Pages of pics of Leonardo at HMF. Loved from Spain to Russia! Lots of excellent ratings. Thanks for showing it! Onto my list.

Ann......first I will have to find my Leo photos.....then figure out how to post them here. After my computer got Windows upgraded, I dont know how. I think I have the climber as it has arching canes. Mine isnt a large one - never did have to trim it back. If I remember correctly from last spring - it bloomed again but not like the huge flush in the spring. I am going to pay more attention this year. It is a gorgeous thing - a real stunner on that first bloom flush. Healthy too but I do spray. Whether it survived the polar vortex last week remains to be seen though........I searched it out and bought it from a photo in Flower & Garden magazine - the photo was so striking. Fortunately, the name was on the photo so I looked around and found it, dont recall where I got it, maybe Hortico - that was years ago. It didnt do well out on my front fence - perhaps too hot and wasnt in a rich enough bed, but it loves where it is and though it probably should be more in back of the bed, its at the entrance of a patio in front of an ornate scrolled archway. Its not getting too big so am leaving it there. I keep a metal fan shaped arbor behind it to tie canes up with. Think I would like to get the bush - wondering if the bush form blooms all year? Judith

Comment 9B, Los Angeles Valley area, SoCal. I purchased a 5 gallon mature Leonardo Da Vinci from a local nursery in Jan this year. The label says it’s nurtured by Stars. 50+bucks. I planted it in a rectangular planter which is deep but narrow. I had to trim off some roots to fit it all in the planter. I was quite worried because it had a late start. About a month later, it started to grow new leaves. I have to say that all Meiland’s roses I own have such beautiful deep green shinny foliage. It gets around 5 hours afternoon sunlight, and so far it has bloomed non-stop for two weeks. The flowers have the most delicious Barbie pink with a metal hue. It’s the highlight of my garden. In China where I come from, people call Leonardo Da Vinci “plastic rose” to emphasize its long-lasting blooms. The nickname holds water! Each blossom can hold about three weeks. The temperature here is around 55-80. Two things I’d like to highlight. The fragrance. A lot of people told me that Leonardo is almost perfect, but the only flaw is no scent. But my Leonardo smells quite good. It has very lovely fruit and old rose fragrance. Medium intensity. Maybe because I’m a wine drinker so my nose is more sensitive. But my point is, the mature Leonardo should have stronger scent than the younger ones. Disease resistance. The CL Iceberg I got from the same nursery infected with fungus and I could only spray milk because I released hundreds of ladybugs to eat aphids and it actually worked very well this year. Quickly it spread to Don Juan, and eventually Leonardo Da Vinci. It’s not too out of control so far. Conclusion: beautiful healthy foliage. Late start than other roses. The mature plant has medium fruity fragrance. Disease resistance is not exceptional but good. The blooms are long-lasting in flushes. Each cane has 3-5 buds and they will bloom in the same time because the middle one last long enough to wait for the others. Highly recommended!

My Leonardo is more of a short climber. It just finished a flush with blooms up and down the long -ish canes. Very clean, no blackspot, very healthy. I cant really figure out what it wants to be - a floribunda or a short climber, I think the latter. I put a short trellis behind it and will keep the long canes tied to that. It is glorious when in full bloom all up and down the canes. Judith