I have my BD planted under a rose of sharon and it blooms constantly. i don't limb my rose of sharon much either as I love the flowers. However, it does not leaf out until end of May so BD gets some time with full sun during the growing season.

Hi Sherry. You've got the first part down pat. RULE # 1: NEVER, EVER TURN DOWN A FREE ROSE. (Especially a BIG one) lol.

I have a BD in a clearing in the woods that only gets direct sun about 10am-3pm, filtered sun the rest of the day, depending on the time of year (the soil is great, though). She's a little sparse with blooms, but what blooms they are! My BD in full sun has bigger flushes, but there's not much difference in bloom size. I think with your stronger Florida sun that she'll do fine. She's a workhorse...

John

Actually, the much-praised rose Belinda's Dream is truly dreadful in my area. Horrible powdery mildew and crud. I once grew a short hedge of six of them, and it broke my heart to see how ugly they were most of the season. I eventually took them out and replaced them with eight Perle d'Or, which has worked out much better for me.

Location, location, location, as our friends in the real estate business would tell us. I suspect that no rose exists which does well everywhere.

Rosefolly

Sherry, I have four planted along a curved walkway. Unfortunately, I didn't plan on how large a nearby crepe myrtle would get, and the fourth BD is shaded by that crepe. It's much smaller than the other three. In proportion to the size of the plant, I think it blooms as much as the other three. Since your rose is already quite large, perhaps the shade won't affect it that much.

BD I love this rose so much I have2 of them. Obviously I'm at the exact oposite of the country from where you are. So here goes.
Both bushes were planted Spring of 2010. One gets sun from early am till about 3 pm. This one is truly a bloom machine. It stands about 4 x 3 x 3. My husband and I love to visit our rose bushes almost nightly with wine glass in hand, during the growing season; so I pinch all the time..my Grandma was a pincher and so am I. BS about 10% spring aand fall only. Mild enough where it does not affect plant health.
BD number two gets filtered light only. More BS, smaller size and fewer blooms. Thiis one will be moved this spring. Both bushes are not coddled. No spray and only horse do for fertilizer.
Hope that helps.
Jeannie

Karolina, glad to hear of the constant blooming even in the shady spot.

John, that's a good rule about big free roses. You gave me a laugh. It figures that there would be a difference between and sun. We'll see how my Florida results turn out. Thanks for your input. It was very helpful.

Rosefolly, sorry to hear that BD mildews for you. Thankfully, mildew isn't much of a problem here.

Floridarosez, you have a good situation for comparison purposes. Is the shaded BD completely shaded? What are the sizes of the shaded vs sunny BD's? Age? Blooming sounds encouraging. Any BS issues on the shady BD?

Jeannie, I suspect mine will get some full sun rather than only filtered but probably only from 10AM to 2PM or maybe a little less with the rest of the time being bright Florida shade. The BS concerns me, and I'm pretty sure mine will get bigger than your 4x3x3 even in my shadier situation due to more heat and longer season. Thank you for sharing your experience. It helps. I'm a pincher, too.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Sherry, it is completed shaded until the crepe sheds its leaves in fall, then partial. The only time I have BS issues with BD is when we have several consecutive days of overcast rainy or foggy weather, but that's with all of them, not just the one in the shade. I also have occasional issues with botrytis on BD under those same conditions. I just pruned them down to about two feet. Before pruning, they were just under five feet and almost as wide. The one in the shade was half that height and not nearly as wide.

Floridarosez, that's interesting. The shade really made a big difference in size. Do you always prune them back that far? Is that because they get too big otherwise? I have no experience with that kind of pruning. I don't prune Mme Abel Chatenay quite that far but she's not that tall either. I guess I cut her back in half.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Ignore me if this is too off-topic, but can BD be kept at no more than 4 feet in a morning-sun area in my zone, y'all think? I really, really want to put her in this certain spot, but she'd have to be kept that short there.

I don't have her (BD) yet, but I can tell you that my Bow Bells used to bloom a fair bit in a lot of shade. I moved her, and now she's one of my most reliable bloomers. She has such fast repeat bloom, that is. She had fewer blooms in the shade, as you might imagine, but she definitely had some color there as well.

Meredith, do you mean four feed wide or tall? Mine is about 3' wide x 4.5' tall in partial shade in her first year and I am in a colder zone than you are. Maybe with pruning?

This post was edited by Karolina11 on Thu, Jan 3, 13 at 22:11

I have BD. I planted it under a eucalyptus tree, and it got about 4' tall and bloomed regularly. Then I had the tree cut down, and now it gets nearly all day sun. It has doubled in size and is 6-8' tall, and blooms incredibly. Much more than it ever did in partial sun.

Sherry, I had never pruned them at all, but these were the BDs that had the cane dieback disease, and their shape had been ruined by constantly whacking off affected canes. I took them all down to the height of the shaded one, and they are looking much better. These were in my save them or kill them program where I stopped spraying with fungicide and started drenching them with fungicide. So far it's working. The spraying had saved them, but they were still having an occasional cane die back. Through it all, they never quit blooming. Within weeks of their drastic pruning, they were making tons of buds.