Lol, I love it! a fellow stalker who steals others' roses like me!. But yes, I'm sure your 1st year Evelyn will be such a rewarding, lovely rose for you. Me, uhhhh, let's say the only thing I can excel at is stalking, not rose-growing, LOL, LOL!

I am constantly stealing JeffAurora's beautiful and glorious Lincoln

and another beautifully fragranced flower is Lana's Folklore

Both roses which I either have (my 1st year Lincolns) or will be getting (Lana's Folklore) Of course there's no way mine will ever be like theirs, LOL! Never, ever! But I will always remember theirs as Heavenly Roses for inspiration...

Love those photos and the wonderful description of Evelyn!!

In one of my rose books, benzene was mentioned as one of the fragrance components of Evelyn. After I learned that, I've always wondered if it would be healthy to smell it. But how can one not smell a rose? :)

Carol

That's funny, mine had some beautiful flowers on it today, too. It has been so hot the past 3 weeks or so I've hardly been outside. Now today it finally cooled down, and some big fat Evelyn blooms were just opening. :)

I also have an Evelyn plant and is doing very well in my garden. She is very vigorous, with 6-8 fat buds waiting to be open soon. I'm so glad I bought this rose. Beside her is a rose called, Jayne Austin which is not as vigorous as Evelyn and only has one bud so far.

Evelyn definitely loves full sun and so does Tea Clipper. Currently, I have Tea Clipper in a shady area, and I can already see yellow leaves on Tea Clipper.

If I have a chance to redo my garden again, I will plant a row of Evelyn. I just love the name - it is so classy!

I forgot to ask, do you think Evelyn can tolerate afternoon shade? My front yard only has morning sun from 8 - 12 and I was thinking of planting her in my front yard.

What do you guys think? Should I leave Evelyn at my parents house with full sun, or bring her to my new house? I'm worried her leaves might turn yellow just like Tea clipper.

By the way, Hoovb's photos of Evelyn is truly outstanding! Hoovb, have you thought of planting Radio Time beside Evelyn? I think both of them compliments well together.

Yes she is nice, isn't she.

I was so enamored with my Evelyn that I bought a second one. Have spent my share of time sticking my nose in Evelyn blooms over and over again. You have inspired me to go outside and bring one in, as fall has arrived here and I won't have much more time to enjoy fragrant roses.

Jumbo, do you currently have Evelyn in a pot? If so, I would move her out in front of your house and just let her sit there for a while and see how she responds to it. Most people call Evelyn a diva as she is sketchy for some people in terms of how she responds to sunlight and disease. So far, mine has been healthy and vigorous as can be. I would presume Evelyn would do just fine though in front of your house getting 4 hours of morning sun, and then maybe if your house is perpendicular to the sun, some late evening sun as well. Some people say their Evelyn does best in full sun, and then others say their blooms crisp like no other in full sun.

hoovb, how do you go about pruning your Evelyn. Looking at your Evelyn, it seems to have growth similar to mine. It is in kind of an in between area of not being upright and not being arching either. It wants to send up rather tall canes that just slightly arch. Does your Evelyn have any problems just naturally sending up tall canes and having the ability to support the blooms? Right now I have the long canes on Evelyn supported in an upright fashion, especially since she's still just a band, but once she is mature, it appears as if you can just let the canes go and they can support theirself even though they hang a bit based on your photos.

Mine dislikes shade: plenty of disease and few flowers.

jeffcat I've pruned it hard in spring, I've left it unpruned in spring, I've tip pruned it after bloom, I've left it undeadheaded, I've pruned it moderately, I've hard pruned it in fall...

and she still has a mind of her own, and does what she darn well pleases.

When mature the long canes arch over and the flowers hang at various angles and degrees of downward. They do stay out of the mulch. An arching fountain is the mature habit.

Hoovb, how tall is that plant?

Masha

Wow, such beautiful pictures of Evelyn! I had one, planted earlier in the year and liked it so much that, like Vielchen, bought another (even removed another rose to put the new Evelyn beside the old Evelyn!) If mine get as large as Hoovb's, which they probably will with the long growing season here, then I have probably put mine too close......yikes!

Lynn

Jeff, you are so cute in your adoration for Evelyn. I guess this is one of those roses that casts a spell on everyone that grows it.

Juliet

Sigh ... you explained perfectly why I consider EVELYN to be the most beautiful rose in the world. When this diva decides to put on a performance, nothing compares to her.

Hoovb, how tall is that plant?

It gets 10 or 12' canes that arch over, so it's between 6-8' tall. In the picture I think it was about 6-7'.

