"Denver Roses" in My Tampa Yard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcC9kZji3sk

Tea Rose 'Mme. Antoine Marie'

I bought this a few years back, I believe from the good folks at Chamblee's Roses, as a drought tolerant Tea Rose, and tested it in a dry bed out front by the street where it clung to life in this  6 year drought and my water stingyness. But as soon as I dug it up and put it in a 5 gallon Water Wise Container  that I then buried, it took off. Time and time again, such as when it makes these massive candelabras, it is SO reminiscent of Florida's iconic Mystery China "Pink Cracker Rose". But the scent of the blooms IS the classic "tea" scent vs. the fruity-rose perfume of the Chinas, which "Pink Cracker Rose" boasts of in abundance. Plus the color is paler. John

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.3967&tab=1

Rose Edouard

I have wanted to encounter this rose for years, and the specimen that Mike Shoup gave me a few years when I gave a talk on Probiotic Rose Gardening at his Fall Roses Festival, began to grow and bloom like crazy as soon as I transplanted it into a 15 gallon Water Wise Container Garden. The perfume is heavenly!  I note that my plant looks very different from most of those at HelpMeFind. Hmmmm.....  John


http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.5472&tab=1

"Fairmount Red"

Year four for this own root plant in a large restricted drainage tree pot....what a thrill to see and smell and breed with the rose that inspired my dozen years of roses studies at Denver's Fairmount Cemetery and that turned my mild interest in Old Roses back then into a life-shaping passion. Once bloomer, cold hardy in Denver and this year my specimen has begun suckering just as it does in Colorado! This suckering, and the saturated purplish-red color (darker in real life than in this photo), has long made me think it has a Gallica in its blood. Enjoy, John

"Walnut Street Yellow" from Boulder, Colorado

Years ago when I still lived in Denver, Mikl and Eve of Harlequins Gardens in Boulder told me of a lovely, once-blooming yellow climber  they'd spotted in an elderly woman's yard on Walnut Street there in Boulder, and one early July day Eve took me to meet it. We agreed that it is clearly a Wichurana due to the glossy foliage, once-blooming trait and eager winter hardy growth. I bought one from them a few years back via mail but it died in the drought. So I bought a new one this winter but THIS time planted it in a 5 gallon Water Wise Container Garden and buried it next to the stump of the now-dead (thankfully!) 'Mermaid' that got SO out of hand I could not get into my own front yard for over a year and a half.....yesterday I spotted buds!!!!

Years ago Eve and I concluded the true ID was very likely 'Primevere' and after I sent pics of it to Bill Grant and his friend Odile who has one in her garden in France, they agreed. Since I have EXCELLENT results with other Wichurianas here, even in the dry soil, I hope that this one benefits from the  buried Water Wise Container Garden and takes off and consumes the rebar beside it.

                                                                 John

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.4970&tab=1

'Easlea's Golden Rambler'

This was my first candidate many years ago for the true ID of the Denver Mystery Rose "Mr. Nash" discovered there by Toni Tichy. I have long been sure it is not, but nonetheless I fell in love with Easlea's when I met it in Peter Beales' nursery in 1997, and some years later again in Bill Grant's landscape...he got his from Beales. VERY VERY bushy for a "climber".....I REALLY hope I get one from Desert Roses bare root closeout sale to at LAST try here in Tampa (in a Water Wise Container Garden of course) and I was not able to root cuttings I got from Bill's plant years ago. I have very good luck with Wichuraianas here in Tampa, even IN the ground, and the extreme glossiness of the foliage convinces me of the claim that it is a Wichuraiana. See too Cliff's e-mail so you can reach him to place an order. John

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.1698&tab=1


cliff.eurodesertroses@yahoo.com

'Cynthia Brooke' Hybrid Tea 1943

I fell in love with this rose many years ago when I was first going mental over roses due to having checked out from the Denver Botanic Gardens library a copy of Peter Beales' '20th Century Roses'. I bought from in the mid 90s from a California grower, but it very soon succumbed to the "Black Death" that killed about 40% of the roses I ever bought from him. Desert Roses is having a closeout sale, so I e-mailed Cliff an order including this lovely gem and others to try here in Tampa in my Water Wise Container Gardens. Look at the form and color!!  John

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.1408&tab=1