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My Belle Portugaise is blooming!

13 years ago

MY BP, which I thought was a once bloomer (hybrid gigantica) is blooming! It is one of the roses on our house that we had to cut way back and cover with burlap because our house was being painted. It was covered for 5 weeks with burlap, and also scaffolding with a dark cloth drape over it. The scaffolding is down, and we took the burlap off a few days ago. Yesterday I noticed a half dozen gorgeous blooms (I almost missed them because it is growing alongside of a Madame Caroline Testout which is also blooming, but yesterday I realized that several of the blooms were actually BP). What is going on? Is this sort of like keeping plants in the dark in the closet so that they will bloom? How do I get it to do this again next Fall?

All of the repeat blooming roses that were under wraps are either blooming or covered with buds, but I did not expect this one to be doing that. I must keep an eye on my banksie lutea - maybe it will get the same idea! Roses are wonderful!

Jackie

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Comments (6)

jerijen
13 years ago
If the weather is mild, these roses WILL repeat, to some degree or another, once they're pretty mature.

I've seen Cherokee here, in full bloom in January.
Deadhead it, and it will do it again in the spring.
I've seen BoP in full bloom in January, in the old Descanso Gardens rose garden.

And R. banksia lutea? It scatters bloom all through the year, here, and will continue to do so until/unless we get a bad heatwave.

Jeri
berndoodle
13 years ago
I think Jackie's experience is the combination of the coldest summer in decades combined with summer pruning of the rose. A bizarre assortment of my once-bloomers started reblooming in late August: Blanche Belgique, a couple of Hybrid Giganteas, Chevy Chase, Dortmund, "Moser House Shed Rose," Maigold, L83, a found rose thought to be Maheca, Baltimore Belle...the list goes on and on.
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Susan Louise is much cleaner than Belle Port, Rosefolly, not to worry. It doesn't even get PM in Mildew Valley. I seriously doubt the reported parentage that SL is a sport of Belle Port. Yes, they are similar but far from identical. Belle Port is enormous, while Susan Louise is only 12 feet tall. The bloom is not identical, with SL having fewer petals. Belle Port is a true climber, blooming on laterals. SL is a huge, Paul Bunyan Tea, with typical Tea growth tho rather bare at the base, tree-like. It really resents pruning and will skip the spring flush if you prune it. Don't bother and keep all the ratty twiggy stuff around the base or it will go bare by year 4.
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Susan Louise' is similar to Belle Portugaise, but more blowsy and more pink, with rose-red on the guard petals and pale to light pink in the next row inwards, then creamy pink and cream towards the center. Susan Louise is one of only a few climbing roses that produce a full bloom cycle ( as large as the spring flush) every season of the year, near San Francisco, Ca and in December. It is evergreen and always pretty. 'Albertine' is another climbing rose with pink and peach and salmon hues, and the blossoms are of a similar size to Belle Portugaise. Albertine is a Pernetiana-Wich cross that has a full bloom cycle in spring and in autumn, here, produces c. 33% of the spring bloom production. I perceive Albertine as being more fragrant than Susan Louise. I had an Albertine in a large pot for many years and it bloomed 4 times a year! once fully, and then lighter flushes between 20% to 40% of the spring flush. In the pot it stayed at c. 5 and 1/2 feet tall. I have it in the ground now and doubt it will bloom as often, I believe the fertilizer to square foot of canopy ratio made it bloom more often in the pot. We'll see though, it is now budding up for its' first flush of the year, in late April. In England 'Albertine' was a popular rose for many years, I love it far more than 'Compassion' , though Compassion' blooms in spring, summer and autumn, here. Lux.
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Yes, we are about due West of Berkeley, on the West side of SF Bay, 20 miles North of San Francisco. We are 6 blocks from the bay, and the Pacific Ocean is just over the hills to our West. We are at 6 feet of elevation over sea level. Climate is so strange - this is an example of how important "local conditions" are - even when we don't understand what is so different between our two climates, obviously something is! Jackie
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melissa_thefarm
13 years ago
Once-flowering is not an absolute attribute. I've seen a well-nourished 'Alberic Barbier' have a full second flowering in a warm sunny October after a long, dry summer.
rosefolly
13 years ago
Melissa is right. Some once bloomers will have a second flush under just the right conditions, though it is unusual for it to be as full as the spring display.

Some years ago rose writer Ray Reddell wrote an article for the San Francisco Examiner in which he described which albas were likely to have repeat bloom in the fall in San Francisco. Since he was at that time he was also the owner of Garden Valley Ranch, I imagine that this was in contrast to what he was seeing in his Sonoma County property.

Rosefolly
jacqueline9CA
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for all of the input - who knew that "once bloomers" is a flexible term, depending on the weather conditions?! It is certainly true that we have had the coolest summer here since they started keeping records in 1947 - the paper this morning said the avg summer temp in the town I live in was 64 degrees! That is unheard of.

Sadly, this is not a condition I am going to be able to reproduce in the future - our normal summer heat causes many of even my repeat bloomers to go dormant, although they usually wake up and start blooming again in Nov/Dec.

Meanwhile, I am admiring the Belle Portugaise blooms every day - they are one of my favorite rose blooms - they are so elegant, and they practically glow with a translucent peachy pink color.

Jackie
sherryocala
13 years ago
If there's no picture, were there really any blooms?

Wahh! I wanna see.

Sherry

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