You need the Damask Ispahan..it has the longest bloom period of any of my many once bloomers-2 months for me and completely healthy vigorous nice and leafy shrub that responds well to shaping with fabulous fragrant flowers.

patricia

Good luck! I love the once-blooming roses and have lots of them, even here in the paradise of Teas. They're worth it.

Melissa

Hi Patricia, I've been thinking of swapping out Madame Abel Chatenay Cl. for Blush Damask or Kazanlik at Ashdown. Trying not to order more than I already have :), but I'll definitely put Ispahan on the list for any new orders.

Hi Melissa, I was looking through my pics of last Spring, and really enjoyed my Charles de Mills and Botzaris. I've always gone for a cottage garden look, and the once bloomers will be backdrops for varied perennials.

Eric

Hi Lori,

I have Charles de Mills and Felicite Parmentier (still a baby). Queen of Denmark is on the wishlist. My alternates from Vintage are: Henri Martin, Leda, and Pompon Panachee. I also have a small Cardinal de Richelieu hastily planted last fall with some damaged canes and canker..hope it makes it through.

Eric

Ispahan knocks the socks off kazanlik-which is very thorny besides. I second every suggestion of Lori's. You can hardly go wrong with the Gallicas-Belle sans Flatterie....I probably grow Blush Damask under the name of Blush Hip-there are some questions there-nice rose though nothing outstanding. I got B D from Rogue Valley for comparison but managed to lose it-literally...so it goes

patricia

Patricia, I did look at pictures of Belle sans Flatteria..beautiful. Gets good marks from Olga too. I forgot about the Portlands. I'm hoping to get Portland from Glendora (already have Comte de Chambord), which is listed as being hardy to 5a. Celeste's picture of it on HMF is awesome, and she's even colder.

Eric

Glendora was quite hardy here. However, it had horrible problems with damask crud.

Other than crud how was it? I think I recognized a bit of it on my CdC, but it was nothing that bothered me. Also forgot about Centifolias! I have Village Maid, eyeing Fantin Latour.

Eric

Marchesa Boccella/ Jacques Cartier is a wonderful rose. It's been quite hardy in my garden setting. The repeat bloom is good, and the fragrance is out of this world.

Hi Krista, I've got Marchesa Boccella on order from RU. I was finally enabled after reading all the glowing reviews on the forum :)

Eric

Glendora was essentially a once bloomer here. It got replaced with a striped Miscanthus that has color all summer.

I highly encourage you to try more of the old oncebloomers.
As much as I enjoy my modern roses, all the old European roses bring me the most enjoyment....because they are, in my opinion, the most beautiful and because they are the only roses I don't have to coddle and fuss over. That makes my job caring for so many roses easier. I also am
fascinated by their historical significance and how they were around when the world was a difference place....if only they could talk! Most of them are fragrant, and most are winterhardy without protection. I don't protect any of mine.
I could recommend a hundred or more and any of them would be worthy of garden space!
Madame Plantier grows in the WORST spot in my yard, in shade, and still blooms in profusion. I find that because of the shade she gets lanky so I put her in an obelisk so that her blooms hang down....she is more of a climber for me. Duchesse de Montebello is pure perfection, but then I am very partial to Gallicas and haven't met one I didn't love. Mine makes a nice bushy shrub.

Here's some photos to convince you that you need them....

Celeste

Madame Plantier.....

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Duchesse de Montebello....

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Leda....

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You mentioned Autumn Damask, and although I like it, I prefer Ispahan. Autumn Damask has an unruly growth habit for me whereas Ispahan (although a huge shrub) can be kept tidy with pruning. And Autumn Damask so far has not repeated her bloom as promised, so for me she is essentially a oncebloomer. Ispahan blooms for a longer time.

Autumn Damask....

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ISPAHAN....

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HENRI MARTIN....

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Good choice selecting Marchesa Boccella....this is one of the most compact and floriforous of my old roses.
Like I said, I could recommend a hundred (or easily more)
old roses....and will, if necessary!

Eric, even I have been mesmerized by the beauty of these once bloomers and I am trying a few. I guess time will tell how they like this climate. I have Leda and a couple of others. I also have Salet and though it is still a baby, I like it very much. I love my Tea's but I envy those of you who can grow these beautiful old roses so well.

Carol

Eric,
It will take you three or four years to find how these different families of roses take to your microclimate in Cinncinnatti.
The ideal situation has every once blooming rose blooming for its longest possible weeks of bloom. Even more ideally, you'd have some very early bloomers start off, and then others would join in before the first chorus had played out, and then other groups would start.

