Hello Greybird,

Out of the list, I have Blush Noisette, Mrs. Wood's Lavender-pink Noisette, and Narrow Water. My yard is non-spray, and roses gets organic fertilizer 2 times in a year.

BN - I prune it to be about 4x4. I believe it can grow like 6x6 in time if you let it. It is very bushy and will not climb. Wonderful fragrance. Time to time, get a spec of black spot but comes back clean. Did I say BS has wonderful fragrance? One cane can make a big bouquet with many flowers, so I cut the spent bloom and I can not comment if they hand on or not. Rebloom is very good. I would plant a hedge of BN if I had a space.

MWLPN - The growth of this is similar to Hybrid Perpetual, like canes coming out of ground and have flowers on the top, and those canes have some branches. It is about 4x5, a tall bush. Mine may be planted in a shady place and the rebloom is not that good. It is not that fragrant to my nose.

NW - Too young to comment, but fragrance is good.

Hope you have a happy rosy day!

That's an intriguing group of lesser known Noisettes. The only one of the group that I grow is 'Mary Washington'. I'm sort of a cheerleader for this rose & have foisted it on a lot of gardeners -- most of whom are as smitten with it as I am. 'Mary Wash' (as it's known locally) makes a graceful shrub or can be used as a small climber. I grow it both ways. It is an extremely heavy bloomer for me all season long and is VERY fragrant. The buds are a rather intense pink; the small flowers are a blend of pale pink and white, but quickly turn to all white.

I'm compulsive about dead-heading all my roses. If that's a garden chore you want to avoid, you might also want to avoid MW. I wouldn't necessarily use your term (dirty tissue) to describe its spent flowers, but the beauty of this heavy bloomer is enhanced greatly if you don't allow lots of fading roses to hang around.

Jaques Amiot is very beautiful in its first (and only) flush. For me it's been a once bloomer. And, it shows significantly less BS resistance than most of my roses. It almost completely defoliates. I enjoy it for a few weeks then I totally forget about it.

I love Bermuda's Kathleen. It's just beautiful...and very healthy.

Tutta's Pink Noisette has been the most vigorous and most healthy of my Noisettes. I did have to move it in the heat of July last year, so it took a set back. I have big hopes for this rose!

Blush Noisette has been a dog for me....I am eager to get a cutting from someone who has a vigorous bush. Mine has been an unhealthy one cane wonder for 3-4 years, and it's in a prime location.

Mrs. Woods is showing excellent health and vigor. I'd put it right under (or beside) my estimation of Tutta's Pink.

I don't think I've got the other Noisettes on your list.

Robert

I love my Mary Washington! Mine is kept to about 5ft x 5ft with minimal pruning. Beautiful bush and it truly blooms all of the time here. It blooms in clusters and some of the blooms will darken before others. Like windeaux said, if that bothers you, (as much as I love this rose) it might not be the one for you.

Carol

All the information has been so helpful and my order has changed dramatically. I can't handle the browning balls of the spent bloom, especially mixed in with the fresh flowers. I see that happen a lot when the plant produces large clusters.

Now I'm really interested in Bermuda Kathleen, looks so clean and healthy, how big is it getting for you, Robert?

Blush Noisette was strong on my list, but something is holding me back, I hear such varying reports. I will stick with Plan A and get roses only available from Vintage, just in case they close their doors. BN is such a commmon rose, can get it from any number of vendors.

I guess I am looking for another rose like Natchitoches Noisette, but I think I may be out of luck. I have three NN planted in different locations around my yard, one shady with strong western afternoon sun and poor soil, (the worse location in my yard), and it is beautiful. And NN is the only rose in my yard that is completely evergreen. Can't recommend this "foundling" enough.

Thank you for your input!!!

Robert, you know we might have BN's from the same parent. Mine took about 5 years to come into their own and boy! when they did, I have been in love with them ever since. Really, I bet some of the people here can remember my whining about BN for several years. (You know me, the reason they called me a whiner dog) Now, I love it.

Placerville Noisette is wonderful in most ways, but does have to be deadheaded. The brown flowers hang on forever. Fortunately, the bloom clusters are so big that it doesn't take long.

I have Narrow Water at home and grow it as a lovely, mannerly climber. Blooms frequently. The flowers dry up and don't look bad.

We have several Blush Noisettes in the cemetery, which came to us under different names. They are large bushes, which repeat well and smell great. I saw one trained as a climber in Texas.

We also have the noisette known as "St. Leonard's." It is white, but with red staining in the center that becomes more apparent as the blooms age, giving the flowers an appearance of pink from a distance. It's another which looks better dead-headed, but whose flowers dry up in a less objectionable way. In the cemetery, it's about four feet high and six feet wide, but we've seen it much bigger in a foothill cemetery out here, where it was planted next to a little girl's headstone that was decorated with a rosebud. I'd definitely recommend it. Below are some photos of it.
Anita
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Anita

Greybird,

Bermuda's Kathleen is about 4ft x 4ft in her second year. She's delightful.

Perhaps my Blush Noisette will take off THIS year.

Robert

Anita, thank you for sharing the lovely photos of St. Leonard's. I did not consider this rose, as Vintage has it listed aka "Jeanne d'Arc" which I already have. But your photos look nothing like my Jeanne d'Arc.
The picture of the gravestone of the little girl is very interesting. I covet your close proximity to beautiful cemeteries, ours look like pictures of the old dust bowel days, decorated by the few cedars lucky enough to make it...

I have Blush Noisette, blooms nonstop, wonderful strong fragrance that seems to linger in the air, strong grower for me, but is prone to bs easily.

Oops, I need a proof reader. In my previous entry, I need to change the "dust BOWEL days" into "dust BOWL days".

Two different knowledgeable visitors, one from Texas, one from England, looked at our St.Leonard's in the cemetery and said, "Nope. Not Jeanne d'Arc."

I didn't even notice "bowel" vs "bowl" until you corrected yourself!

Our cemeteries aren't all beautiful, that's for sure, but they can be. We went to one that was full of lilies, set on the top of a hill. I was with Jeri and other rustlers, but came back the next weekend with my husband just so he could see that lovely spot.
Anita

A vote here for Princess de Nassau, which has become one of my very favorite roses. This is one rose of which it can be said that the bush is a beautiful as the flowers. This cultivar could be planted in a mixed border of any of your prized non rose perennials and not look out of place. It also blooms non-stop from April to December and has a nice fragrance which I can smell within a few feet of the bush.

Forgive me for including one not on your list but one I have had incredible success with and hope you will be able to check out for yourself. The blooms start as a faint blush pink, opening to white and lots of 'em. It's virtually indestructible and the seven we planted have grown to 20' in the first two years (to cover a deer fence we had to set up to keep the critters out from the all-you-can-eat-buffet they see our rose garden as being). They are fragrant, bloom all season and were selected specifically because they don't mind a little shade. I will be out there with my secaturs in a couple of weeks to prune them back for another season of their beauty and service.

Here is a link that might be useful: Madame Alfred LeCarriere