My mom grows Yves Piaget. It's spectacular, although it can ball if there's too much rain at the wrong times. It's a large shrub- give it lots of room. Hers has only been in for two-three years, and it's five feet tall.

Renee

I think most of the Romanticas are like HTs with old-fashioned flower forms. They should do just fine in your climate.

What mendocino rose said: they are HTs in growth habit, with cabbage-type form. They are good, mostly. A few get bad rust. 'Yves' is good, 'Peter Mayle', 'Bolero', 'Toulouse-Lautrec', 'Johann Strauss'--those are all very good. If you are very close to the ocean, some might have trouble opening in overcast weather.

'Rouge Royale' has wonderful fragrance but lots of vegetative centers and gets terrible rust. 'Traviata' is okay, but no fragrance. 'Eden' gets terrible rust.

I'm in Northern CA, where it gets hotter in the summer than in Southern CA. I have several Romantica roses. JOHANN STRAUSS is probably the best of the bunch. Has the best repeat and most floriferousness (is that a word?). I also have ABBAYE DE CLUNY, PETER MAYLE, TRAVIATA, and EDEN CL. I had JEAN GIONO, but it died. And I wonder if the new GREEN ROMANTICA is considered with them? I got it last yr, and it hasn't been a real great rose, but it's just getting established. None of the others above have been great roses for me. PETER MAYLE just got moved to a spot near some of the DAs and he's actually got a big bud opening right now. He didn't do much last yr tho. ABBAYE DE CLUNY and TRAVIATA I have had for probably 8-10yrs. ADC finally this last yr gave me it's best flush in the spring. Not much in the summer tho. TRAVIATA was in a bad spot for several yrs, and never bloomed. I moved it a couple yrs ago, and it hasn't done much better. I think I've seen maybe two blooms since then. They aren't real good rebloomers for me. I wonder if maybe they prefer cooler climates. Oh, and EDEN has never bloomed for me in the 5yrs I've had it. I did just plant in in the ground last yr at one of my arbors in the backyard. Hopefully it will do something this yr! I think maybe part of my problem is my really horrible soil. I have red volcanic clay, and some of the beds didn't get amended enough. I will be doing a LOT more mulching and adding organic matter and more fertilizer this yr to see if it changes some things. Altho, when I think about it, these are all planted in various locations around my yard, and there are other roses near them that do much better in the same soil. So maybe they just are more needy than some of the other roses. I barely get one good fertilizing done per growing season. I just don't have the time. But part of my New Yrs resolutions is to spend more time outside and get more maintenance done on the roses. Don't know if that helps you any or not. Your situation and gardening practices may give you different results than mine!

I have grown most of the Romantica series at my home in Gilroy 6 years ago and all of them did fine. My Rouge Royale and Eden's were spectacular and I did not have any rust on mine. It could be that the races/strains of this pathogen in the Gilroy area were not virulent on these roses, but those in Southern California are or that the climate there was not conducive to disease development.

In plant pathology classes, the notion that is presented is that three conditions must be met for a given plant to come down with a given disease:

1. The plant is genetially susceptible to a given race/strain of the pathogen.
2. A race/strain of the pathogen has genes for virulence against the susceptible host.
3. Favorable environmental conditions that allow infection to proceed.

If any of these 3 are absent, then infection will not occur. Infection or resistance is the result of the interaction of the genetics of the pathogen and that of the host plant in an environment that is either favorable or unfavorable for the development of the pathogen. This is why roses may be seen as disease resistant in some areas of the country and not in others.

I am now planting many of these at my new home in Oakdale and they are doing well so far. I particulary liked Centennial Star, Rouge Royale, Bolero, and Yves Piaget. The latter, I presume, must be difficult to propagate as it always seems to be in short supply.

I have Yves Piaget and Classic Woman. CW was a mildewed disaster for me and I very much wish I had gotten Bolero instead, which seems to do well for almost everyone and is quite beautiful. I no longer have CW. YP is a great favorite of mine, but a gopher attack almost killed it and it's making a slow comeback. I've seen a healthy bush full of flowers near San Diego on a scorching day in August and just had to have it after that.

