Gertrude Jekyll, Sophy's Rose, or...?

16 years ago

I'm in my first year of growing roses, and I'm already thinking about what to plant next year. This is fun!

So far, I've planted several yellow roses (Golden Celebration, Molineux) and apricot-colored (Abraham Darby). I also planted a Brother Cadfael and Jubilee Celebration (my favorite). I love them all. (Only my Mayflowers are giving me a bit of trouble.)

I'd like a brighter, "louder" pink in the mix. I like the look of Gertrude Jekyll a lot. Sophy's Rose seems to be even more hot pink.

I'm also open to other suggestions, including non-Austin roses. Does anyone grow both GJ and Sophy's rose? I'd like to hear feed-back about health, rate of bloom, etc.

Thanks for any help, Jeanie

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Comments (13)

poodlepup
16 years ago
Hi.
I picked up a 5 gal Gertrude Jekyll on a whim, and I've schlepped it around from place to place, in and out of pots, for almost a year.

She's been quite the trooper. She's been blooming steadily and has shown no signs of disease..

-That's my experience here in CA SF Bay Area.
Hope that helps.

Kate
michaelg
16 years ago
Gertrude Jekyll is a diva rose, extremely beautiful but highly susceptible to blackspot in the eastern half of the country, terribly thorny, rangy, and stingy with repeat bloom.
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I just bought a Gertrude Jekyll from Heirloom. I'm hoping it will be free of RMV-related decline that Ann describes. Several of my Austins come from Heirloom for just that reason. I haven't decided yet whether to train GJ horizontally or prune it as a shrub and keep it short. I'd be interested in hearing from other growers who, like Palustris, have had it a while and like it. GJ is not the only rose that repeats better with age. My Pierre de Ronsard did not repeat well for several years. Now it blooms in good flushes several times a season. Many growers of young PdR plants give up on it for lack of repeat. BTW, I prune mine as a shrub. It doesn't even try to climb anymore! Rosefolly
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As for Gertrude Jeckyll, younger plants of GT tend to be pretty much once bloomers. However as they mature they are more likely to repeat. They will never be continuous bloomers, or anything like that, but you will get some repeat after several years. It is true that I live in a gentler climate than Lisa does, but if I recall accurately, Niels also had some repeat, and Lisa lives in a gentler climate than he does. Well, maybe not. I was thinking Ohio, but Lisa lives in Oklahoma. The deep midwest has an extreme climate, as I understand. I've never lived there myself. I've had other roses that behaved this way -- Pierre de Ronsard (Cl Eden) being one. As young plants they are essentially once bloomers. As time goes on they develop some remontancy. Rosefolly
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I can relate to feeling like I have no business in the garden. More often I realize that I needed a staff. Not just me and mom doing what was left alone to its own for the past 20 or so years. Most of the trees have an emotional connection for my mom; my dad planted them and they used to sell the fruit at our fruit stand or the local swap-meet back in the day (now there is the farmers market but that takes yet more time and energy to join) Finally after 6 years and countless loads out I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. But that just leads me to more things to do better or change. I set goals, and regularly miss them because a new garden misadventure pops up to deal with. For example, we have guarded several peach trees because mom thought they were also good ones. We have half a dozen peach trees, most of them planted themselves I believe. Some of these peaches are now getting ripe-small white ones, mom picked a bunch of peaches and spent a day at the sink peeling and slicing them up and when she was done had 3 quarts canned. She called to tell me she was done with those little peaches. I thought I would try canning a few too, maybe it was more being 89 that made it take so long and get so little. It has nothing to do with age! Those peaches bruise if you look sternly at them, have 1/4" of good flesh and taste...mealy blah. Now we both have a crook in our backs and I have a few more peach trees to make in to fire wood. They are beautiful in the spring, so I may leave them for now, but remove all the fruit once it sets. Funny, even the worms do not like those peaches. I do have a list of a few new trees to replace them with, peaches that do well here and that do not all ripen in the same week. Guessing much like Florida, there is no off season, no time to sit back and think of the next years garden projects or look at how wonderful the past season was. It is warm out, weeds are growing, fruit is waiting to be picked, something needs water and more needs pruning. The more you have in the ground, the more there seems to be to pay attention too. On the other hand, we can add living space to our homes by using the garden area. Places to sit on a hot day or zones to soak up the sun on the cold or the best spots for catching the sun rising or setting. If we were stuck indoors in the snow, we would loose those spaces for months at a time. I am off to re-stack the wood pile, seems I need more room, to reach the roots of an offending peach tree and to fill buckets with small mealy peaches. I might even have time to stop and smell the roses
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this spring one of my huge new dawns had rrd. i removed the plant, removed the 19 multiflora patches at the edges of my property and bought and distributed predatory mites. well another huge new dawn [i had three in all originally] has just put out fall growth full of witches brooms, so i am removing it now. it was about 30' away from the previously infected plant. there is a belinda's dream nearby with red new growth, which is small, but not really strange looking. i am keeping an eye on it, as i cant find any descriptions that mention if its new growth is supposed to be red. most of my HTs have red new foliage, and always have in the past. it is so frustrating that the biggest most vigorous established plants seem to be the hardest hit. i noticed the plants mentioned as getting RRD seemed to usually be huge climbers esp. new dawn, and shrubs, then HTs. i realized i hadnt seen minis mentioned. i searched gardenweb mini rose forum for rrd and rosette, and got zero posts about rrd. i dont know if minis are too short to get it, or mini growers are spraying miticide non-stop to kill the red spider mites, or the red spider mites are eating the eriophyid mite [which i've read can happen] ann, you posted last summer: The reasoning behind using wiltproof ties to the way that the flightless eriophyid mites get around- they are dropped by breezes when the breeze slows down. Thanks to the dissertation of Abdullah Kassar at WVU, if they land on a rose, they sense it and stay. If they land on a non-rose they try to catch the next breeze away. What we hope is happening with the wiltproof and other anti-transpirants is that they land on the wiltproof and reason "not rose" and leave. So as to how often to spray wiltproof...you'd like to keep the leaves and stems coated. Spray accordingly i bought wiltpruf to spray the new dawn i am in the process of removing, and the belindas dream i am watching. i am using it instead of hairspray. it forms a polymer coating, which i think might trap existing mites on the plants, just like the hairspray. i wouldnt give the mites that much credit in terms of intention -- it also might be that the anti-transpirants seal up the crevices they need to crawl into to not get blown about in the wind. in http://www.ars.org/pdfs/rose_rosette.pdf, it says shrub roses are most affected because their petioles provide a tight crevice, whereas HTs arent as good a host. if the mites are so prone to be blown about by the wind, maybe if the do land on a plant without good crevices,either because of the plants natural anatomy, or because wiltpruf has filled in those crevices,the mites get blown off on the next breeze before they can transmit rrd.
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cupshaped_roses
16 years ago
Gertrude Jekyll is so much better than Sophys rose!!! It is very healthy and hardy for me. It does not rebloom much though and without hard pruning it becomes leggy and a awkward grower. The scent is magnificient ..so is the shape, colour and amount of flowers of flowers.
Sophys rose is more compact than GJ and the blooms have a more pinkish colour. The blooms are pretty but have very little scent. I have 3 in my cutting garden. It is very stingy with blooms, and even though David Austin claims it is a healthy rose I have both BS, Mildew and rust on all 3 plants at the same time!!! It has got to be the worst Austin rose in terms of health I have ever grown!!! And was the point of Austin Roses not to be fragrant? Well those who buy Sophys are in for a major disappointment if they think all Austins are fragrant...this has almost none. They are going to be dug up tomorrow. I do not tolerate roses that produces so few flowers and so diseaseprone. I will make a post about that with picture evidence. But one mans trash may be anothers treasure.
hoovb zone 9 sunset 23
16 years ago
One man's trash is another's treasure indeed. Sophy's Rose is one of my treasures. Mine bloom constantly and other than a touch of mildew always look great. Climate makes a lot of difference.
anntn6b
16 years ago
Some Sophy's are fragrant to my nose. Four Gertrude Jekyll's later, I'm still looking for a good one.
But if you've room for a big vase shaped bloom machine, may I recommend James Galway. The blooms open refined light pink and then on the inner hundred or so petals there is the darker pink that you want. We've been growing ours no spray successfully.
rosyone
16 years ago
Sophy's Rose is definitely the better rose in my climate. It isn't anywhere close to being in Gertrude Jekyll's league where fragrance is concerned, but the blooms are nice, the growth habit is attractive, it's healthy, and it repeats generously. Gertrude Jekyll is a nasty, thorny octopus armed black spot magnet that sends the most heavenly scent wafting across my patio just often enough to thwart my resolve to shovel prune it.
hoovorff
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks for the responses. I'm intrigued by what was said about James Galway. I was tempted to get that rose, since I'm a flutist! Alnwick looks like a beauty, as well.

