"Superieur" than Most

In my growing up years I always admired the sweetly fragrant, profuse, and healthy roses that my Paw-paw grew in his yard.  We were forever picking bouquets of these cute little rose blooms to bring in to Maw-maw and make her day.  When I grew up, I realized that these roses were the heirloom China rose that is seen all over the South, Cramoisi Superieur.  

The blooms are crimson with darker petals on the outer edge and lighter ones inside.  The size is rather small, usually no more than 3" in diameter.  The fragrance is a light, but noticeably sweet one that is very pleasant.  

This plant blooms almost year round in the South.  This year's mild winter really made for non-stop blooms.  They are especially profuse in the spring.  

My plant has not reached full size yet.  It came from a cutting off my Paw-paw's roses.  I wanted to get mine from his roses because of the memories.  This is one of the healthiest roses on the planet.  I have never sprayed it and I have yet to see any disease on this plant.  The leaves are a rich bluish-green that contrast well with the crimson flowers.  This is also one of the easiest roses of all to propagate from cuttings, which makes it easy to pass along to friends and family.  Highly recommended for the no care yard!

"Cant" Get Enough

I can never get enough of Mrs. B. R. Cant.  This old tea rose is such a stellar performer in our hot, humid climate that it newly astounds me each year.  This plant only gets better each year.  The full blooms are lush and many-petaled.

The buds are a perfect silvery pink that would look nice pinned to a tux.

The profusion of blooms is the most noticeable trait, especially in the first flush.  I can't think of a rose that is more covered in bloom during the spring flush.  

The leaves are a lovely deep green that set off the blooms to perfection.  You see little disease.  The yellow leaves on this plant are just the yearly shedding of old leaves to be replaced by new ones.  Because of our mild winter this year, my specimen stayed green all winter long.

It makes huge flushes of bloom followed by a slight rest, but nearly always has at least a few blooms on it.  

This is a picture to show the size of my plant.  It's nearly 8' tall and about as wide.  I have it against the front chain-link fence.  I can barely smell the tea-like fragrance, but it's still detectable.  Some people can smell this fragrance much better than others.  This rose is just as care-free as the Knockout roses for me, but it gets far bigger.  It makes a huge statement in any yard and would look lovely as a solo specimen in the middle of a large area.  

Nothing Like a White Rose

I have three "white" rose plants and I love them all.  White roses stand out so beautifully- the blooms are highly visible from a distance - and they look great even under moonlight.  There is something delicate and enticing about them that is different from other colors of roses to me.  They are quite difficult to photograph with my cheap digital camera because they capture too much light and are overly bright under normal lighting conditions.

Ducher

This first picture is a wonderful China rose called Ducher.  It is one of the famous Earthkind roses, which means it is one of the most maintenance free of them all.  Ducher has a slight yellow tinge to it at first bloom. It has a slight but noticeable and lemony fragrance.  The bush form is full and lush getting to about 5' x 5' around.  I never spray mine and it gets practically no disease in my Louisiana climate.  If there is a complaint against this rose it is that the blooms crisp in the heat of summer and are much smaller.  In spring and fall this plant really shines.

Madame Alfred Carriere

 This next rose is actually a very light pink in color, but it quickly fades to almost pure white after being open for a few hours.  It is Madame Alfred Carriere, a rose sometimes classified as a noisette and sometimes as a tea.  It is a vigorous climber with a sweet, wafting fragrance that is impossible to miss.  The rose is a bushy climber that gets both long and full.  First bloom in spring is spectacular with the vine being covered with blooms.  The fragrance will fill a yard at that time.  It blooms more sporadically throughout the summer and then puts on a fairly large flush again in Autumn.  I get maybe 30% leaf loss on this plant in the summer without spraying at all.  I can't imagine not having this rose, but it definitely needs lots of space.  One last thing I appreciate about this rose is the small number of thorns it has.

Prosperity

Prosperity is the whitest of the white.  It's nearly pure white right from the start.  It blooms in large clusters on a sprawling plant that doesn't know if it wants to be a climber or a shrub.  It is in the hybrid musk family of roses and has the distinct and lovely fragrance of that clan.  Mine stays beautiful without spray and blooms 9 months out of the year for me.  I've seen this rose especially recommended for a wedding rose because of its beauty and fragrance.  The blooms are smaller and get easily crisped around the edges in the hot part of summer, so it looks its best in spring and fall.  One of the things I like best about this rose is that it has ready-made bouquets.  You can cut off one of the clusters of bloom, put them straight into a vase, and set them anywhere in the house for a beautiful look and a natural air-freshener.

These are three of the very best white roses for Louisiana.  To this list I might only add the popular polyantha, Marie Pavie.  Marie Pavie is a smaller shrub with fragrant blooms on a plant with few thorns.  I don't currently have one of these, but it's on my wish list!