California is a big state. :)

Perfect example is beth saying she lives in NorCal where it gets hotter in the summer than in SoCal. There are parts of SoCal which get much hotter than anywhere in NorCal. I think OP should tell us where she is. 9b-15 is a start.

I have to agree with hoovb about Rouge Royale. Here in Pasadena she was lovely, but a dreadful rust machine. YvesP got SPed as a one cane wonder, but it's possible that I just got a bad plant to begin with, since everyone else seems to have had better luck with him. Bolero was iffy till I moved it to a pot, where it is now a true star, a lush-leaved blooming machine with fabulously fragrant blossoms. Liv Tyler (formerly the Comtesse de Provence) is going in next to Pope John Paul II. We'll see how well they communicate. [I put Dick Clark next to Betty White -- I figure they're about the same age.] :)

love love love my Francois Rabelais! I like very much J. Strauss but looks like a regular pink floribunda to me. My bolero is too small to evaluate yet but the flowers that the wee bush had last year were very fragrant. Ditto the Rouge Royale. Francois is out blooming Iceberg if you can believe it.

I got rid of my Rouge Royale because it didn't bloom enough but was a huge monster with thick canes and incredibly big leaves. Vegetive centers galore. Yves Piaget mildews for me, but not Classic Woman, exactly the opposite of Ingrid's experience. Classic Woman is clean and blooms last forever (I am tempted to say it is the closest to a plastic rose I have come). Peter Mayle has been great so far, mine is still young.

Masha

Not a romantica or an Austin and rather large, but Cinderella Fairytale has the old fashioned look and has not needed spraying.

Dimitrig, you are so right about the differences in temps in CA. In fact, I forgot about the desert down south. I was thinking like an "outsider" and thinking LA, the coast, etc where the temps are more tropical. Up here we average from late June to late Sept, between 90 and 112 degrees. I have to admit last summer was probably the mildest one we've had in decades. I think we only had a few weeks of over 100 degrees. It was nice. But the roses still didn't do any better!

Oh and I forgot, I do have YVES PIAGET too. I forgot, because I haven't seen a bloom in over 3yrs. But there again, it's in one of the worst un-amended spots. I put a ton of mulch and steer manure on there a few months ago, so hopefully I might see some blooms this yr!! As I recall when it bloomed several yrs ago when it was still in a pot, it was gorgeous. Huge yummy-smelling blooms that last quite a long time. Hmmm... now I can't wait to see if it does something this yr!

For me Eden Climbing is a wonderful rose and it stays relatively rust free (just a little bit in autumn or winter) in my yard. I am gardening organically/no-spray in San Diego, Southern California, but I am 15 - 20 miles inland, which means summers are pretty hot and dry here.

I have seen a beautiful bed of Johann Strauss roses in the Huntington Gardens. They looked very healthy, but I don't know if they spray there.

wanttogarden, I hope you find some Romanticas that work for you. I think there are some real gems in this group of roses. Good luck with your search!

Christina

Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Garden Dreams

I wished I have waited longer before I went on an impulse buy and bought Yves Piaget, Liv Tyler, and Rough Royale. I wanted Yves for the longest time, but could not find him anywhere. Sat. afternoon, I found it in a nursery and bought all three of them.

There are opposite opinions on them. Since I live closest to Masha in San Jose, I guess I should expect the same results as her.

Now I am wondering should I plant them and take my chances with them, or return/exchange them? What do you think?

BTW, what is vegetative center?

Thanks again for your responses.
FJ

I used to grow Toulouse Latrec but it had terrible vegetative centers. Yves Piaget is very lovely and fragrant.
By the way, since you live near San Jose, Have you visited the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden? It is one of the best gardens in North America for getting to know different classes of roses. If you like Romantica roses you might enjoy looking at and smelling Hybrid Perpetual roses the reblooming cabbage roses of the 1800's. I grow several of the pink H.P.s in my organic rose garden near Oakland, California.