Ours never grew canes beyond 6-7 feet, and more often less. In our climate, it really WAS purple, most of the time -- well, mixed shades of lavender would be more accurate. It does go pink in hot weather. If Poodlepup wants a purple climber, there is Carruth's 'Night Owl,' which is truly PURPLE. But it has prickles. Most do. Purple, vigorous, AND NO prickles -- that's a pretty tough combination of requirements. We grow Wisteria here in coastal California, and it is by NO means an aggressive plant. Of course, it is spring-blooming only. I suppose it's a question of what wisteria, but ours is quite contained. I wish I could say the same for morning glory! Jeri Jennings

Kim, your more detailed description of 'Ebb Tide' sounds really like this is an awesome rose. If you say it "will go down as one of Tom Carruth's best" that really means something. I would love to see a photo of the garden area that you are describing where you planted Ebb Tide together with Julia Child, Amber Waves and purple companions plants! Great that you found Ebb Tide at Greenhearts own-roots. Safes me the research :-)! Learned something about liners, too. Ingrid, thanks for sharing your experience with Ebb Tide. Without seeing Ebb Tide and Reine des Violettes side by side together, I guess it is impossible to make a judgement for me if the color is really the same. By the way, I actually don't want to replace Reine des Violettes with it, but maybe find a substitute for Burgundy Iceberg, which became maroon brown for me in the heat. Right now I have absolutely no intention to give up on my Reine des Violettes. I definitively will wait how the rose responds when the soil becomes more acidic, simply because as you noticed, too, it is such a special rose. aimeekitty, thanks for your input, but I don't think that it will work for me to grow Reine des Violettes in a container long term, even if it is a big one. HMF lists RdV with a height of 4' - 8' and a width of 3' - 6'. Since I am in Southern California I assume, that it is more likely that the rose will mature at the maximum size. For me it was impossible to keep a rose of that size sufficiently watered and cool enough in the heat of summer to look nice in a pot. I think 4' - 4' is the maximum that I can grow in a container. I would be interested to hear how your RdV is fairing in its container as it matures. wellrounded, thank you so much for pointing that out to me. Heirloom Roses has just a free shipment offer going, if I am not mistaken, so I may jump on it. Also thank you very much for sharing your experience with growing Ebb Tide own roots. It is good to know that it works for you, since some roses are just not that happy to grow on their own roots, even though they are sold as own-roots from reputable vendors. At least that is my experience. Christina Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Garden Dreams

Jeri, yes, that would be great to see it grown as a big standard. I've never tried that with a rose before ... may give it a try some time. Terry, yes the teepee is made from three pieces of 8 feet long reebar, stuck into the ground about 1.5 feet. I simply secured it at the top with one of those heavy-duty plastic slip-notch ties, and it's held it secure. Wire could easily be used as well. The main canes of the rose are also attached to the bars with similar slip-notch ties, which are black and hardly noticeable through the foliage. This rose has been a perfect specimen for a teepee. I had thought about trying my Paul Neyron on a similar teepee, but Paul is never full enough or leafy enough to look good. So, I prune PN instead. I used to grow the tea rose, Adam, and thought about trying the reebar teepee approach with him. But I found out quickly that Adam would have overwhelmed the teepee and probably swallowed it whole. Of the roses I've grown, RdV is the one that fits this method nearly perfectly for my garden/climate/soil. I'm sure there are other roses out there too though that would suit it. Randy

that in Graham Stuart Thomas' book on antique roses he specifically mentioned that RDV was in his mind the bluest rose he had ever seen, and that it was notably more "blue" than many of the modern so-called "blue" roses. Obviously since RDV's coloring varies a lot that "blue" only shows up when it's growing in the right soils, however Thomas must have seen it because he wrote that he often wore RDV as a lapel flower to rose functions to remind people that the rose existed and that it could be an unusually "blue" rose.