I had this rose because I fell in love with its appearance and would still have it if it performed anything like your gorgeous, to-die-for specimen. It must like cooler or more humid weather than I could give it, since for me it was a gangly, basically spring-blooming rose. I'm glad it's performing so magnificently for you.

Ingrid

It does look excellent, I like the blooms and foliage.

According to HMF, there are two roses going by this name. One is actually Gartendirektor Otto Linne. They differ in armament and fragrance.

That is a great looking rose, Celeste.

Randy

That foliage truly is "excellenz". The blooms remind me of the fairy, so dainty yet profuse. I love your little angel too!

This is a fabulous looking rose. Where did you get yours? To have a thornless rose that looked like that would be great. Thanks for posting this!
Frances

Hmmm...michaelg, so how would I decide which plant I really want? I couldn't find anything at HMF that said GOL was also going by the EVS name. The only difference to note was that one was perpetual bloom (GOL) and one was a spotty repeater. (EVS)

I would like to have one of these on my list, preferably the one celeste has.

Celeste, how positive are you that you have Excellenz?

I obtained mine from Ashdown quite a long time back when they were selling off the last of their grafted stock. It was sold to me as 'Excellenz von Schubert'. Until now I always assumed that's who it was. I was not aware that my beloved little rose could have an 'alias'. Since I've never seen the other rose in question, I can't compare them visually. Mine does have a nice fragrance, although it is light and the blooms are more lavender-hued than pink (which is hard to capture in photos). If EVS has thorns, than mine may not be 'him' since my specimen has zero thorns and reblooms very well. Maybe one is also healthier as well? Contrary to other reports, mine has always been the picture of health.

Oh well....whatever his name might be....he's a keeper.

Celeste

Celeste, I had GOL in another garden and see little resemblance to your plant and the EvS I had. It was definitely more pink and had no fragrance. Your leaves also look more like what I remember from EvS. If your plant has fragrance then I would be very much inclined to think you have the real deal.

Ingrid

Awesome! Celeste, I agree..a keeper whichever! I would love to have a rose like that with such great rebloom and healthy foliage.

Noooooooooooo!!! I was just about to finally get around to my very first enabling posting with Otto (Ashdown has a bunch of them and thought I'd kill two birds with one stone), and then this had to come up. And, of course, mine doesn't match either description to a tee.

My Otto:
Vendor - Armstrong in a pot sometime in the 90's.
Size - in sandy loam 4-5'; after I got married, he moved to heavily amended adobe and over the last 8 years has put out some canes easily 8-10'
Flowers - see below
Fragrance - individually 'some'; you will smell a spray in a vase if you sit next to it; when there's easily around 1000+ blooms in the first spring flush, well boy howdy, YES!
Thorns - yes
Color - a blue-based pink, but definately pink, no lavender undertone; pics below are true to color - note some open enough to show the yellow centers of the stamens, also older blooms fade, creating a multi-tone effect
Repeat - yes throughout the year, although there's no way the poor thing could possibly repeat the bounty of the spring flush twice in one year

Pics:

{{gwi:241166}}
{{gwi:241169}}

What's the verdict???

Since I've owned both in the past and if my memory is not fooling me, I would still say that Celeste has what she thinks she has, i.e. EvS. Lagomorphmom has the great Otto, a rose that is very, very popular in Europe since it seems to have almost everything except a great fragrance. Otto is pink and EvS is lavender/purple, just as the photos show. I don't quite see how the one could be mistaken for the other, since the colors really are not at all alike.

Ingrid

ANOTHER PLUS for EvS. One fall, I accidentally broke off a cluster of blooms with leaves and then decided to leave them on a paper plate in a darkened hallway just to see what would happen(the curious child in me). When I checked a few weeks later, the whole thing had perfectly dried, the flowers kept their form though very slightly smaller, due to dehydration and the color had slightly deepened, looking richer, and when I got close I could still smell the fragrance. Thinking this might just be a fluke, I deliberately did this the following fall and got the same result. Have done it several times since. The original stayed the same for several years until someone handled it too roughly and it shattered.

Okay....please clarify....if I purchased my EvS from A.R.E., I have Otto?

I really want EvS, so do you think I can ask my money back?

There's no fragrance with my bush, but my nose could be defective. The color on mine is a mixture of pink and lilac. Newer blooms are lilac/purple and older ones are pink -- isn't this how bloom color age anyway, from darker to lighter?

