time. The blooms blow a bit quickly by HT standards, but it still seems to be about as good a garden shrub as one is likely to find among roses. Janet Carnochan is slightly less impressive as a garden shrub, but the flowers keep their form longer. I am pleased with Paradise and Charles de Gaulle, but they have not been quite so vigorous.
In its second year Duftzauber 84 is head height and about 3 ft across. At this moment it is making huge, beautiful red flowers full of fragrance; and it has been blooming steadily - if not generously - all summer long. Folklore, also in its second season, has canes reaching seven feet high and is currently taking a break from a blooming streak that lasted for about two months. It' unfortunate because its blooms perfectly match the knifophias that are now blooming beside it. Valencia and Las Vegas, also in their second year have been less impressive, but at least both endured one winter and have produced some garden color this spring.
- a diversion -
Helmut Schmidt is off to a slow start in its first year; but on the days when it has produced new buds, it has been charming. Ditto Olympiad... oh but wait... I think those might be from Edmunds and S&W. All of my Palatine HTs (above) have done better than any of my S&W HTs this year i.e. Gemini, Liebeszauber, Barbara Streisand, Double Delight, and Gingersnap. They are also ahead of my two year old HTs from Edmunds i.e. Olympiad, Firefighter, Leanne Rimes, Signature (dead) Elina(dead), and Grande Dame. So, at least in this location, it would seem that multiflora rootstock promotes more vigorous growth than Dr. Huey stock does. My guess is that it has to do with soil temperature staying relatively cool here. We'll see what happens through the years. I have one Rainbow Sorbet on Dr Huey roots and two right next to it on multiflora roots. The former got a three year head start, but the latter two are already giving it a run for the money.
- end of diversion -
Ilse Krohn Superior from Palatine is finishing up her second season and looks glorious trained on a new arch. The canes are only now six feet high, but there's something just right about the way the flowers and the stems interact with the arch. Sometimes you do something and it works. ...
After years of failing with HTs in NJ because of black spot, and years of failing with them here because of lack of water and/or the wrong rootstock and/or planting them too early in spring and/or failing to protect them from spring freeze/thaw cycling, it feels good to have a year of measured success with them. Now I understand why people grow them where conditions are favorable.
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I hope some of this helps at least somebody in their rose choices for the coming season.
Good luck with your Palatine orders: may you get what you choose and enjoy what you get.
