Viewing comments posted by Steve812

By one measure Penny Lane is a very rare hybrid tea rose (judging from its flowers at peak form) that actually grows in my garden on its own roots. This puts it solidly in the top ten percent of HT roses I have attempted in the mountains of Arizona. So it has vigorous roots, it survives dozens of late spring freezes, and it grows well enough in summers with coolish nighttime temperatures. I've observed no fungal infections, and its blossoms, though fragrant, do not seem to be overly affected by thrips. This said, it is not the most vigorous rose in my garden where it grows on poor soil, gets by on meager rations of water, and competes with the damask rose Nouveau Monde. In about four or five growing seasons its one cane has reached chest height. This is a very convenient height for photographing roses, but not a very generous height for a climber.

Growing in about five years to four and a half feet tall and about as wide, Claire Austin produces flowers about the size and shape of a smallish tangerine. The blossoms start out a pale lemon sherbet yellow that fairly quickly fades to white. Compared to, say, Rainbow Sorbet, the plant seems a little spare with its blossoms - both the number on the plant at once and the frequency with which they are borne through the year. On close inspection, I find that there is a special quality to them, a delicacy that is almost heart-rendingly beautiful. The plant is not so densely branched as a polyantha, but it is well branched enough to look good standing alone in the garden without lots of knee-high plants around it. It has a lovely open shrubby apearance.
As did Charlotte and The Poet's Wife, this rose developed some leaf yellowing that I presumed to be chlorosis in its early years. The problem killed Charlotte and TPW, but this season - with nothing but some foliar sprays that included a bit of iron - Claire Austin's leaves turned a darker shade of grassy green. Fans of really dark rose foliage tinged with gray, purple, or blue may be a little disappointed in the leaves, but the grassy green works pretty well with the flowers. I've observed no disease problems on Claire Austin. I suspect it might be happier in my zip code if it had a few hours of PM shade. I've been pleasantly surprised that the thrips aren't very drawn to the flowers. As of this writing, I cannot report detecting any remarkable fragrance.

Tess of the d'Urbervilles is a plant that will almost never wow. It builds up slowly but inevitably to about six feet high and about eight feet across. The process can take seven years. During this time it is rarely troubled by insects or diseases. It doles out flowers during the growing season in a somewhat parsimonious manner, but they are always subtly lovely. The color is a magenta-tinged dark red, almost always lovely (at least in coolish summer areas where the petals do not dry out), but rarely stunning. It's a rose I cannot imagine doing without in the garden, but any garden that would depend solely on it for color would be a very somber one, indeed.

I simply cannot stop taking photos of this rose. Part of the reason is that there are few moments during the growing season when it is not in bloom. Another is that I love the gently scrolling petals and the way they shine against the glossy green foliage. The plant itself grows with a vigor no HT rose I have planted here in the mountains of AZ can match. It actually needs a tiny bit of light shade to keep its roots from drying out too quickly. Old leaves can sometimes show some blackspot, otherwise, no observed disease problems. Not sure it would make a good cutting rose, but it surely does add nearly continual interest to the warm season garden.

It is a rare rose bred after 1900 that can grow on its own roots, even if it is not being transplanted over and over. I bought Portlandia as a band from Heirloom Roses three years ago and I moved it last year. Despite the fact that it is growing on its own roots, that it grows in miserably thin soil, and that it keeps getting dug up and moved, each year it just gets bigger and better. One might wish for a bit more delicacy in the beauty of its blossoms; but in terms of vigor and disease resistance, this is a highly serviceable rose, capable of bringing color and interest to a garden without being finicky.

In my own garden (procured ca. 2011 from Antique Rose Emporium) it is a chest-high plant , very nicely branched and about four or five feet across. The foliage has a subtle but distinct bluish cast and the flower's shade of pink is distinctly on the lavender side. This, IMO, augments the look of the flower. It is one of the prettiest roses I grow in terms of flower form, with its petals reflexing nicely as the best tea roses do. It is among the more generous in terms of flower production. And it has pretty good disease resistance. During wet/humid summers old leaves can get blackspot; but I have not yet seen new growth imperiled by the blight. It seems to be happy enough here in the mountains of AZ with four or five hours of midday shade.

Because of its size, I simply cannot imagine growing more than three of these next to each other any more than I can imagine calling Sissinghurst Castle and all its associated grounds my home and domain.

New Dawn, when it gets enough water and good soil, grows quickly and is fairly free of disease. Its high-centered flowers have a light fragrance.