"Send Now Prosperity"

The title of this blog entry is from Psalms 118:25 in the Bible, for those who are curious.  Prosperity is the name of this clustering, white rose.  It is one of the hybrid musk roses developed in the early 1900's by Joseph Pemberton.

This is the only whole bush shot I have at the moment.  It shows just how prolific the blooms are on this plant when it is in full flush.  The plant, like most hybrid musks, is either an arching bush or a short climber that blooms in flushes throughout the season.

You can see just how huge the bloom clusters often are.  The fragrance can be wafting and noticeable when Prosperity is at full flush.  I really noticed the fragrance when first coming across this rose at the Gardens of the American Rose Society in Shreveport a couple of years ago.  That is what convinced me to get this rose.

Because of the pure white beauty of this rose, it is highly recommended as a wedding rose.  Cut a whole cluster for a wonderful bouquet.

The leaves are dark green, somewhat small, and pretty resistant to disease.  I don't spray and this rose has remained largely blackspot-free for me.

Sometimes the blooms open up more.  They also have a pink tinge if the weather is cloudy or cooler.

The canes of this rose are fairly lax and don't get super long.  I think that makes this one of the best candidates for a pillar rose.  Many other climbers either get too long for a pillar or they have too stiff of canes.  Like other hybrid musks, this one reportedly takes more shade than most roses, so it would be a great candidate for an area that gets partial shade.

I really love white roses and this is one of the best for my area.  My only complaint against this rose is just how hard it is to deadhead so many blooms!

Rose Bloom Clusters

I love the perfect, large, single blooms put out by many hybrid tea types of roses.  They stand out so well alone in a vase.  However, nothing in the plant world moves me more than a cluster of fragrant blooms on a rose bush.  They are natural bouquets to delight the heart of any passerby.

Many of my roses bloom in clusters.  Above is just one of many.  This is Compassion who is out-doing herself this year.  This cluster is so fragrant that it begs to have a nose buried in it.

Belinda's Dream is yet another rose that blooms in cluster profusion.  The blooms are also huge and fragrant.

Earthsong also often has nice clusters of bloom that are a much deeper pink than this photo looks on the computer.

Mrs. B. R. Cant makes clusters of these cabbage-like globes of color.  My newer camera just doesn't capture the color of these very well.  These flowers are such a deep rose color tinged with silvery pink that they really stand out.

Super Dorothy makes tight, grape-like clusters of small and frilly flowers.  You almost feel like you can cut a cluster off and eat it.

Dublin Bay also makes velvety-red bunches of blooms that are extremely long-lasting on the plant.  This plant is putting on a stellar show this late spring.

Cramoisi Superieur also puts out sweet little groups of bloom with a hint of cloves in the fragrance.  I love this little rose because Paw-paw had them planted all around his yard.  As a kid, I remember picking blooms off and smelling them and then giving them to Maw-maw.  Fragrances are such nostalgic things for me and bring back many wonderful memories.

May State of the Roses Post

Before anyone should think that all my roses look fabulous, be it known that I'm only showing pictures in this post of my better looking plants or those that I have good pictures of.  My Double Delight looks so bad that I haven't shown any pictures of it this year.  Some of my other roses, such as Mrs. B.R. Cant, Westerland, Madame Alfred Carriere, Gertrude Jekyll, Compassion, Prosperity, Buff Beauty, and Crepuscule, are all in-between flushes.  With that disclaimer in place, on to the show!  The following pictures were all taken within the last day or two.

This is Abraham Darby looking better at this time of year than ever in his life.  Usually, by late May blackspot has this bush looking very poor.  I think it's because we've had an exceptionally dry May that this hasn't happened this year.  Plus, I'm trying to keep this plant pruned back very far so it is continually putting on new, spotless leaves and growth.

Belinda's Dream is performing up to her usually stellar standard.  The blooms are as huge as normal and they have been continual this year.

Dublin Bay is putting out a second flush of bloom right now that will be amazing in about a week or so.  It's really doing well for me this year too.  I've trained the branches quite horizontally along the chain-link fence and he's putting out far more blooms than last year at this same time.

Ducher is also blooming like crazy right now.  Of course, this bush always blooms well for me through the heat.  Because it hasn't been as hot as usual, the blooms haven't started crisping yet and are larger than normal for this time of year.  As usual, no disease to speak of.

Yet another stellar performance month out of Earthsong.  The blooms have kept a deeper color because of the cooler weather.  Such a perfect plant!  I don't think there is a spot on any leaf on this entire bush right now.

Golden Celebration is performing about like Abraham Darby this year and I think for the same reasons.

