Many thanks John, for your response. I bought my rose from a specialist old rose grower here in Italy so I doubt that I will receive any replies from someone who has a rose from the same source.

He does have wonderful roses and every rose I've bought from him has thrived - his website is in Italian only but if you would like to browse through his roses, here's the link -

S'Orrosa Roses

The link above will take you to the page which has a photo of 'his' Dr. Grill (among others). I'm attaching two photos of my Dr. Grill taken this summer - it's just about to start flowering again and I expect that the flowers will be closer to their 'true' colour now that the weather has cooled down considerably -

Dr. Grill - July 2015

Dr. Grill - August 2015

Tricia

Tricia, from what I see, you might actually have the real Dr Grill, lol. *My* mis-ID'd DG was never remotely that color, being a dark, pinkish red. ( I lost mine last winter, sadly. It was pretty, whatever it really was). Also, what you have is definitely NOT Mme Lambard, so that ups the chances it's DG. Hopefully someone can now help you out. I'm off to check out S'orrosa Roses now...

John

John, I think you could spend a lot of time looking at his glorious roses. Every time I visit there I seem to find lots more roses I simply can't live without .... last year it was Lady Roberts, this year Octavus Weld, Anna Olivier, Mlle. de Sombreuil (Roserie de l'Hay) and our friend, Dr. Grill. I have a few other teas and they're growing very well here in my climate.

Tricia

Tricia, your rose is just lovely. I think if you allow 6 to 8 feet you really can't go wrong since almost any tea rose can be kept pruned to that size. If you need to fill in between roses you can always plant reblooming irises or day lilies which can be easily transplanted when the rose reaches its eventual size. Your rose looks great for your having had it for only half a year, so I expect it will grow quickly once it's in the ground. I'm afraid to look at your rose link, but fortunately they don't ship here so I should be relatively safe!

Thank you Ingrid - I'm hoping that my tea roses will become very large (with the passing of the years) - I'm not planning to prune them, just very light 'maintenance' when needed. I'm afraid that, although I would love to plant bulbs, it's impossible here - only two weeks ago I had half a dozen of my roses uprooted by some wild boar in search of any type of bulb/tuber they can eat. They were all 'own root' so I've replanted them and crossed my fingers and hope for the best. There's only one field that separates my house (and garden) from a wood which, at this time of year, is quite overrun with wild boar. The problem used not to be so bad but the dreaded hunters actually smuggle in the boar and put out food for them during summer so they can hunt them from October until January. The hunting season here started at the beginning of September and doesn't end until the 31st January. I can't wait for it to be over.

Tricia, I don't have the true Dr Grill either. Mine is nearly 30 years old and is now known to be William R Smith, so I envy you the real thing! I am also gnashing my teeth in envy over the roses available in your Italian catalogue....there are at least 20 I would buy in a minute. I hope you get through the hunting season without further damage.

Melodye

ozmelodye, from the photos, I think Mistydowns sell the real Dr Grill.

Tricia, I'm sorry for and about the boar. Is an electric fence a possibility?

Thanks, Titian. I saw they had it but no room for the real one now:(

What you need to plant are the POISONOUS bulbs, especially narcissus and other members of Amaryllidaceae (not sure about my spelling there). I'm familiar with your problem. Daffodils need good drainage, and some kinds do much better for me than others; I got discouraged about them for some years, but recently have perked up and begun trying them again in small quantities. Mice and boars will not be a problem, anyway.

I've found that of the bulbs wild animals adore tulips and hyacinths; the only way I can grow these is close to the house, in beds lined with buried metal sheeting to protect them from mice. It's a pity because these bulbs love our conditions. The critters don't seem to be as greedy for muscari/grape hyacinth; and cyclamen, in woodland conditions, do fine, as have, so far, snowdrops. Crocus are iffy. If you have woods, or garden conditions that mimic them, there are many native and beautiful woodland bulbs that hold their own against the wild boars, which infest our area too. I just planted Scilla bifolia, more snowdrops, poet's narcissus, and snowflakes (leucojum), all of which are native here (though I bought my bulbs).

