Mine is the climbing sport. This is her at the end of her Spring show. I am in south Louisiana and she is my absolute favorite of all my roses. I don’t care if she balls. There are SO many blooms that don’t that it doesn’t matter if some do. I adore this rose. She has few thorns and laughs at pests and diseases and her canes are dainty. shes not like New Dawn. She’s very pliable. I just love her. A happy easy going floriferous old fashioned cabbage rose who doesn’t quit. Her foliage is a lovely green too.

imo, this is the only way to grow RV and its lovely sport, Mme Pierre Oger. It is an obligingly upright and slender rose although it does have a bit of twigginess: it retains its flexible growth throughout its life. These canes are easily bent and trained, ideally on a freestanding rail and wire or post and rail fence (it does appreciate good ventilation) and also appreciated a little dappled shade - the petals are very fine, almost translucent and does not do very well in rain. However, if you are completely against spraying, I would not put this rose in a really prime spot because it will, at some point, defoliate with BS (it occurs early in the season for me, although it quickly recovers new growth so I would not be totally put off by a temporary condition).

We had to get rid of our "Mme. Isaac Pereire" because it defoliated from disease in Richmond, Ca along with its pink sport "Mme. Ernst Calvat" grown in Oakland, ca which I had bought for its' intense fragrance. M.I.P is one of the most fragrant roses on earth, but there are others equally as fragrant and much healthier when grown in the East Bay. I've been documenting roses that bloom well in no-spray and organic method gardens in the san francisco east bay in both public and private gardens for the last 10 years. Healthiest red roses out of dozens of Old Red roses evaluated in the s.f. east bay: Francis Dubruiel" FFFF out of five F's for fragrance. several old rose nurseries sell this rose which has an intense damask rose type scent, the type of scent which one expects from a red rose. "Crimson GLory" FFFFF out of five F's. shapely red roses that are deeply fragrant. I found this on the property I bought last year and have never needed to spray it with anything. Slightly less fragrant but still very fragrant, and just as healthy in this area, is "Etoille de Hollande" a red rose that appears to enjoy a large fan and enthusiastic fan base. a modern H.T. from the 1960's: "Papa Meilland" huge goblet shaped crimson roses that fade with purple on the edges. I find myself singing that old Joni Mitchell song to it..."I could drink a case of you" for its perfume is so very intoxicating. A must for collectors of fragrant red H.T.s.. if vintagegardens.com and roguevalleyroses.com doesn't have these roses in stock, I'd try hortico.com or pickeringnurseries.com in the winter for bare root plants. Caveat Rosa: "Gruss an Teplitz" became defoliated in two local gardens in Richmond and Emeryville and both rosebushes were destroyed. "Chyrsler Imperial" was destroyed after becoming defoliated from disease in my neighbors garden. two other roses I had to get rid of because they were coated with disease, were "Monsieur Boncenne" a red H.P., and "Rose des Rescht" both of these roses were coated with rust and defoliated. Both were unsightly and sadly useless because a rosebush cannot bloom without foliage to allow photosynthesis. Hope this is of help. Lux.

They are beauties:) One is a bourbon ( Honorine de Brabant), the other is a Hybrid Perpetual (F.P.). I am not familiar with R.C. Twirl at all. Generally speaking, for my hot dry climate, more roses in the bourbon class have been recommend than the Hybrid Perpetuals. Even looking at my one gallon own roots, potted the same way and given the same treatment, the bourbons seem to be faring better. I contemplated Honorine de Brabant but the ones I have seen created a wide, tall shrub and I do not have the space for it. Ferdinand is "supposed to" grow more upright. The color description is different too. Honorine is described as more blush with a violet stripe, where as Ferdinand Pichard is crimson striped. Those are my generic inputs based upon HMF and seeing mature H.B. in CA. How a rose performs in one climate, garden, pot, versus another is key and I am sure that the gardeners on this forum will provide valuable information so you can make your choice. The above are my 2 cents:) Lynn This post was edited by desertgarden561 on Sun, Aug 25, 13 at 11:03