I know, I know...I'm just really hoping my bush is EvS, but feel free to let me know I have the wrong rose, if that's the case.

Or you could lie to me :)

Audrey

Rogue Valley Roses has both and they have good pictures and descriptions of each rose. I ordered both of them, as I'm looking for smaller blooms that repeat, to go in front of the damasks and other OGR's in the back of the garden.

I don't know if you can get your money back, but in warmer weather, Otto is supposed to be a climber. I saw one in a magazine photo, growing on an arbor. It was very pretty and it's supposed to rebloom well all summer, even in the heat :)

Thanks lavender lass! I will check out RVR website.

The only reason why I'm so sad and mad at the same time, I purchased EvS because of the enabling on this site. I wanted the fragrance more than the repeat blooms......oh, well, just gives me another reason to order yet another rose :)

That's the spirit! One more rose....what could be wrong with that? :)

I'm sitting here with ARE's tag for EVS in hand. I just took it off Otto. To sum it up:
EVS if Fragrantand the frgrance last for day; Otto is fragrant only to someone with a dog's sense of smell
EVS is purple (very much so); Otto is pinkie pink
EVS blooms sporadically after spring; Otto is more continuous
EVS is hybrid musk gangly; Otto is polyantha compact

I emailed ARE about their misnaming but they never replied.

I wanted EVS for the fragrance, but I was hoping for more than sporadic rebloom after spring. Darn.

My EvS is not purple. Jeri called it "mauve" in a different thread. I think mine is on the pink side of "mauve". It IS fragrant.

We cannot be sure if any of the plants sold as GOL and EVS are properly named.

Lambert's own catalog described GOL:
Gartendirektor Otto Linne (P. Lambert 1936). (Polyanthaform and size). Blooms dark carmine-pink on yellowish-white base, edges darker, in pyramidal trusses up to 30, well double. Vigorous plant, bushy, 60/80 cm high, upright, floriferous until frost; glossy, leathery foliage, firm, resistant; strong wood, well thorny. Very hardy. (Robin Hood X Rud. Kluis).

Looking at the shots on HMF, I'd say there are at least three different cultivars being sold under the name of Gartendirektor Otto Linne.

EVS is just as messed up. Rozenlexikon describes Excellenz von Schubert:
von Schubert, Excellenz (multiflora, Lambertiana) Lambert 1909; M.N. Levavasseur X Druschki; deep carmine-pink, medium-size, well double, dense clusters of 5-20, floriferous, repeats, many thorns, long branches, growth 7/10, upright, bushy, 1,50m., Sangerhausen

The lovely mauvey, arching, scented rose I grow under the name of EVS is neither deep carmine-pink nor thorny.

The biggest problem is that multiple cultivars are in commerce under these names, and we poor slobs who want to grow one or the other have to do detailed research know what we're getting.

Thanks Berndoodle.

Maybe this summer we can all report how our reputed EVS's are doing and where we got them, if we can remember. It would be fun to compile all the sources and get pics of them all.

Mine is in a band pot just received from Rogue Valley, sold to me as EVS. I have the ARE version as well, newly planted..

The Rogue Valley EVS is thornless. ARE's is not. That's all I know now.

Here's another to consider. Anyone grow EvS or GOL from Countryside Roses? They describe their EvS as lilac and very fragrant (spicy clove), but say nothing about the thorns.

They also have GOL and describe that one as deep pink and having very light fragrance and few thorns.

Here is a link that might be useful: Countryside Roses

Good grief! I gave away my GOL. Don't remember much about him except the gorgeous pink color. Positive mine had thorns. Susan where are you?

Sherry

Our E.V.S. from vintagegardens.com is a beautiful plant that has:
-mauve-pink roses. Typically I'd say c. 70% mauve to c. 30% pink. Occasionally I've seen its' petals edges all show a carmine-violet hue during a bloom cycle, under certain climatic conditions.
-fragrance is moderate to my nose
-only a few prickles, and these are near the base of the plant.
Remontancy is dependably average for Hybrid Musk roses in our area, 3 bloom cycles per year. One bloom cycle in spring, summer and fall in our garden near San Francisco, California.
It is a rose well worth growing, in my h. opinion, and I love it growing next to "Callisto" a superb yellow Hybrid Musk bred by Pemberton.

Lux.