N.B. A few years ago boars moved into the patch of woods immediately below our house, and went so far as to tear down a stone terrace about ten yards from our front door, looking for bulbs, of course. Since at this point it was a question of feeling safe when we stepped outside at night, we called up I forget whom--probably the Comune or the Corpo Forestale--and they sent out the boar hunting squad who shot the problem boars. If they're getting into your garden you'd be justified in doing the same.

Melissa

P.S. I've proposed this to Bart as well, but at the moment she's too busy: would you be interested in a cutting exchange? Mine is a serious request. It's perfectly feasable to swap cuttings by mail: I have many roses in my garden that I grew from cuttings received this way. I have a large collection of old roses, including a fair number of warm climate varieties, though the best of my roses are probably the once-flowering old roses. I would love to hear from you on this.

P.S. Sorry about your dug up roses! What a pain the wild boars are!

I thought I would attach a few photos of my Dr. Grill taken yesterday and today to show what the form and colour is like now it's autumn -

A bloom just opening this morning -

Another bloom yesterday at lunchtime -

The above bloom, fully open and after 10mms of rain overnight -

Titian, thanks for your sympathy - unfortunately, not even a 'normal' fence is a possibility here (the local Comune doesn't permit it) which is why I planted a hedgerow three years ago along the two boundaries of our property which have a road frontage - dog rose, hawthorn, blackthorn and pyracantha - guaranteed to keep out man and beast. It has grown very, very well and I'm about to plant the remaining two boundaries this winter. However, when a wild boar decides to visit nothing will actually stop it.

Melissa, I'd never heard about the poisonous bulbs. I bought some narcissus bulbs this year to plant in pots because everyone tells me that planting bulbs here is a waste of time - perhaps because our soil is such heavy clay? Having said that, a neighbour of mine - about 500 metres away has wonderful wild red tulips come up in her garden every spring and she often has visits from the wild boar so perhaps not all tulips are equal? There are lots of yellow crocus flowering along the roadside here at the moment so I assume that they're either not attractive to the wild boar or perhaps they have enough sense not to go near the road!

Can I ask for a rain check on the cutting exchange, please? I'm very interested but we have a couple of hundred olive trees that are almost ready to be harvested and my husband and I harvest our olives ourselves so I'm afraid that I won't have time for anything other than olive picking for the next couple of weeks.

Tricia

I have often pondered getting Dr Grill. After seeing your photos, he's in a 2 horse race for my one spot left.

Tricia,

Thanks for the answer. I look forward to hearing from you about cuttings when you have time to think about them. Fall is the best time for them if you can manage it. I have found exchanges to be hugely rewarding.

Wild animals don't eat poisonous bulbs, one of nature's happy truths for the gardener. I have an overall poor success rate with narcissus, but there are a few that have survived in my garden, which like your land is mostly extremely heavy clay. The ancient double yellow 'Van Sion' survives around old homesteads here, in the wettest, heaviest soil imaginable; the old Triandrus hybrid 'Thalia' has held out in my garden for years; 'Sweetness' for some years as well, and my horticulturalist sister informs me that the jonquil types, of which 'Sweetness' is one, take heavier soils than most narcissus. I've seen wild tazettas growing locally by the roadside, and poet's narcissus, rarely, but I know an old lady who has a woodland full of it. Of course we need to amend our soil heavily anyway to get anything to grow, but it's worth looking out for spots where narcissus might have a fighting chance. In my first post I listed many of the bulbs I'm trying. The local wild bulb population, mostly growing in woods or at wood edges, is wonderful: snowdrops, snowflakes, Fritillaria dens-canis, hepaticas, anemones (now officially Anemondoides), scillas, muscari, star of Bethlehem, the sparsely present Gagea (the last three mostly in open fields), and Narcissus poeticus and tazetta plus some feral types. And in addition to bulbs, violets, primroses, hellebores. Most of these we've been planting down in our wood, but they would grow well under mature deciduous shrubs and trees in a garden environment.

Not all the native bulbs are poisonous; I suppose that if they grow scattered and are prolific enough the mice and boars just don't find them all. We manage to maintain some colonies of miniature irises here and there. Your neighbor's wild red tulips sound marvelous, and so do crocuses growing by the side of the road.

Melissa