Veilchenblau on steroids

15 years ago

We took out some old disease ridden tree roses in our front yard, and a year later up popped some mystery roses which I presume are root stock (or "stem stock", if there is such a thing) from the same places. (I love it when roses just appear in the garden - root stock or seedlings. My old gardener disapproved strongly, and always wanted to shovel prune them immediately, which is why he doesn't work for us anymore. I always leave such roses until they bloom, as I am incurably curious). One of them turned out to be de la Griffierie, which I love, love, love - it is gorgeous, and so fragrant!

Anyway, my question is about another rose that also popped up nearby - right where another of the tree roses was. It looks EXACTLY like my plant of Veilchenblau, except that the blooms, the buds, and the leaves are all 50% - 100% bigger than the ones on my Veilchenblau. The blooms go through exactly the same color variations from the buds to full bloom. My Veilchenblau which I got from VG has clusters of tiny buds - 10-20 buds to a cluster. My mystery rose has medium small buds, and only about 5 to a cluster. They are both in partial shade, and are both blooming right now, at the same time, and are of course both once bloomers. I don't know the growth habit of my mystery rose, as my husband hard pruned it last year as it was in the way of his lawn mowing (can't get rid of husbands like you can gardeners), but it appears to be putting out some very vigorous new canes, so it may be of a climbing habit. The leaves look like the ones on V, but are a darker green. (So sorry - no pics. I did just buy my first digital camera, but haven't taken it out of the bag yet.)

So, does anyone know of any rose that is like this? Was Veilchenblau used for root stock? Could it be some wierd sort of growth variation of V? Thanks for your thoughts -

Jackie

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Comments (8)

paparoseman
15 years ago
I looked through the Vintage website at the ramblers since your other newly growing rose was a rambler. I found that the hybrid multiflora rambler I.X.L. could be your unknown rose. It is very nearly thornless and was used for years as a rootstock for tree roses and has the right color of blooms.

In any case I would strongly consider that your rose is a rambler of one kind or another.

Lance
sherryocala
15 years ago
Hey, Jackie, it looks like you guessed right and Lance found the rose. According to HMF, your rose's parents are TausendschÃ¶n Ã Veilchenblau. Pretty cool. But Vintage says it mildews in their climate. Nobody has any photos either. Time to take your camera out of the bag!

Sherry
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jacqueline9CA
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks so much! It does sound likely that it is I.X.L. (the name is not very romantic, and it is a beautiful rose, oh well). I have only been able to find one picture of I.X.L. anywhere on the web. It is on HMF, but it is completely the wrong color. However, you really can't judge anything by one picture, so I will keep looking, and someday I will take a picture of my rose and post it here! Anyway, I am going to keep it, and see how big it gets - that is the sort of garden I have - nothing is very structured or disciplined - there are just huge roses rampaging all over the place. Thanks again for your help -

Jackie
jerijen
15 years ago
IXL (sometimes called IXLR)grows in several places at historic Rancho Camulos, Piru, CA:

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It was commonly used as rootstock for standards, but at Camulos, we have also seen it used as rootstock for climbers.

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Jeri
organic_tosca
15 years ago
That is LOVELY, and looks as though it would fit right in with the charming garden style Jackie mentions.
jacqueline9CA
Original Author
15 years ago
Jeri - thanks so much for the great pictures of ILX (I still think it deserves a better name!). The blooms look identical to what I have except that mine does not have the orange tones at all - it is a dark bright raspberry pink that fades to a sort of mauve/grey (not quite the lavender of Veilchenblau). However, I realize that could be the light, etc., so I do think what I have is ILX.

I visited Rancho Camulos last weekend with a friend - I was meaning to thank you for the recommendation, which you posted last Spring. It was so fantastic to see an original Mexican hacienda - I even liked the fact that not all of the buildings have been restored yet.

Hope the fire in Santa Barbara has not affected you - it looked really scary on the news last night.

Jackie
jerijen
15 years ago
Jackie -- I am so glad that you got to see Rancho Camulos! It is (as you saw) really a unique place.
We are so fortunate that it has survived, where most of its kind have not.

Yes, I think the color difference is likely lighting, and the difference between one monitor and another. I agree that IXL is lovely.
And that's the thing about rootstocks.
In most of the places that we run across them, we see Ragged Robin (Gloire des Rosomanes), Manetti, and a form of Odorata that was commonly used.
They're all gorgeous, though some (including Dr. Huey) don't have a long period of bloom.
The best of the bunch is Ragged Robin, which blooms continuously, and is among the most disease-free of roses in Southern California.

Jeri
User
14 years ago
That IXL looks like the pictures and carvings of the Tudor rose - the petals have the exact same shape. I always thought that depictions of Tudor rose were highly stylised artistic fancy. I guess not!

Avalon