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titian1

Shrub roses

titian1 10b Sydney
10 years ago

Hi, I've been looking at modern shrub roses. Astrid Grafin von Hardenberg, Summer Memories, Addictive Lure and Sonia Rykel have enormous appeal for me.

I'm hoping that someone in my climate has experience of these. It's probably classified as 10b, lowest winter temp is 8C (47F), and reaches 40C (104F) occasionally in summer, but mostly around 30C (86f), with highish humidity for 2 months late summer.

Trish.

Comments (18)

  • petaloid
    10 years ago

    The National Rose Society of Australia has a website with links to several local clubs.

    I'll put a link below -- a local expert would know which varieties would do best in your microclimate in the Sidney area:

    Here is a link that might be useful: National Rose Society of Australia

  • titian1 10b Sydney
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks Petaloid, I've looked at their site. They list a number of roses that haven't been good for me,and don't list many that have been. But I will get in touch with someone in the Sydney area.

    I would still be interested to know how others have fared with the roses I listed.

    Trish.

  • _lazyworm
    8 years ago

    Astrid Gräfin von Hardenberg is sold under the name - 'Black Cavier' in AU according to http://www.helpmefind.com/. Knight's is the breeder and I found mine in Masters.

    Good luck!

    titian1 10b Sydney thanked _lazyworm
  • titian1 10b Sydney
    Original Author
    8 years ago

    Thanks lazyworm (great name!). I ended up getting Summer Memories, and it's doing well - beautiful blooms on a very healthy shrub, and it seems to be going to be a good shape.

  • ozmelodye
    8 years ago

    I have Sonia Rykiel, which is also a lovely rose, however I find it needs as much or more water than some DA roses. Mine is 5 years old and is only 1.4m tall with spreading canes to 21/2m so I have pegged the canes to each side so I get flowers on the laterals. It is near Sebastian Kneipp, which I have treated the same way so that canes and flowers mingle. Black Caviar is only 1 year old and doing well, but I'm glad it gets dappled shade in the pm because I think the petals burn in full sun.

    titian1 10b Sydney thanked ozmelodye
  • _lazyworm
    8 years ago

    @Ozmelodye: I just got my black caviar over the weekend. Hope you can share your experience with me. Is it an upright shrub or a floppy one? Is it thorny? What about disease resistance? Also, do you have a photo of it as whole?

    Thanks in advance!

  • ozmelodye
    8 years ago

    lazyworm, so far for me, Black Caviar is more upright, HT- like than the arching shrub that Help Me Find states it is. Mine is only about 1m at this stage but hoping it will reach 1.5m as the catalogues say it will. Last year it flowered in large clusters at the end of its canes,but have noticed it is putting out more side shoots this year. It is very thorny. So far it has been healthy.I am sorry I haven't any photos at present but will post one when I can.


  • Trịnh Trà
    8 years ago

    How about Mrs Doreen Pike rose from D.A ? She look awesome too :)

    titian1 10b Sydney thanked Trịnh Trà
  • titian1 10b Sydney
    Original Author
    8 years ago

    I did try her - yet another discarded rose. Mine looked nothing like the photo you've posted Trinh Tra; that does look something. I wasn't crazy about the blooms though, I didn't like them nearly as much as I expected to.

  • fragrancenutter
    8 years ago

    I am in Perth and I have Sonia Rykiel and Addictive Lure. SR grows huge in 12 months and is a very dense bush with constant supply of long stemmed fragrant cut flowers all year round. It does not have a distinctive flush but there are always a few flowers ready to pick. It produced more than 200 blooms in the first year and already has produced more than 100 buds this spring. I only keep the central leading bud as well as usually they come in bunches of 5 or more per stem but I like them single to a stem great for cutting. This one needs lots of sun and room.

    Addictive Lure grows like a HT bush but the flowers are old fashioned. Less fragrant than Sonia Rykiel to my nose. She produces in flushes like a normal HT and usually in large bunches.

    Another shrub I really like is Augusta Luise. So fragrant and extremely beautiful as a cut rose. Dense bush. This one also comes in flushes.

    Sonia Rykiel

    Augusta Luise

    Addictive Lure

    titian1 10b Sydney thanked fragrancenutter
  • titian1 10b Sydney
    Original Author
    8 years ago

    Diane, I bought Julia Child as a result of your recommendations and stunning photos, and she is looking very promising. I have noted your praise of Augusta Louise, but, sadly, just can't find a spot where she would fit in.

    fragancenutter, Sonia Rykiel looks and sounds wonderful, and I am very tempted by her and Addictive Lure, but again, where to put them?.........Hmmm, I'm having ideas!

