Which William Shakespeare Do I Have? Can WS be grown as climber?
I'm not sure which WS (Austin) I have and am wondering how I can tell. My plant has some perpendicular growth (shoots) which I usually find on climbers. Sends out fairly long ones and is sprawling. Beautiful deep pink/purplish.
Comments (14)
AquaEyes 7a NJ
9 years agoRelated Discussions
William Shakespeare 2000
Comments (19)My experience is that the color of Munstead Wood is deeper and darker. The main difference I'm seeing so far is that MW has a very different bush shape--it is much shorter than WS2000 and never has that awkward sideways spread that WS2000 specializes in. In fact, MW tends to form a most shapely and graceful bush so far--but mine is still relatively new, so we'll see in another year or two. I do like both--and I grow both. Given their differences in size and shape, they serve somewhat different functions in a garden. I think, if I had to make a choice, I like the MW bloom best, but that is not meant as a put-down of WS2000's beautiful quartered blooms. Both are beautiful. Kate...See MoreWilliam Shakespeare 2000, Darcey Bussell and Munstead Wood
Comments (5)I don't know Darcy Bussell. I used to grow WS2000. For me it was healthy and pretty, but it was also one of those tentacle roses Austin produces from time to time. The form of the plant reminded me a lot of Scepter'd Isle. Both pretty, but not very good as shrubs for me here. Maybe they would be okay as climbers but somehow I think they would be awkward that way too. In all fairness I have to say I could be wrong about that, since I did not actually try growing them on a structure. Instead I gave both away to good homes. Actually my WS2000 was grafted and I pretty much destroyed it digging it up, but I did root a cutting and I gave the rooted cutting to a gardener I know who gave it a good home. When I last saw WS2000 it was not yet throwing out octopus arms. It may well be that it doesn't do that when grown on its own roots. On the other hand, it was confined to a 10 gallon pot, so maybe it needs to be in the ground for that behavior to occur. Munstead Wood on the other hand is a superb rose. The color is rich, the fragrance quite good, and the form of the plant compact enough that you can put it front and center of your garden. Mine is a couple of years old and two feet high. It may get a bit taller in time but I don't think it will ever be a huge rose. Now I like big roses, too, but it is good to have some that stay small enough to plant them close to where you walk. I heartily recommend Munstead Wood to gardeners who enjoy richly colored, richly perfumed roses. Rosefolly...See MoreWilliam Shakespeare in trouble please help
Comments (23)Thank you, Kitty and Carol, for your encouragement. Nik, I appreciate your observations. Jo, that does look very much like what is happening to my rose. Thank you very much for taking the trouble to get pictures and post. Yes, I hardly pruned it this winter, and I do find that in the few instances where roses produce blind shoots it tends to happen on lightly pruned roses. Without any science to back me up it nevertheless seems to me that not all roses are capable of growing forever unchecked in our winterless climate. A few roses seem to achieve a certain size and just sit there until some pruning is done to encourage them to regrow. I don't know whether it depends on the type of rose, gardening practices or simply on the fact that there is not always room for roots to grow to the same size as the top. I want to add that on blind shoots I have noticed (very easy to spot on HTs) the leaves seemed to look normal to me. Perhaps I have not been looking very closely. I went to Home Depot yesterday and bought a set of cheap pruning tools. I will re-prune the rose, toss the tools just in case and let you know what happens. Masha This post was edited by mashamcl on Fri, Apr 25, 14 at 12:25...See MoreWilliam Shakespeare
Comments (4)Bury the graft. Definitely bury the graft. Unless the scion dies off, which IME is usually the result of not burying the graft, the only way the rootstock suckers is from budeyes on the shank. Since one of the normal procedures in budding is to remove these budeyes, good quality grafted roses should not have them. My experience with a few thousand grafted roses (don't ask) was that two produced rootstock suckers without having the scion die first from the rose being planted too high. When I've mentioned this in the past, other people who have dealt with thousands of roses agreed that it's a perfectly reasonable percentage. It does happen, but should be quite rare. BTW, bury the graft....See Morecjrosaphile
9 years ago
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9 years agoAquaEyes 7a NJ
9 years agolast modified: 9 years agodiane_nj 6b/7a
9 years ago
dublinbay z6 (KS)
9 years agolast modified: 9 years agoCouldn't say for sure, but I don't remember my Will2000 ever blooming in a kind of round ball shape. Mine kinda looks like someone took a sharp knife and sliced it off flat on top--like this pic which brings out too much of the pink shades, unfortunately. The colors in the center are more accurate.
Notice also the center has somewhat what is called the "quartered" look. I seem to remember most of Will2000's blooms being that way.
I might add that while my Will2000 definitely likes to sprawl--and it isn't "somewhat sprawling" but rather "definitely sprawling"--I don't remember it ever showing even a momentary interest in growing upward like a climber.
Don't know if this will help or not, but I remember a conversation back when there were lots of discussions about which Shakespeare is best in which someone maintained that the blooms on the original Shakespeare didn't always fully form, giving them a kind of bean-shape as a result. Presumably that was one of the reasons why Austin felt the need to replace it with a "better" variety--although I remember at least one poster insisting the older Shakespeare was decidedly better than its newer replacement. I can't vouch for any of those views--except that I remember several posters expressing those views.
Hope that helps. I think you have the older Shakespeare--which now makes it a "collector's item" since it is no longer available.
Kate
jerijen
9 years agodublinbay z6 (KS)
9 years agojerijen
9 years agoKate's right! That is very reminiscent of TDL. Here are two examples of The Dark Lady:
cjrosaphile
9 years agoBut Dark Lady doesn't have fragrance, correct? This one does. Here are some other shots of it:
jerijen
9 years agolast modified: 9 years agocjrosaphile
9 years agoI hope it's okay to post this for the sake of comparison, but here's a photo of WS from Paul Barden's website. It looks pretty similar to my shot. Thoughts?
shot:dublinbay z6 (KS)
9 years ago
seil zone 6b MI