Mine opened its last set of blooms about a week ago. Last Friday I finally got around to deadheading anything I could reach without a ladder, and trimmed it back around the trunk of the tree. Anything higher up I just blasted with the hose to knock off crispy blooms. In the meantime, the Clematis 'Sweet Summer Love' I planted next to it has climbed nearly to the top of 'Baltimore Belle' in a few directions. I'm hoping this will be the first time it actually blooms. I planted it in Spring 2014, so this should be its "leap" year. :-) ~Christopher

Mine is one of the roses on the split rail fence. It's between Long John Silver, and a straight setigera. The setigera has swallowed its section of fence whole, and needs to be restrained with a whip. Compared to it, Baltimore Belle is a true lady. A couple of weeks ago, I was discussing a rose project with a bunch of gardeners who know little of roses beyond HTs. Since for maintenance reasons, we are going to be selecting shrub roses, I thought it was a good idea to bring in a random selection of different rose classes and flower forms. Since it was blooming, one of the samples was Baltimore Belle. I was taking the roses out of the jar one at a time and setting them down on the table in a row. The person sitting next to me, occasionally picked one up and smelled it. When she smelled Baltimore Belle, she exclaimed "Ooh, this one smells nice". I honestly couldn't smell anything, but it was passed around the table to admiring comments. The only other rose I brought that was received that way was Oelleit Flammand.

Yes, and I'm not looking forward to it. But last year and the year before we got down that low -- even a touch lower, as I recall a night or two each year that dipped just below 0F -- and only two died outright. Those were 'Jaune Desprez' and "Secret Garden Musk Climber" after Winter 2013-2014. I replaced SGMC with a gallon-sized plant, and that one survived Winter 2014-2015. I gave up on the pipe dream of having a Tea-Noisette growing out in the open on my dying Japanese maple, and stuck 'Baltimore Belle' there instead. Many things had damage, but rebounded after I cut out the dead bits. Of course, the ones with little or no damage were the OGRs with little or no China/Tea in them. But even "Bermuda Spice", which had to be cut back to under 12" inches the last two Springs, rebounded to about 5' X 5' by the end of each season. I was hoping to see what it does when starting Spring with something more like 3', but this weekend may keep that from happening. Meanwhile, my potted roses look frozen in time -- few leaves dropped, but no active growth, and no discernible damage. They're hanging out in my enclosed unheated back porch, getting some sun from the windows. This cold blast is an anomaly this year, coming as a brief interruption in otherwise mild weather. I'm hoping that such a short dose of intense cold followed by temperatures in the 50s a few days later won't kill anything. The Chinas and China-Teas I planted in the ground in 2015 are mostly in a protected spot against the house and facing south. The few I put in my tiny front yard are a bit more exposed, but I planted them deeply. We'll see in just another month or so, when I start pruning. Being a zone-pusher, I realize I take risks -- but how else do we learn? And frankly, considering the more tender Chinas and Teas keep blooming through our hot and humid Summers, they're worth it. :-) ~Christopher

I have 'Baltimore Belle' growing up into a dying Japanese maple. It's still young, but starting to throw very long canes into the tree from a narrow base. It's not as prickly as 'Erinnerung an Brod', and I suspect that's evidence of it not having the same type of "other parent". References describe it as a hybrid with either a Noisette or a Gallica, and I'd say it's the former rather than the latter. Here, prickles are noticeable but sparse and widely-spaced. I posted pics of it in this thread last year. After the bloom, those laterals sprouting up in the tree extended to between six and ten feet in length. I tucked them into the tree so they weren't jutting straight up and out, and will tie them in better to snake along the tree branches in the next couple of weeks. I also don't think the habit of mine would be typical if you grew yours on a trellis or wall, simply because training would be different. I would guess that mine has fewer main canes because I allow so much top-growth and extending laterals which I move to where I want rather than spurring them back. My "Nouveau Monde -- In Commerce As" grows similarly huge and spreading against a raised back deck, but all of it emanates from one cane that's now about 5" in circumference. My guess is that a cane with many active growth buds on it suppresses the development of new canes from the roots. It's as if the roots "allow" only as much top-growth as they can support. The result is a massive "one-cane wonder" that adopts a lax but almost tree-like habit. If you pruned as well as trained -- such as one would when growing a climber against a flat surface -- the roots would get "signals" that more canes can be "afforded" and thus are generated. For me, it is completely disease-free. Fragrance-wise, it's about the same as 'Marie Pavie' -- moderate up-close, but detectable from further away as the scent wafts. And they have about the same "flavor" as well. Bloom-time last year was three weeks, but I imagine this year it will last longer simply because there is more of the rose, and in different parts of the tree, so it won't all start at the same time. :-) ~Christopher