I keep hoping, but it hasn't happened yet.

I love the look of most Bourbons, but they sure don't love where I live.
I think they're great roses, that are climate-specific.

Where are you located?

Jeri

Jeri - I'm in eastern North Carolina, slightly inland from the coast. I've had kind of a love/hate relationship with Bourbons myself. Sometimes they're great, usually they're so-so, sometimes they're horrendous. This year, all the stars must have aligned in their favor because they're spectacular. Will it ever happen again? I can only hope.

Honorine actually fell to the guillotine one year. Then I had second thoughts, plucked her back from the brush heap and re-planted her in an out-of-sight-out-of-mind location. Turns out she thinks her new digs are 'outta site'!

I'm wondering whether Honorine de Brabant can grow for me in a no spray situation. I've got two of them in different locations. Perhpas they are still way too young.

Robert

You know Windeaux, your area just might be a great place for Bourbons.
I KNOW they don't like my area.
I can see from photos that they are dynamite in France, and there are
clearly other places where they excel.

The really cool thing about figuring out the regionality of roses is that
it gives you a host of excuses to visit places where the roses you CAN'T
grow well, do flourish.

Jeri

At the end of August I was about to start a thread like this. I was sitting in my Adirondack chair and looking at the sad state of my roses. A hot, dry summer had taken its toll.

In front of me were two HT's with bare feet and brown, crinkly leafs above and not a bud to be seen. Between them, in the same bed, sat Souvenir de la Malmaison. A compact clump of bright green leafs with two sprays of perfect pink blooms.

Another Bourbon or two may be in my plans.

Robert, I was hoping someone else would address your question since I can't give advice re no-spray situations.

As mentioned above, I had difficulty with Honorine de Brabant until I moved her. The new location provides somewhat better air circulation, but I suspect the factor that contributes most to the turn-around is that she is isolated from other BS-prone roses. HdB now anchors the far end of a new perennial bed and, in fact, is pretty much isolated from all my other roses.

I'll share another observation about the Bourbons in my garden . . . For two years now, I've brewed-up big, vile batches of alfalfa tea for application twice during the growing season. I think the tea has made a difference in all my roses, but it's especially obvious with the Bourbons. I've no idea why that is the case, unless Bourbons are generally heavier feeders than other varieties and I simply wasn't fertilizing them enough.

I've been wondering about Bourbons and how much I should fertilize them. Some of the references I consult make a point of mentioning that this or that Bourbon does very well in poor soil situations. I never know how to react to information like that. Does it mean that the rose in question prefers to be grown on the lean side, or that it will do even better in enriched soil and/or if it's fed regularly? Opinions appreciated.

Anyway, I'm glad to know about the alfalfa tea thing. I wonder if similar results would follow application of other organics--like fish emulsion, liquid kelp, stable compost? I've not yet taken the plunge into alfalfa tea brewing.

Got to love those Bourbons I have SDLM, Capt Dyel de Graville (thank you kaye), Romaggi plot (thank you carol FM) Catherine Guillot, and Kronprincessin Viktoria. The fragrance on all are wonderful though they are all prone to BS here. I've been using a diluted vinegar and cinnamon formula for that and it's done pretty well!

I love, love, love Bourbons. Oddly, I don't find them to be any more blackspot prone than some of my Tea's.

Carol

well, i can tell you bourbons excel in nystate; to the extent that they are fast going from just a staple in my gardens to becoming a major force.

souv de st.a is the first and the last rose to bloom for me. the only one to disappoint is reine victoria and only disappoints because she fails to repeat and so deprives me of a second showing of that spectacular early summer bloom.

i am always surprised to see so little support for them,in particular louise odier which blooms constantly for me.

these roses have never failed me, especially great in a year that was tough on my gardens. i can vouch that they do well in poorer soil and seem to be disease free. with little care, they still seem to thrive - and to bloom.

christie

I have been out for the past couple of weeks admiring my own Bourbons. Right now the star of the show is Madame Cornelissen. She got the job from Romaggi Plot Bourbon, who was blooming his head off just a little while ago. Coquette des Blanches almost always has a flower on her somewhere -- same with Joseph Gourdon. SDLM, in another bed, looks fabulous and is covered with buds. I really miss Souvenir du St. Anne's. She was one of my casualties last winter . . . I will replace her next year, once all these other roses are in the ground.

Connie

Bourbons are very happy here ,but need spraying to keep BS off. The good thing about them, spraying (sytemic fungiscides)can be less frequent then with most modern roses or Teas and Chinas. Looks like they keep systemic sprays in their system much longer then other classes of roses. I can go by spraying them every 5-6 weeks and they are still clean. They all will defoliate here if grown completely no spray. Still, it is not bad at all.
Olga

After a spectacular Spring flush, Zephirine Drouhin is nekkid because I fell behind on spraying, but she's gearing up for a fall flush. My other Bourbons are pretty much taking a break (but healthy without regular spraying) since they are still pretty young: Louise Odier, Maggie, Joseph Goudreau, Mme. de Sevigne, Mme. Ernest Calvat, Gruss an Teplitz, Charles XII, MIP, SdLM, Deuil de Dr. Reynaud.

A standout is Martha - she's been taking small breaks in between blooming to grow a little. It has been covered in blooms most of the summer and was planted this spring as a band. It's now two foot tall, but I can tell it's going to be a monster.

Eric

I love the SDLM clan-- Mystic Beauty, Kp Viktoria, Souv. de St Anne's, and, new this year, Capt. Dyel de Graville (my thanks also to Kaye for this magnificent rose). The compact, bushy habit is great for my small garden, and they are relatively easy to grow, with lots of superb large fragrant flowers throughout the season. What a wonder SDLM must have seemed when it first bloomed and kept on blooming that first summer in the 1830s. New growers should be aware that these dwarf bourbon-tea hybrids represent a very different kind of rose from the long-caned bourbons.

Michael, I agree with you about SDLM and her sports. When considering Bourbons as a class, I tend to place the SDLM clan in a completely distinct category. There's the SDLM clan -- and then there's all the others.

Robert, here is Mme Isaac Pereire in my no-spray garden
{{gwi:313963}}
I had a few aphids until the ladybugs found them! some japs in the spring, a few holey leaves, and a bit of mildew. All in all not too bad for the sake of the bees and butterflies!
-B

SdlM taken in late summer:

{{gwi:213843}}

I've got MIP in full sun, and I've got Mme de Sevigne (which may also be MIP) in morning sun. MdS seems to be doing much better, disease resistance-wise, than MIP...just a thought. No significant rebloom, however.

Robert

All this year I have been pampering my tall,willowy Bourbons-- Mme. LeGras, Louise Odier, La Reine Victoria et all-- to see if I could get new basals and ANY kind of repeat bloom. NO dice, so I took them all out. Meanwhile, Mystic Beauty, Souv. de St. Ann's, and Maggie are all fabulous. Mme. Isaac is healthy and has put on lots of new growth-- but no sign of fall bloom and I'll forgive her for that as she is the most fragrance rose in all the world. I agree about the "separate clan"-- the SDLM crew does way, way better down South here than the other Bourbons.

Give them time!!!! MIP and MdS(maybe MIP?) seem to start reblooming when they hit their third year, at least down here.

Mari