Not the one I had!
As a climber, it was viable espaliered along a fence, but I don't think I could have gotten it over an arbor.

O'course, it was virused.
Maybe a VI plant might offer more vigor?

Jeri

Thanks Jeri,
How might ' R. des R.' perform on rootstock?
hortico and pickerings sell it budded onto R. multiflora which thrives gloriously here.

Lux.

Lux, mine WAS on Rootstock.
It was a Roses of Yesterday & Tomorrow plant,
budded on virused Dr. Huey rootstock.

Now . . .
IF you took VI budwood, and put it on Fortuniana?
THAT might really take off.
(Or not.)

Jeri

Unlike Jeri's, thankfully mine is not virused.
My supplier was The Antique Rose Emporium.
I've had it for several years, and I no longer think of it as a "short climber" like I used to think of it.
Mine is very vigorous, but it's habit is typical hybrid perpetual in my experience. By that I mean, it's canes grow long and lanky and want to arch over after growing really long, but not flexible enough to want to "act" like a climber.
I finally gave up on the "short climber" idea, and now grow it as a shrub via pruning.
I'm happier with it that way, and it has responded well.

My rose that has been the easiest to grow as a "short climber" is 'Nur Mahal'.

Randy

We grow it without mosaic and on 'Fortuniana' roots. It's quite a large shrub (8-9' tall) but I can't really imagine using it as a climber. Maybe tied to a fan trellis, but that's about it. Left to its own devices, it's quite an upright shrub, but the prettiest ours has ever been was the year we pegged it, bending the tips down to near soil level. The stems are stiff enough that they made quite high arches, and they flowered all along the length of the stems. It was a tremendous amount of work to peg it, then much more to unpeg it later, so we never did it again. But I always think I should.

I had one on multiflora in Southern Cal and it went up a small tree about 8'-10'. Agree with not using it to cover an arbor. I could see it on the side of an arbor and I've also grown it as a pillar rose which worked beautifully.

I'm very interested in this thread because I hope to use RdV as a pillar rose in my Livermore garden. How do you deal with the alkaline CA soil with this rose? I've heard it hates it. It seems like it would be too big a rose to grow in a pot. I'd really like to hear how all of you have dealt with this issue.

Debbie

> How do you deal with the
> alkaline CA soil with
> this rose?

*** VERY good question.
This is an issue in our very alkaline environment with pretty much anything in the purple/multiflora line.
You haven't lived 'til you've had a rose with purple flowers and WHITE leaves.
Not conventionally chlorotic. WHITE.
Even that "NOT-RdV" that is circulating does this.
So will Excellenz von Schubert -- and diverse other things.

After having tried various remedies over the years, I finally tried a handful of soil sulfur, placed where the water from the emitter flows over it.

This works (for us) better than anything else.
It has kept the foliage of EvS green for two years, from one treatment.

If your conditions are alkaline, and you plant RdV, be prepared to do something along these lines, to keep it happy.

Jeri

Wow, what a creative solution!! Yes, we are alkaline (all hydrangeas eventually turn pink) but I'm not sure how alkaline. Soil testing is so expensive in CA that I haven't done it. I tried to find results for my area on the internet (since we're a heavily agricultural region -- Wente and Concannon are both within 5 miles) I thought I'd find something. No luck so far!!

I'll try that trick with the hydrangeas too.

Thanks!!

I grew R de V against one side of an arbor, it grew tall (8-9') and stiff, very thick. I got two cycles of bloom. In this section of my yard, the soil's pretty heavy with clay and R de V actually showed beautiful violet tones more than pink. The flowers were very pretty & fragrant, but the foliage not beautiful once the foggy spring shifted into hot dryer summer. I finally took it out and I'm trying Sidonie instead which seems to be more flexible.

I finally had a freind drive me to a public rose garden, it was quite fun because it was pitch black and raining. I was stumbling around in the mud until he found me and had lucky for me, he has remembered to bring a flashlight from his car, and we measured a 'Reine des Violettes", 3 of its basal canes were 7 feet tall, and the rest were smaller. I love the idea of pegging it. We've done this with 'Ulrich Brunner fils' with great effect, and for years we just left Ulrich Brunner fils' arching and pegged to the ground year after year and only pruned back the laterals to c. 1-2 inches from the basal, and it continued to produce that "blanket of bloom" effect, all we did was deadhead it. Once every 3 to 5 years the basal canes can be pruned back by c. 33% to 50% to stimulate new basal growth.

Thanks all,
Lux.