Julia Child is putting out her best flush of blooms of the whole year right now.  She is such a sweet plant.  The other plants around her tend to shade her out some in the late summer, but at this time she is getting the perfect amount of sun.

The Pot of Gold

Golden Celebration is a David Austin rose of (naturally!) golden coloration and full form.  The fragrance is sweet and good, though it's not quite as good as some other Austin roses such as Gertrude Jekyll or Abraham Darby.  This is my son Isaac's favorite rose that I grow.

The bush can develop long canes, but I've been unsuccessful growing it as a climber.  It just gets long, lanky, and ugly if I don't prune it back.  I've determined that Abraham Darby and Golden Celebration are better as shrubs than as climbers in my yard.  A side benefit of trimming the old foliage back is that it keeps at least some of the blackspot off this rose.

Speaking of blackspot, this rose is quite prone to it.  This year it isn't spotted too much yet because we've had super dry weather over the last month.  This rose is definitely a candidate for anti-fungal spray if you are the spraying type.  I just let it duke it out with the evil blackspot and try to give it the best growing conditions possible.  Plenty of water and mulch seem to give this rose enough strength to overcome the fungus and come back stronger than ever.  

This is such a beautiful rose that I had to have one, but I don't recommend it to people in my area unless they are dedicated rose growers who are willing to baby it.  If anyone out there can recommend any of the Austin's for a no-spray garden in the Southeast, then let me in on it.

My Top Louisiana Rose

If you sat me down and forced me to pick just one rose to grow in my yard, Belinda's Dream would be the winner.  It has a full, hybrid tea form of bloom, wonderful fragrance, bushy plant habit, and is almost disease free.

The blooms have tons of petals and a perfect form that is imminently worthy of a vase.  The stems aren't especially long, but they are plenty adequate for cutting.

The flushes of bloom are huge and come about every month from April through November.  The blooms also hold their size even in the sizzling heat of summer.

The foliage stays green and full through the whole growing season and offsets the blousy, pink blooms perfectly.

The bush form is full and lush.  I recommend dead-heading the blooms back pretty far when they fade to keep the bush form even more compact.  This plant can get pretty tall and wide if left completely unpruned.

Even in mid-May when blackspot and hot weather begins to take its toll on most roses, this plant is still looking fine.  In short, Belinda's Dream inherits the best traits of several families of roses to make for the perfect mix.  It has the size, bush form, and heat tolerance of the tea roses; the bloom form and fragrance of the hybrid teas; and the disease resistance of the china roses.  I have read from other sources that this rose is also quite cold tolerant and would do well as far north as zone 5, so it's well worth a try in those regions too.  It also has the perfect color and form for the traditional English cottage garden look.

It's a Rose! It's a Vine! It's Super Dort!

Super Dorothy is classified as a rambler rose and fits well into that class of roses as a very long and lean climber.  The canes are highly flexible and easy to train.  It will effortlessly cover a large area.  It is supposed to be one of the only repeat blooming ramblers available, but mine has never bloomed more than once per season in its four year life-span.

I'm not complaining all that much about it blooming only once per year.  After all, when it DOES bloom, it's covered!  The above picture shows it growing on my chainlink fence between Earthsong and Archduke Charles.  Frankly, this rose would be happier in a place where it can sprawl out even more.

The blooms are small with a quilled look to them.  The come in huge clusters that resemble grapes hanging.  The effect can be quite stunning when at peak bloom.  Unfortunately, there is no fragrance at all with this rose.  I have never seen even a speck of disease on this plant even though I never spray it.  This would be a fine rose to put on a pergola or climbing up a large wall face.  The color is perfect for an English style cottage garden and would fit in that setting well.

How the Westerland Was Won

Westerland is a climbing rose sometimes classified as a climbing floribunda.  It has flowers that are sunset orange in color.  The flowers contain 20-30 petals and they open up to show the stamens.  I find that bees like this flower because of the easy access to the pollen.

The plant blooms in clusters of these lovely blooms that really stand out from a long distance away.  In the spring, the blooms come in such profusion that the fragrance from them will waft on the breeze for quite a long ways.  The fragrance is a wonderful, spicy-sweet one that is quite delicious.

The canes on this climber are quite stiff making it hard to train well along a fence.  Mine is growing wildly and has a mind of its own.  I would not recommend this as a pillar rose since it wants to grow more out than up.  It is one of the most vigorous of all my roses and is seldom bothered much by the little bit of blackspot that it gets in the summer.

My camera is a cheap one that doesn't really capture the colors of Westerland well.  I just wish that all could see how beautiful this plant is.  Be sure to put it in a place where it has lots of room to sprawl.  I imagine it could also be grown as a large shrub if you keep it pruned back some.