Well, I've got time to dream about it and decide.

Jeanie
francie12
16 years ago
Here in zone 5a, I have the exact experience with these two roses as rosyone, minus the blackspot... Gertrude Jekyll's only real appeal is her fragrance, and what a fragrance--classic, strong old rose scent. Here, Sophy's Rose starts out more red before fading to purpleish pink, but it has healthy and balanced growth, smaller and lower to the ground compared to GTs awkward, stiff stalks... Still, I'm keeping my GT for the fragrance of her pretty litle blooms.
nickelsmumz8
16 years ago
Star of the Nile?
mmmgonzo
16 years ago
I Love gertrude J. I prune her pretty good mid season and she reblooms well for me. Smells great.

I love love love Star of the Nile. Talk about vibrant electric colors! (but it isn't over the top gawdy, just such an eye catcher).

I also really like Dark Lady. Got this one at 1/2 price one year and am so glad I did. HUGE blooms. Beautiful unfading color!

Marleah
eibren
16 years ago
I was crazy about my two Gertrude Jekylls, but neither one would overwinter for me. My conditions are less than ideal for roses--heavy clay, and limited sun.

However, I loved it so much, I would gladly plant another, and coddle it to death, since a couple of small trees were cut down and I now have a spot with more sun.

To me, fragrance and color are almost everything (although of course I do appreciate form as well) and Gertrude Jekyl had both in spades.

I wonder how the Abraham Darby will do for you? That is another rose I dearly love. It did well for me for several years, until it was shaded out by a walnut tree.
sammy zone 7 Tulsa
16 years ago
GJ only bloomed once for me. I don't count an isolated bloom every so often as a rebloom. My Sophy's Rose is only a year old, but for a colorful pink, have you considered Maggie?

Sammy
medusa_
16 years ago
It is a deeper color but I consider it still in the pink family--Wise Portia. New to me this year, but already I'm very impressed by the blooms. Very symmetric and somewhat pom-pom-y, and nice scent. Alas, I can't tell you about the ultimate habit or size, but someone else might. The color does stand out.

Gertrude Jekyll, Sophy's Rose, or...?

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