Hi Lynn, we are in a hotter part of Las Vegas than you are and have had Belle Vichyssoise for about six years. It has been our most successful OGR but it also is in a prime spot against the east side of our house.

It seemed like a big shrub for years but the last two it was up to our eaves and quite wide also. I considered taking it out a month ago and started chopping out canes and shortening others and after taking two thirds of the plant away decided it can stay!

It has not resented this treatment in the least and is covering its bare knees with new growth and hasn't ever stopped flowering since spring. I hope you like it, the blooms are fragrant but quite small in large clusters that open at different times. This can make it a little messy looking unless you want to do some crazy deadheading but the petals do ultimately drop and the star looking sepals are kind of decorative.

The only care it gets besides watering and pruning is rose fertilizer in the spring and iron and sulfer in the fall. Good luck with your new roses and hopefully you will have better luck than ours has been. Our summers have killed more than a few.

Maria

Mojavemaria,

Thank you for definitely addressing my heat concerns. You input helps me and there are members in hotter areas who may want to give this beauty a try too:)

The space I have for this rose is on the southwest side of my house so it will not receive early morning sun. It will receive a little late morning sun and then about a couple of hours during the afternoon. I was going to grow it up against the side of my house (2 story and likely taller due to high ceilings on both levels) . There's about 8' in width before it grows into other roses. The other roses will achieve a height of 4.5' approximately upon maturity. I do not have a lot of depth either, about 5'. I had hoped to grow it as a climber that arches above the roses below, but I do not know how large it would become, I am hoping smaller than your bush? It was the only rose I was able to acquire from Vintage so I am really trying to keep it.

Does it have deadly thorns or prickles?

This post was edited by desertgarden561 on Fri, Oct 18, 13 at 16:26

Lynn,

Our bush had a lot of basal canes and wanted to be quite wide before its "haircut" but it also was throwing some snakey canes that could be tied to a framework like a climber. Since we took a lot of canes away it is not nearly so wide and I think you could train it to be a bush or a climber.

It is thorny but not the worst by a long shot. The laterals have smaller prickles but the basals have quite a few large attractive bronze thorns. Still nothing so bad as say a Joseph's Coat.

Crepuscule was totally smooth with attractive foliage and did well for us in an all day sun spot but ultimately succumbed to sunburned canes after about five years. It is apricot though and we never saw many blooms beyond a great spring flush but that may have been due to its exposed position. Also I could never detect much by way of fragrance and Belle absolutely wafts.

I don't know how either rose would do up against a wall in a southwest position. I know here on the east side I would never try it but I think you are in a cooler part of LV so maybe it would work if you didn't have much reflected heat off your house.

Of course Lady banks would be fine there and thornless if you didn't mind a big two week show and then green the rest of the year:( We got both belle and crepuscule from roses unlimited so they may be a little different than what vintage has.

Maria

Hi Maria,

I think I will try it :) It is a tiny band right now that I will pot up to a one gallon tomorrow.

Thank you for the information. I checked HMF but a lot of what was written came from gardeners in Europe; not exactly a point of reference for here; but ???

I am confused about Belle Vichyssoise, too. On HMF they say it can get to be 5 meters tall; other sites descibe it as being "of contained growth"...