Bourbons are a lot on my mind recently. The flowers can be so beautiful, but I am wondering if perhaps they can't handle my gardening conditions (basically plants must rely on rainfall after their first year,because I don't have running water out there). One of my first roses was Mme Isaac Pereire, and it was wonderful, in spite of being planted in poor soil. But it died off. I made the mistake of planting other roses near it, for one thing,so I guess the poor soil couldn't support more than the one plant. But also, Global warming began to accelerate: summers became hotter and hotter,drier and drier. Back in the "olden days", here in Tuscany,June would be very warm, sure, but not ghastly,and we used to get generous thunderstorms back then on a fairly reliable basis. Then, maybe for the month of July and the first half of August, it'd be hot, with no rain,but after August 15th the rains would begin to return.Now, it gets hot in April-the sun itself is SO much hotter than it was before!-and even as I write, we have droughty conditions: there's been no real rain for almost a month. So I wonder if these circumstances had something to do with MIP's demise as well.Other Bourbons that I've tried increase my doubts: one Louise Odier, planted in part shade, is doing well with no fuss. Another one died-I think the spot in which I'd planted it has become too exposed to sun. I have 3 Zephirine Drouhins,none of which has greatly impressed me ,except for the fact that all of them do seem to be hanging in there. I am trying to improve conditions for them,since I suspect that either by some wierd chance I put them all in unusually poor places, or else Bourbons just are more picky than other types of roses. Then, there are 3 modern Bourbons that puzzle me as well: Florence Ducher ,Hommage à Soupert et Notting,and Charles XII. All three seem to have problems producing good quality flowers. I don't know the terms to describe these half-aborted blooms; sort of a mix of bull heads ,proliferation,ruined-by-thrips look.Again,is this just overly poor soil? Lack of maturity of the plant? It just seems weird that ,back when I was a beginner, with no experience or particular care,my MIP did so well, and now there seem to be so many issues with this one particular category of rose. And, btw, these modern Bourbons that I have are all doing pretty well as plants, it's just they can't flower well, whereas the old Bourbons seem to struggle more as plants, yet do produce nice flowers! Strange, no? I'll probably fool around with this issue for a couple more years, seeing if improving conditions a bit makes enough of a difference -if not I guess I''l just have to resign myself to the idea that maybe Bourbons just aren't suited to my garden.

Alana, According to some recent scientific research analyzing roses' "volatile" components, this rose does not appear to be even related to the chinas. Thus not only can it not be a china, it can't be a bourbon either (as they are part china). Sophies Perpetual seems to be of European descent and is now thought to descend from R. damascena. So SP may be better classified as a damask perpetual. I'm posting a link to the references page on Help Me Find which includes the article, "Volatile Components in Chinese Roses", Acta Hort 751, ISHS 2007, p. 401-6 (by Sasaki, Ueda, Wang, Watanabe, and Yomogida) which has this text: "...some cultivars...did not emit these components [charactertic of Chinas] and 'Sophie's Perpetual', belonging to the China group, emitted beta-phenylethy alcohol and Nerol which R. damascena Miller also emitted...These cultivars might have no relation to Chinese roses and likely derived from European ancient species such as R. damascena." The results appeared to be somewhat of a surprise, and it seems vendors haven't updated their classification of this rose which would reflect the new research. From reading more on the HMF references page, the assumption it was a china came in part from its perpetual flowering habit. However, the damask perpetual Stanwell Perpetual also has rapid repeat as well as a heavy scent not characteristic of chinas. Melissa Here is a link that might be useful: Sophies Perpetual references page on HMF

I live in Tulsa, and have very little blackspot withSDLM or Maggie. I have 12 SDLM and about 4 Maggies. THere are times when the weather is soggy and yucky so that almost everything is spotted. WHen that happens, the roses drop the leaves after new ones grow, I think. The canes are hardly ever bare, and the roses continue to bloom. Mystic Beauty is not sold where I purchase roses, but many people love her. Kronprincessin Viktoria has never been proflic to me nor has Souvennir de St. Anne. St. Anne has its own fair beauty, but is not as striking to me at SDLM. Louise Odier is breathtakingly beautiful, but was a once bloomer for me. I have the same comment about Zephrine. Sammy

Thanks for replying! First of all, sorry for the disjointed original post. I posted it very late at night and should no better because it just barely made sense. I will take some photos next time I'm at the house working on it (we're currently not living in the house during the "meat" of our renovation but I go out every other night or so to work on it). I did find something from Van Dyke's that I think will work, that will allow me to have a thumb turn inside and a skeleton key on the exterior, but it's not cheap. Mortise locks are kind of a pain, huh? I can see why they came up with tube locks! This door project has definitely become a labor love. Between the lock issue and the fact that one side of it was so gunked up with layers and layers of paint (although it has been fun uncovering all the old colors, including the original color which is the most beautiful grayed light green) that I had no choice but to strip it. Then, while using the heat gun, I broke one of the panes of glass so now we have to replace that. And of course once I get it all painted I need to put privacy film on the windows (because a clear glass bathroom door is a little too much even for me). Wouldn't be worth it if I didn't really love the door and it's history but I do so it's a good project to keep my mind off the renovation!