Good to hear about your R. moschata (I'm not familiar with the Reverend)...R.m. is on my list for my long-planned front garden. I'm hoping to get it to go upwards up a big thick pillar and along the top a bit, don't know if that'll work, but I have seen pictures of it apparently cascading over an arch, with its lower parts bare. It looked all gorgeously wild-dreamy-beautiful, and of course one can only imagine the smell...! It's by no means a showy flower, but the overall effect - visual & olfactory - is what enchants me. How much this has to to with bucolic fantasies of Elizabethan England, complete with Will the Bard having a rest in a flower-besprinkled meadow while walking between Stratford-on-Avon and LondonTown, I cannot say.... :-) It sounds as if the timings are working out well for you; knowing it to be a late starter, I too was hoping it would fill that gap, during that period here when most things, very sensibly, like to take a little siesta over the hottest part of summer. Last year we hit 46C - Aaarrgghh!! Now I too am considering a possible summer hibernation period, seems like a good plan to me...

R. moschata (Graham Thomas's original) was beginning to flower at Mottisfont Abbey last week -- early for that climate, I'd think.

This year, our Rev. Seidel were 3=4 weeks later than the R. moschata, which were their usual 2-3 weeks after the Hybrid Teas.

As you say, once they start, they tend to be continuous-flowering until winter or pruning stops them.

My 2-year old Rev Seidel has had a few blooms on it for a little more than a week now. It's really growing like crazy. I love the foliage. What differences do you see or smell with r moschata?

As I remember from last year (neither of mine have opened yet -- just buds forming now), 'R. moschata' and "Secret Garden Musk Climber" had about the same type of scent -- strong clove. "Darlow's Enigma" had what is ironically called the "typical musk scent" which I find also on 'Marie Pavie' (Polyantha) and 'Bubble Bath' (Hybrid Musk). 'Reverend Seidel' smelled, to me, as though someone made a bouquet of 'R. moschata' and "Darlow's Enigma" -- it's like a mix of both. Vintage Gardens believes it to be a seedling of 'R. moschata' pollinated by 'The Garland', which has 'R. multiflora' as a parent, and is where the "typical musk scent" of Polyanthas and Hybrid Musks originated.

As far as looks, the two young plants appear rather similar, with a few differences. 'R. moschata' has slightly larger leaves, and seems to want to grow taller. 'Reverend Seidel' is a bit more densely foliated and "bushy". Even though 'R. moschata' gets a bit less sun where it's planted, which contributes to differences in habit, I also noticed these differences last year as they were growing-on in pots in full-sun. One final difference is the flowers -- those on 'R. moschata' have petals more reflexed and clusters are less tight, while those on 'Reverend Seidel' are more rounded and clusters a bit more dense.

:-)

~Christopher