Congratulations! After so many years, you must be ecstatic to know the name!

I just purchased a cl. SDLM by accident. I thought it was the bush form.

From your experience, does the climber repeat well?

Take care,

Audrey

oh well done ,Carole. Next time (there will be) this happens, make sonmething up. We are proud owners of Madamemoiselle Harmonious Euphonium, Miss Lulu Loose Living and Lady Oddly Strange. Anything will do, really. Next year, with cutting fever rampant and crap labelling technique, there are going to be a lot more.

Audrey, the climber here is in zone 7a, on a south wall of a shed and 800 ft. from the ocean, repeats fairly well but would repeat better if it would only teach me to prune properly and to remove spent blooms. Its fault, right?

In 2009 we had a very cold wet June (roses here bloom last week in June, usually) so most of the buds balled and rotted. 2010 was fine. This plant likes a certain amount of water but not being drowned. In your area you must have superhot summers; I don't know if that's better for it than my cool sunny days. But if you got it from a Texas nursery, they'd know for sure.

Now that my thorny rose has an acceptable name I might take better care of it.

Note: 'Souvenir de la Malmaison', both the bush form and climbing sport don't have "glossy" foliage. In fact, the leaves are quite dull; nearly matte. Both versions are also known for their outstanding perfume, both in terms of quality and intensity. (Its other name at the time was "Queen of Beauty and Fragrance") You may have arrived at a conclusion prematurely. I don't suppose you have photos of the blooms/foliage, do you?

trospero,
Some people can't smell certain rose fragrances. Maybe I'm one of the olfactorily challenged. But I can definitely smell the heady scents of my various rugosas, alba semi-plenas' leaves, eglanteria,honeysuckle, orange-blossom and buddleias.

Descriptions vary When I look up the same roses on various websites, I see differences. "New Dawn", for example, is called "fragrant". To me, it has a very VERY slight fruity scent. And its color is called "blush pink" when I think it should be described as "silvery pink". Furthermore, most roses don't get their thorniness described, unless they are as studded with spines as r. spinosissima. I suspect there are many variations in descriptions. But I'm relatively new to roses, so I may be wrong.

You're right: the leaves aren't truly glossy. They tend to be matte in the first bloom time (June) and then many are shiny at the end of the 2d bloom time, October.

I'm attaching a link to the SDLM photos on Paul Barden's website. Both pix look exactly like my rose. If there is some other rose that looks exactly like this, please let me know.

Here is a link that might be useful: Paul Barden's SDLM page

carol, did you check the pictures on HMF also?

As for the fragrance, late autumn or very hot weather can actually mess it up, as well as a time of the day.

Here is a link that might be useful: Souvenir de la Malmaison, Cl.

Thanks, elemire; I did check the HMF site first thing, then went on to find more photos, especially close-ups, of the blooms. I think it's pretty definitely SDLM.

HMF is a wonderful source and I did join it. I hope lots of other rose-growers participate and send them more information and photos.

Carol

campanula: Is Lady Oddly Strange any relation to Lady Oddly's End?

LOL. Paul: Have you ever before had your own written material and photos employed to seek clarification of your own statement?

That is, to the best of my knowledge, a first! ;-)

Um -- who exactly is trospero???

That was entertaining. I do always enjoy trospero's comments, lots of useful information. I am glad he is back.

Masha

Perhaps trospero = Paul Barden.

My SdLM is still young, but I don't find the fragrance that appealing as well. It's not sweet - not to my nose. I remember someone had commented that the scent is a bit like pepper.

The blooms are mostly white - and the petals are like kleenex tissue paper and this rose blackspot without spray.

I just don't understand why a lot of people like this rose.

According to Helen Van Pelt Wilson and Leonie Bell, some people find the fragrance of Souvenir de la Malmaison "beery". Of course, some people like beer, especially Belgian beer.

Any chance that the rose is Awakening? My Cl SDLM does not have glossy leaves, but, Awakening, whose flowers resemble SDLM to me, has glossy leaves.

Robert

Oh JumboJimmy - you are treading dangerously, dissing the much-loved SDLM on this forum (I don't like it much, either).

Good grief! I just googled "Paul Barden" and discovered that my earlier posts had somehow alerted a Major Rosarian and Hybridizer. And motorcyclist. And photographer. And blogger.

So now I don't know WHAT my rose is. The leaves are definitely glossy, but I can't recall exactly their degree of shinyness at first springtime bloom. All I know is, almost no fragrance, blooms are 3" across maximum, and until they flatten out at full open phase, the middle part has that tight separate set of petals in a rather formal geometric five-form, so very full that they look like the flowers we used to make out of colored tissue paper folded back on itself. . Aaagh! If only I could post a photo! But I tried and the photo website rejected me. But as I wrote before, the photos of SDLM on the Paul Barden website look exactly like it. Exactly. The descriptions of "Awakening" match the mild-to-no fragrance and the glossy leaves, but the pictures don't look like it.

This is the end of the season here in New England, but I will try to learn how to post photos by next June, and take some pictures then.

Thanks for trying to help, everyone.

Carol

Ha! I'm one of the people who think SdlM sometimes smells like beer. Good to know I'm not the only one.