I know they're happy in the southern US in the heat. What about up here - does anyone grow them and have an opinion?

Or if you don't live up here and want to tell me what you grow or think, that's great too; I'm feeling noisette-deprived and need some conversation about them!

Gean

Jeannie
ps.. if you need horse poops...come on down..we even feed the horses organic and alfalfa to boot.

I should have been more specific in my question, which is whether people have observed with their noisettes, if they grow them up here, that it's the lack of heat that is a problem with them or whether it's a hardiness issue. I am zone 8b up here.

I grow two noisettes, 'Cato's Cluster' and 'Redoute's Red Noisette' - the shrubs themselves are getting large and seem to be healthy, about 3 years old. No blackspot at all, but few blooms. I also have Madame Alfred Carriere; same thing, not much bloom but appears to be healthy.

My biggest question about noisettes is whether they are like teas, in that they require heat to do well, or is it that they are happy in mild temperatures, they just don't like cold.

I think those are two different questions. It has seemed to me that the teas require heat in order to grow well;. I grow four teas. They are all in as much sun as I can give them, but it is very slow with all of them.

The noisette shrubs seem to grow well in the mild temps. The delayed bloom on all of them may just be an age thing here, I am not sure.

Redoute's Red is in a spot at the edge of the cleared forest; it looks like a species rose so I am hoping over time it will bloom well there in the partial shade. I finally moved Cato's Cluster to a very sunny spot which we finally got cleared out; it's been moved several times, poor thing.

If noisettes just need protection from cold, then I think they will be fine here. I just ordered two more oddball noisettes, so I'm thinking about them and it seems to me to come down to this question. If it's they need heat, it's going to be slow going, just as my teas, which are in as much sun as I can give them, grow slowly. My impression is that it's they need cold protection rather than heat, but I'm not sure yet.

I also think you gave some great advice about care. I actually either do or at least know to do what you suggest, but it's always good to hear care tips again and to hear what others do. I'm trying llama poops this year because of the lack of weed seeds, or so I read, anyway. We'll see next spring what pops up.

Thanks for the response; I always appreciate help. Gean

I'm really curious if anyone up here grows those shrub noisettes. I can't figure out why not, actually, as so far they seem to be really good, because I don't think the mildness bothers them. I'm not sure about the hardiness yet.

Jeannie, here is 'Redoute's Red' - I grow it at the edge of the woods here. It still has most of its leaves - it just hasn't bloomed much, yet, but it may be in too much shade. It is extremely healthy and I do like mine. 'Cato's Cluster' has that same kind of wild look. I've only seen one bloom, though. It got moved from too much shade into a sunny spot where I expected a lot of bloom last summer. After no blooms I dug it up to find the ground was contaminated by a line of old tires that had been buried. Poor thing, so we cleared out more ferns and it finally is happy I hope. I would love to see this thing covered in blooms this year.

The two others I've ordered, 'Lingo Musk' and 'St. Leonard's' have the same look, I think, and all will do well in a woody setting. I hope.

I am not sure how it would play with your 'Souvenir de St. Anne' I only grow 'Madame Cornelissen' of that clan and it is not happy, even placed in as much sun as I have. I'm thinking of replacing it after this year if it continues to have problems. This is not a bourbon kind of place, I don't think.

Cato's Cluster