    I took a photo of MIP the other day, but the blooms were over their intense colour. FWIW, here it is

    Poor quality photo, and couldn't hold a candle to your wonderful shrub anyway!

    Trish

  • nanadollZ7 SWIdaho
    8 years ago

    Trish,

    Your MIP is gorgeous in its naturalistic setting, which I love to see. I wish I had the room for it. And I thank you for your comments on Julia Child, which I dearly love. I just wanted to add a few words about Astrid, renamed Black Caviar. I wish they hadn't renamed her, though the full name of Astrid is pretty bulky. This rose was named after the daughter of a German WWII hero who defied Hitler as part of a group that tried to assassinate him. Anyway, Black Caviar just doesn't have the same significance, I think. The other thing I'd like to mention is that Astrid was hybridized by Hans Jurgen Evers of the German Tantau roses company. I'm a big fan of his, and he also hybridized Ascot which has blooms that look a lot like Astrid's, though the growth habit is totally different. Ascot does beautifully in a hot, dry climate like mine--no instant shriveling of blooms, and no fading. You might like to try this one, too, though Ascot will get big.

    Here's to those incredible Australian roses, which I'm getting more and more impressed with by the day. How do you all do it? Diane

    titian1 10b Sydney thanked nanadollZ7 SWIdaho
  • titian1 10b Sydney
    Original Author
    8 years ago

    Diane, thank you for your praise - it actually looks much better than it does in that shot, partly because I have a cheap camera, and largely because I missed its moment of glory. I don't know if you know, but 'Black Caviar' was a hugely successful Australian race horse. I have come to realise that all this renaming is a marketing exercise. Such a shame, as it's not only confusing, but, as in the case of Astrid, a story is lost.

    As you discovered, Julia Child is marketed here as 'Soul Mate', but I always refer to her as Julia Child, it means so much more to me.

    My climate is warm and humid, not ideal for roses!, so I don't know if Ascot would perform for me as it does for you.

    I'm surprised to hear your praise of Australian bred roses. I don't know of that many! I have four, two of which surprisingly are blackspot magnets (Marjorie Palmer, bred by Alister Clark, and her sport, Alister Clark). Another bred by Alister Clark, that I have, is Lorraine Lee. I love this rose, though it's hard to say why. I've planted her (only this year) next to Mutabilis, and her salmon pink looks surprisingly good next to it.

    And the fourth is Titian. It is also most probably named after a racehorse (tells you something about Australians!).

    I saw this rose growing in a lovely garden in the Southern Highlands (about 3 hours southwest of here). In memory it was a more purply red than mine, but I think I must have been mistaken, as mine matches HMF's description. It's very showy and bright, and I'm not absolutely sure I would plant it again!

    Trish


  • fragrancenutter
    8 years ago

    Thank you Trish for posting your MIP photo. It looks lovely! Diane, you should be able to find Sonia Rykiel in the US as I first heard of this rose on the forum and it was a member from the US who was telling everyone how great her fragrance was that's why I bought it. Maybe try to search Sonia Rykiel on the forum and see who's growing it. Cheers

  • nanadollZ7 SWIdaho
    8 years ago

    Hi Trish,

    I should clarify that I was praising you Australian rosarians, not Australian hybridized roses, which may be excellent, but I know nothing about them, except they must be inspired by the racetrack in some instances-ha. You who grow roses in Australia do such an outstanding job with your plants, though. I thought for sure your climate was dry--is fragrancenutter in a dry climate?

    Diane

  • nanadollZ7 SWIdaho
    8 years ago

    Fragrancenutter, I searched all over for Sonia and haven't found her in the U.S. or Canada, but I'll try again. Some forum members do import roses from Europe, so that may have been the case when you heard of her on this forum. Diane

  • titian1 10b Sydney
    Original Author
    8 years ago

    Diane, Yes there are a lot of wonderful rosarians here.

    Where I am is pretty humid in the warmer months, particularly in February and March. In Sydney we can get long dry spells, and longish wet spells too, with increasingly heavy and sudden downpours. A lot of the country is very dry, the farmers have had it very tough for a number of years.

    Yes, I think fragrancenutter is in Perth, which is much dryer, I believe, than here.

    An Australian poet called Dorothea Mackellar put it best in her poem 'My Country'

    "A land of sweeping plains

    Of ragged mountain ranges

    Of droughts and flooding rains"

    I had a cottage in the country once, in the middle of farmland, and I saw, overnight, the landscape change from brown to green. Quite wonderful.

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