Baby Duchesse de Brabant seems to like some shade

13 years ago

I stuck two cuttings in a shady bed last October, and today they're good sized plants in 2-gallon pots sitting in filtered sun provided by my climbers on the east side of the house. One plant has 4 or 5 beautiful flowers today, more beautiful than its mama had when she was here in full sun. I'm wondering if I should move the plumbago out of the climber border and put a DdB there, hoping maybe the thrips won't see her under the climbers. It would be a tight squeeze, but maybe she wouldn't mind. Whad'ya think?

{{gwi:306687}}

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BTW, ain't no other flowers in this August garden that big, highly petaled or deep pink.

Sherry

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sherryocala
Original Author

13 years ago

There are two issues with this location. One is that the gravel path and planting area are a total of 8' wide. The bed is maybe 3.5'. I know personally that DdB gets 6' wide and at least 5' tall. The other issue is the filtered sun created by Climbing White Maman Cochet and Reve d'Or who cast a good bit of shade, probably with more to come. They need to be tied up better now, but I would call the area dappled sun at best before too long especially in the bed. Plus it's on the west side of the fence (east side of the house) so the sun gets there maybe by 10am and is gone about 4pm. I can't help but think it's a bad location for this rose unless she likes being espaliered. Would espaliering her be a good idea???

I was just so shocked by the color and quantity of petals on the baby plants. This never happened in the cooler weather of spring because of thrips nor in the summer due to deficient water back then. Her flowers were rarely things of beauty here. But they are now, so if it's some shade she wants I have more and more of it available. I'm also wondering it less sun would keep her smaller (maybe I should say less big).

Sherry

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Comments (12)

gnabonnand
13 years ago
Those are beautiful blooms, especially for this time of year. 'Duchesse de Brabant' has become my favorite of the tea roses, due in no small part to her incredible fragrance (to my nose). Thanks for sharing your photos of her.

Randy
harborrose_pnw
13 years ago
Such pretty blooms, Sherry. I think the Duchesse is a great rose!

I don't know how she'd like it in the border. Do you mean because there's not room for her to grow - she does get about 5 feet, I think Or 12 in your climate, prob, lol.

Or do you mean too much shade? I don't know either way, but you'll figure it out, I'm sure. Gean
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Vaporvac - yes -- I do mail order from Annie's (too often, I'm afraid). The shipping is expensive, but things always arrive healthy and well packed for me. One time the delivery truck delayed a day in the middle of a heatwave, and the poor plants fried in the truck, so Annie's re-sent all the ones I told them were damaged. I had sent photos to show them what I got. I ordered both Duchesse de Brabant and Grandmother's Hat last night. I'll stick them in pots and wait 'til next year to plant them in the garden, probably. Who knows, really. I seem to change my mind willy-nilly these days. I went out and bought a 2nd Princesse Charlene de Monaco at the last minute yesterday and put it in the spot where I had just dug up my Red Baron peach tree... I'm still waiting on my bare root Scentuous and Julie Andrews roses.
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sylviatexas1
13 years ago
What cute little beauties!

what harborrose said:
The Duchesse is a big ole strappin' healthy gal.

Mine was nearly 5' tall & had bloomed beautifully in filtered light for several years, but when the tree canopy finally knit together, she just wasn't getting enough sun *at all*.

I did move the plant to a sunnier location, but too late in the year for her to settle in & bloom yet.
le_jardin_of_roses
13 years ago
Sherry, I have a baby one and I have grown to love it so much. Mine also is throwing out pretty blooms in filtered light. Everyone states that it gets big, but if were a little smaller, I would order three more. I'm glad I gave it time to prove itself a little more, as I wasn't sure about it at first. My early flowers, it gave me at the start of season, seemed single, but now it's giving me much fuller flowers.

Juliet
luxrosa
13 years ago
Less sun will keep her smaller.

I measured the height of Duchess de Brabant" growing in full sun in Northern California and she measured six feet and six inches tall, while in Oakland, Ca five plants of D. de B. which are growing on the edge of the shade cast by a very large oak tree, and the 5 rosebushes receive only 5 hours and 45 minutes of sun a day, yet all five plants bloom normally. All of those 5 plants are mature plants, more than 10 years old, and remain shorter than 5 feet tall and average 4 feet 8 inches in height.
Latitude matters when growing roses in shade, and yours is far enough south that I would not hesitate to grow Duchess de Brabant in c. 6 hours of sunlight.

Hope this info. is of some use to you.

Luxrosa
User
13 years ago
i caved in re.teas and ordered ths one too. looking at the foliage, i am right glad i did.Blooms look a bit frilly for me but i believe i must get over myself and get started on the teas. HPs though, well they are a different thing altogether - not convinced I would ever have one of those.
sherryocala
Original Author
13 years ago
Luxrosa, that's very useful information and amazing that you would collect that kind of data. Thanks very much. Any comment on her being espaliered? I know, I'm pushing my luck. :))

Suzy, I hope she does wonderfully for you. To me she smells faintly of sweet iced tea - Southern iced tea. Yummy. I have two very young HPs - Baronne Prevost and Mme Scipion Cochet. MSC continues to bloom some in the heat. BP has not. I got BP for the fragrance so we'll see what she does in the fall. BS hasn't been bad for either. They're more or less experimental.

Sherry
sandy808
13 years ago
Sherry, I think a tea rose would resent being espaliered. They really are programmed to be large, very bushy shrubs.

The other thing you may want to consider is sunlight. Dappled sun is wonderful for getting cuttings started, but teas like full sun. Duchesse can get lots of crud foliage in the shade. In full sun, she's a bloom machine and her foliage stays much nicer.

Whenever I've tried the roses in shade thing, it never worked out, and Dr. manners would always tell me how roses are sun lovers....he's absolutely right. But then, I think in your heart you already know.

Your baby bushes are gorgeous. They're worth giving a prime spot.

Sandy
greybird
13 years ago
My full sun Duchesse has taken ugly to a whole new level this summer, on the for-sure SP list for fall. But yours look so fresh and healthy, maybe a transfer to a location with some PM shade might be worth a try.
sandy808
13 years ago
greybird, is she getting enough water? Like good, deep soaks? We've all had an unusually hot summer. I can't even stand to go outside. Yesterday our personal weather station said we had a heat index of 131. Even if yours is getting plenty of water, it's been harsh this year. I'm betting she'll perk up for you this fall.

I've had a few Duchesses and the one in full sun was always the happiest, but I was able to give her lots of water.

I feel sorry for the roses this year. I start looking mighty bad when I'm outside for any length of time. Can't imagine how they feel.
greybird
13 years ago
Sandy, yep, she gets lots of water. We had a really rough and cold winter, followed by the heat this summer. So hard on the roses. Duchesse has looked particularly bad for a couple or three years now. I don't think she likes the extremes. And really, 131 heat index!!! OMG, I will stop crying about 108! That is just terrible, I can't imagine.

Baby Duchesse de Brabant seems to like some shade

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Baby Duchesse de Brabant seems to like some shade

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