We had to get rid of our "Mme. Isaac Pereire" because it defoliated from disease in Richmond, Ca along with its pink sport "Mme. Ernst Calvat" grown in Oakland, ca which I had bought for its' intense fragrance. M.I.P is one of the most fragrant roses on earth, but there are others equally as fragrant and much healthier when grown in the East Bay. I've been documenting roses that bloom well in no-spray and organic method gardens in the san francisco east bay in both public and private gardens for the last 10 years. Healthiest red roses out of dozens of Old Red roses evaluated in the s.f. east bay: Francis Dubruiel" FFFF out of five F's for fragrance. several old rose nurseries sell this rose which has an intense damask rose type scent, the type of scent which one expects from a red rose. "Crimson GLory" FFFFF out of five F's. shapely red roses that are deeply fragrant. I found this on the property I bought last year and have never needed to spray it with anything. Slightly less fragrant but still very fragrant, and just as healthy in this area, is "Etoille de Hollande" a red rose that appears to enjoy a large fan and enthusiastic fan base. a modern H.T. from the 1960's: "Papa Meilland" huge goblet shaped crimson roses that fade with purple on the edges. I find myself singing that old Joni Mitchell song to it..."I could drink a case of you" for its perfume is so very intoxicating. A must for collectors of fragrant red H.T.s.. if vintagegardens.com and roguevalleyroses.com doesn't have these roses in stock, I'd try hortico.com or pickeringnurseries.com in the winter for bare root plants. Caveat Rosa: "Gruss an Teplitz" became defoliated in two local gardens in Richmond and Emeryville and both rosebushes were destroyed. "Chyrsler Imperial" was destroyed after becoming defoliated from disease in my neighbors garden. two other roses I had to get rid of because they were coated with disease, were "Monsieur Boncenne" a red H.P., and "Rose des Rescht" both of these roses were coated with rust and defoliated. Both were unsightly and sadly useless because a rosebush cannot bloom without foliage to allow photosynthesis. Hope this is of help. Lux.

My earliest rose memories are in regards to Blaze Improved, which my parents grew in an unsatisfactory way on a fence on the property of the family home back when I was just a little kid (6 through about 9 or so). It was then that I decided I didn't like that rose. I found it boring, and ugly once it got black spot (although at that point in my life I didn't know it was a disease, or what its name was). My favorite relatively early rose memory involves Peace. The summer I was maybe ten or eleven an arty neighbor up the street held some drawing classes for neighborhood kids. (I have no idea how she set it up, but my guess is she let the other neighborhood mothers know she would do that for a nominal fee.) I can remember that she had a blooming Peace rose in her backyard that I chose to capture using pastels (although at the time I didn't know the rose's name). I still remember how much she liked my work. I kept that sketch for a few years in my closet, but it's long gone. I remember noting that while the flowers were yellow, the edges of the petals were pink in varying ways, and I can remember carefully using the pink pastel and smudging the applied pastel with my finger to get the color to resemble each individual blossom as closely as I could do so.

Hansa has a few blooms now. I'll have to check on Blanc Double de Coubert, but she's in too much shade and probably isn't blooming yet. There are lots of buds on Therese Bugnet, but that's about it so far.

I am wanting rooted cuttings or small rose plants of Antique or Earthkind roses. Contact me & we will work out a trade. I have Caldwell Pink, Prosperity, MME Alfred Carriere, MME Isaac Periere, Ruby Red, Softee, Grandms's Yellow Rose, Veilchenbleau along with lavenders, rosemarys, & salvia cuttings or small plants for trade