I collect grow mostly Old Garden Tea and Noisette roses, and though they are gorgeous garden plants, they have a vase life of 2-4 days in summer. (Mlle. Franziska Kruger lasted c. 2 days in a vase, and most of the other Teas lasted 3 to 4 days before the petals dropped off).
I'm looking for Old Roses that have a vase life of 4-5 days or more. Fragrance and good disease resistance are important to me, as I don't spray.
I love roses of these classes best:
Bourbon
Damask Perpetual, a.k.a. Portland ( though I only have Glendora which shatters nearly as soon as I notice an open blossom, in hot weather)
Hybrid Perpetual
Tea
Tea-Noisette

I have a historical garden with plants that are from the 1800's and earlier and a small area for plants from 1900-1939 before our housing village was established.
Thank you kindly,
Lux

P.S. I prep with these methods and means;
-I've heard it is best to pick the roses after they've been well watered, and in the evening or morning.
1.re-cut the stems in a bowl cool water. Because a rose flower is unusual in the fact that it quickly re-seals a cut stem, which cuts off water supply" in 8 seconds". This makes this an important step, or so I have read in a magazine article.
2. lay the roses in several inches of cool water for an hour or more to "condition the roses"
3. slit the stems vertically for an inch or more. This is my own idea. I find the vertical slit works as well as re-cutting the stems every day. The vertical slit lasts for 3 days, then I re-cut. For very thick stems I make 2 long vertical slits which appear like an "X" on the bottom of the stem. For a long stemmed rose these slits can be between 2 and 3 inches long. More inner cane exposed= better water uptake, I believe. .
4. Remove all foliage that would be below the water line. This is very important.
5. Add flower preservative to the vase water.
6. Put the vase, filled with water, preservative and roses in the fridge for an hour or so. ( I rarely have room for this step)
Vase prep:
-soak the vases in bleach water. 1 T. per gallon or more bleach if vase is scummy.
-use a bottle brush to remove debris.

I can get 4 days out of Prospero, The Dark Lady, and Cl. Sombreuil -- Assuming that I pick all of them on the tight side.

Same for Old Town Novato. Benny Lopez, thus far, only 2-3 days.

Jeri

hehehe.

;-)

~Christopher

I find that a long stem of Perle d'Or holds up nearly a week. As buds open, I snap off faded flowers.

Mons Tillier has great substance in the petals and holds up for 4-5 days if cut before opening..
Anita

On top of that, this year the "second" flush has lasted essentially 4 months -- it has literally not been out of bloom since June. There have been huge numbers of blooms. The first flush, as is many times the case, was a total bust due to damp conditions, but I always forgive this rose because the rest of the year is almost always spectacular.

Second place: Souvenir de Pierre Notting.

:-)

~Christopher

Echo (Baby Tausendschon) has little fragrance, but I never spray and it's so pretty :)

From Lavender's Garden

I hope you let us know what you choose!

(BTW, luxrosa, you gave me very thorough advice earlier this year on planting Albertine near my cedar trees. I just wanted to thank you again and let you know that I walked by them last night and they are doing great. Some of Albertine's canes are almost as tall as I am already! She is remarkable.)

I am probably going to order Papa Gontier and William R.. Smith, teas, to plant next spring in hopes that they will be good cutting tea roses.

Ingrid

I'll see if I can find a 'Grandmothers Hat' and Etoille de Lyon, they are two roses I have long admired in other gardens.
-if you know of anyone who is selling them this autumn, please let me know.
I am batting about 7 failures of 10 roses I've bought without ever seeing them in person, so I am wary of buying another but Georg Arends' looks gorgeous in photos.
- I no longer spray, so could you tell me how disease resistant it is please?
-is it as fragrant as it looks?

So far in my garden the one rose that stands out for longer vase life is
cl. 'Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria' a rose I bought without ever seing it in person, because it is white and someone raved about its' scent. It lasts 4 days in the vase, in summer, and then appears a bit limp though the petals stay on the bloom for another 2-3 days.
It is such an exquisite (never thought I would say that about a H.T. I feel a bit adulterous to my Tea roses) and shapely rose I wonder that F.K.D.' sold better and remained in general commerce so much longer. I bought a ' Frau Karl Druski from Home Depot last year.

Sidhos-house, I'm glad to hear your Albertine is doing well.

I planted a Monsieur Tillier on the corner of my property, because all of my borders are planted with mostly white roses with a little pink showing here and there in White 'Maman Cochet' and Mrs. Dudley Cross among Lamarque, Mme. Alfred Carriere, cl. Sombrieul, something that looks like cl. Iceberg I was sent by a nursery by mistake, cl. Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria' 'Nastarana and Westside Road Cream Tea's, I thought my neighbors might like looking at some color and Monsieur Tillier' certainly provides that in abundance!

Luanne has ' Souvenri du President Carnot, I'll ask her for a cutting.
Echo' is a sweet little thing, thanks for posting a photo of it.
again, thanks everyone.
Lux

Keep in mind that this is a rose that came only this Spring as a band from Vintage. I let it have only a few blooms, and yes, they were VERY VERY fragrant -- strong, sweet "old rose" that is said to be "pure Centifolia" but being as I've never smelled a Centifolia, I can't comment on the comparison. They were a monochrome, unshaded pure pink, shaped like a typical fat Hybrid Perpetual cabbage but with the folded-back pointed-petal look of a Hybrid Tea. Considering its ancestry (it's about 3/8 Tea and 5/8 Hybrid Perpetual), that makes sense. Oh, and the plant is completely thornless -- I still haven't found the first thorn. It's growing as though it will be a short climber, or at least something that would do best with a little support -- like against an open picket fence -- so I have it where I can attach it to the lower part of the deck railing as it gains a little more height.

I think much of the vase-life is a result of it taking a couple days to fully open, due to how many petals it has. Once opened, it holds up another couple of days. I cut one in the "loose-but-closed" bud-stage, sepals fully back, and gave it to my neighbors who share the yard with me. They kept it in a vase inside right by the window where I could see it while working in the yard, and I watched it unfurling over a couple days. By about the fifth day, it started looking as though it was finally past its peak. And I can't imagine they did anything more than stick it in a vase with plain tap water.

If you can't find a plant by Spring, let me know and I'll try rooting another piece of mine. I was hoping to interest Linda Loe of Long Ago Roses in growing a few rooted cuttings of some things I picked up from Vintage which don't seem to be available elsewhere, so at least they don't disappear from commerce. 'Georg Arends' was one of them, so I was going to root a few anyway. HelpMeFind has Pickering as one of the other nurseries carrying it, but it's not on their current HP inventory on their website (perhaps they used to carry it?). Hortico may be the only other way of getting it in the US, though once again, I don't see it among their current HP inventory.

:-)

~Christopher

When it arrived and was repotted, April 25, 2013:

First flower I allowed to open, May 22, 2013:

A pic showing 'Georg Arends' on the left ('Nouveau Monde' on its right), taken September 2, 2013. At this time, it's recovering from going naked.

Randy

Not to say anything bad about the Kaiserin. But I only have a few first blooms from my new band. I'm hoping I fall in love like the rest of you have.

I don't know if she has Etoile de Lyon, but you can ask when you email her.

I'm thrilled about getting a chance to try GH.
Good luck.

how does one order from burlington? I googled the nursery and it sent me to helpmefind.com/roses with a list of roses available from burlington nursery that was dated for 2009.

does Burlington have a 2013 catalog anywhere on the web?

thanks,
Lux

burlingtonroses@aol.com