It should prove to be interesting to see how I am going to control a rose of that size in a 20" container...especially considering my Evelyn was just purchased as a band in mid-July and is already throwing out 4-5' canes. Including the container, that puts them over my head. Oh well, I have seen some pictures of MASSIVE roses in surprisingly small containers with root cutting and regular soil/fertilizing treatments. It will give me something to pre-occupy my time with. :)

Jeff, I loved reading what you wrote. I have a feeling Evelyn will have to have a place in my garden at some time.

Hoov, I was so happy to see your beautiful Evelyn and to get some glimpses of your lovely garden; it's been much too long. I remember your garden being one of the most outstanding on the forum. A pox on the greedy, soulless CEO of your water district. I hope there will always be at least a few roses in your garden, and perhaps Evelyn will be one of them.

Ingrid

Hi everyone! What a very pleasant thing to read about such a lovely flower.

I just got my first Evelyn bloom on a plant I bought mid-summer this year. The plants arrived right before a heat wave that almost fried them. The nursery I bought them from instructed me to pull off all the leaves so that the plants can focus on the roots and to give it a bit of shade when the temperature went above 90 degrees.

I did as instructed and the plants came back very well. I was going to pull off all the new leaves again, but my husband wanted me to keep the second batch on. They continued to sprout new leaves...then buds...and then my one bloom appeared. Both plants are less than a foot tall and the flower is about 2 inches wide.

Question 1 - I'm new to growing roses, so any advice would be helpful. At the moment I'm wondering if I should nip off the rest of the buds and try to get the plants to focus on their roots? We get snow here and I'm worried that these plants are too young to survive if I let the buds bloom.

Question 2 - On a mature plant, how big do the blooms actually get? I can only find online sources that give the plant size, not the bloom size.

Thank you and sorry for the long post.

My last bloom on my Evelyn band was almost 4". I'm assuming on a mature Evelyn, they are probably 4.5-5". Usually for new bands, most people suggest just removing the buds for the blooms to promote the rose to want to generate more growth instead of putting it's energy into flowering. I don't think I've ever heard of removing new growth from a band though. I would think it would be counter-intuitive since the new growth provides new leaves which absorbs the light and carries out the fuctions of the rose. When I received my band, I just let it do it's thing and didn't touch it. I should of debudded the blooms, but I didn't and it's doing great as of now in terms of blooming and growth. It's still a band, but a 4+ foot band now.

I remembered this morning that Evelyn was originally a grafted, dried-out one-cane-wonder body bag! I forgot all about that. Too funny, huh?

jeffcat, thank you for your response. Pardon my ignorance, but what is a "band"?

Mayo, a band is usually an own-root rose that is purchased from somewhere or grown from a cutting of mature rose. They tend to be 6 months old or so. Most own root sellers sell them between 6 inches and 12 inches tall in small containers. Most roses that you buy at nurseries are 2 year old potted plants. Bands are typically non-grafted roses on their own roots and much smaller. Think of buying small roses in little $3.99 perennial containers that you see at your local nursery.

http://www.davidaustinroses.com/american/PottedRoses.asp?Theme=

Thank you for your help and knowledge. I apologize for hi-jacking your thread :)

themayocynic, is your Evelyn in a pot or the ground? When did you plant it? If it's been in the ground a couple of months I would not strip the leaves or disbud it. You don't want to encourage new top growth this time of year in your climate. Let it prepare itself for winter. Let it bloom now, then put itself to bed for the winter. Keep it mulched and water during dry, windy spells. What a beautiful rose!

Hi treebarb, my Evelyns were planted in the ground in July. I will be mulching it for winter soon but I also wonder if I should provide more protection from snow. These are memorial roses and so I really want to make sure I do all I can until they are a bit stronger. I was concerned that having blooms at such a short height (I doubt either plant is 12" tall) was a bit premature. I'm I just being a worrywort?

Here are photos of the plant with a bloom (the other has buds, too, but they haven't bloomed yet).

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2470/3982882408_188b7149f4.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3449/3982119835_e24e34af2c.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2488/3982882260_b9f9460a61.jpg

Mayo, Evelyn will bloom regardless of size. My band did the same thing...it was actually shipped with buds, however I just let it bloom and then I deadheaded it. Most people think that after the bloom is finished to just leave the rose alone and NOT deadhead it. I don't stop deadheading even when winter is coming, but I think most people would say otherwise. I don't know how cold it gets in reno, but you could probably manufacturer something rather small to put over your bands or just very carefully mound top soil around the entire plant essentially burying it.

That's a great idea, jeffcat. I think I will try to make something myself. Reno has rather strange weather. Typically it snows in winter and can get into the high 90s/low 100s in summer. But it has also been known to snow in July and be in the 80s in winter. You never can tell. :\