I love centifolias and gallicas and damasks. They are wonderfully lovely and breath taking. Maybe one year out of five, they last for two weeks. (Now for the cold voice of reality: when the beginning of their bloom period intercepts the beginning of our early May hot spell, I may only see three days of bloom before the sun starts baking the petals and accelerating their maturity. (Spring bulbs, especially tulips, have a similar problem here.)

Among the gallicas, there are so many different pedigrees, that some are great and others are ...not so great.

And my lovely Leda has simply died and I don't know why. I probably will not replace her, because she is so bloody hard to weed underneath and is one of the lovelies whose beauty is all too fleeting many, many years.

Hi Celeste, thanks so much for posting the pictures. Duchesse de Montebello's bloom form is perfection to me. I love the pure white and button eye of Mme. Plantier. I've enjoyed the pictures of your garden, it's like a living rose catalog to me. I'm trying to get Portland from Glendora...your pictures on HMF are great. Your endorsement of a rose really helps in selection, along with Olga's for BS resistance. I've got 1/10 of your space, already filling up quickly..if I had your space I'd have too :)

Hi Carol, I think you live in the perfect middle ground...just cold enough to grow some once bloomers, and warm enough for the teas. I have tea envy :), but I'm going to go with the flow on the climate.

Hi Ann, I'll have my moderns/Austins/Bourbons/Portlands for some repeat, I think I'm just done with zone pushing..it's not worth the worrying. I plan on incorporating them with perennials and clematis to provide some interest when not blooming. I'm going add them to provide structure too...a green backdrop.

Eric

Those pictures are HEARTBREAKINGLY beautiful. Those are the roses that I first fell in love with when I began finding out about old roses. I myself have gone for small teas/poly/early HTs, because of where I live (also very tiny gardening space), but those pictures are like glimpses of a beautiful garden from another time.
And, incidentally, I have never understood why there should be such insistence on rebloom - we don't ask that of other plants that bloom once and give us a glorious show when they do!

Organic Tosca has brought up a really interesting point.

I can talk about it without bringing genus Rosa into it.

Right now, in Tennessee, my neighbors for miles and miles cherish their dogwood trees. Here, dogwoods are prime landscaping plants for their grace and for what they do in spring. That they follow red buds (there are cities with redbud festivals) is langniappe. Here Dogwoods rule and their bloom goes for four to five weeks as the ones in the woods come along after the open air yard dogwoods. Three or four weeks of bloom ...then vibrant red seeds in the late fall into winter. Some falls, there's good color as well.
We were living in New Orleans and DH was remembering spring in Tennessee. He was complaining that no one in NOLA planted dogwoods. The timing was right, so I dragged him to our back bedroom and pointed out that scrawny tree in a neighbor's back yard. It had three dogwood blooms still showing on it, but they were largely obscured by the bright spring leaves. That bush had gone into full bloom that morning.
Once blooming works better in the terroir where it evolved. Zone pushing and extending of once blooming anythings can lead to some great discoveries, and some tragically short lived bloom disasters.

If I may speak up in favor of Duchesse de Brabant--(I just mentioned this on another thread). She's survived two summers of drought here and continues to thrive, so please consider giving her a second chance. She smells lovely and repeats well, and I love her color.

I love my Mme. Plantier but I had to move her last month. When I read she could grow 8' wide, I pictured four feet in one direction and four in the other. Within three years she'd grown 8' all right--on one side, and 8' on the other. She's gorgeous and a show-stopper, but if you're giving her amended soil and full sun, make sure you have enough room for her. :-)

{{gwi:222626}} Mme. Plantier

Engulfing two and a half arborvitae (Alexandre Girault on the left)

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And the aerial view. That is all Mme. P. in the bottom right. She takes up nearly 1/3 of the picture (and most of the bed)--you have been warned. ;-)
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Hi Remontant,

Thanks for the pictures of Madame Plantier. I love how the bush is completely studded with blooms. I actually like a rose that wants to get big...Mme Plantier is no wimp! I'll put her in a spot we'll she have plenty of room. That is a nice combination with Alexandre Girault.

As for Duchesse de Brabant, I just think it will be too cold here...I'm on the wrong side of zone 6 :(

Eric

I have Mme. Plantier on a rebar teepee as well. This past summer, however, I moved her from an area that got excessive afternoon sun, to an area that gets about 5 hours of morning sun and is protected from the sun the rest of the day. I found that MP was absolutely covered in flowers, but the afternoon sun caused the flowers to wilt in the hot afternoon sun. The bloom period lasted a very short time. I'm hoping some shade will help. Just thought I'd share this.

Hi Robert,
I'll be putting my Mme. Plantier in a very similar spot, so that's good to hear.

Eric