It's a gorgeous rose. I just planted it last year, so I'm not sure about suckers (I would not mind if it did!) But alas, it does suffer from damask crud.

Beautiful pictures! I really love the foliage as well as the unique flowers. Buford, even though you're far from me, for what it's worth, just how cruddy does it get for you? Fully defoliated?

The leaves don't fall off, they just turn black. When I bought Leda, I was on a Damask kick and I planted all of them in the same bed. They all have crud! But it doesn't seem to affect them. I will try to take some pics tomorrow.

I missed out on getting 'Leda' when I was doing my main shopping -- and Buford likes to "neener-neener" me that she got one.

:-P

Anyway, I went with 'Botzaris' instead, and I think they have rather similar habits. Mine sent a sucker up this year, about six inches away from the center. I tried to dig it out and pot it up, but it later died. Then another sucker came up near where the previous one was. I'm leaving it until Spring, then I'll try potting that one up for the cemetery.

Oh, and about that "crud" -- it was mentioned in a previous post not specific to 'Leda'. Here's what I've observed with my roses that get "crud" -- just snip the cruddy leaves off when you don't see the crud spreading any longer, and new leaves will form that don't get cruddy. I saw this especially on "Grandmother's Hat" this year -- the leaves that came out in Spring got cruddy by July, but any new growth that formed AFTER the main flush remained crud-free. So I snipped off the older cruddy leaves -- and new ones grew, and stayed clean. I tried this with 'Yolande d'Aragon' as well, but perhaps too late in the season. It refoliated -- in late October. I'm not sure, but it seems as though "Damask crud" is like blackspot or other fungal disease that would result in leaf-drop in non-Damasks, but Damasks just don't want to give up their leaves. So they hang on. Honestly, from afar, you could almost call it "Autumn colors". Or, just strip them off in mid-Summer. If you don't like the idea of long leafless stems for a while, give it a haircut while you're at it. That should get it refoliated even faster.

:-)

~Christopher

Leda is beautiful and so fragrant. She gets the "crud" in my no-spray garden and I think it has restrained her growth. I've grown her for many years and she has stayed small and not spread much. She does not sucker very much for me (own root rose), not like a gallica, and no need for a root barrier.

This is my Leda today. Notice the new leaves are clean and green and the rest are yucky.

It looks like blackspot, but it's not. These leaves have been dark for awhile now. They never turn yellow and they don't fall off.

Thanks guys,

I have to think about this one. I have a couple of roses that get cruddy, and it really bugs me. If I can find an out of the way spot, where I can enjoy this rose when in bloom, but not front and center for when it's shabby, I may give it a try.

You could always try snipping off cruddy leaves when you see new growth after the flush. As I mentioned before, when I did that here the affected roses refoliated and didn't get the crud again.

Anyone else notice that the crud somewhat resembles what Gallica leaves often look like by mid to late Autumn?

:-)

~Christopher

When I started growing roses, my once flowerers came from growers in areas which had much colder winters than I do, so the first year I had beautiful flowers and fell in love with Leda, et.al. No crud.... followed by years of no flowers. Truly once flowered! I mentioned in another thread that I have one remaining gallica,Orphelline de Juillet, which is an evergreen shrub, but I would accept any amount of crud for even one flower : )

Maybe they need some cold hours to bloom? From the Gallica blood? Christopher is right, you can chop them down in late summer. You can see the newer green leaves that have come up. Also, it's December 6th, but we realy have not had a hard frost yet, if we did those leaves would be gone. Since Leda is effectively a once bloomer, I think you could prune her hard after blooming and maybe get rid of the crud.

ozmelodye, you'll probably need to do what we do here if we want tulips that bloom more than once- dig 'em up and refrigerate 'em. Yeah, that Gallica will need a large refrigerator, but if you're in a Zone-10 equivalent, that's probably the only way to give it the dormancy cues those OGR's seem to need for setting flowers?

I am hoping that my two OGR's will finally bloom in April or May of next year. I'm a sucker for that Gallica look (if you'll pardon the pun), but I think Hybrid Chinas might be a more heat-tolerant compromise for our steamy summers, and not-very-freezy winters.

As for 'Leda', she's a gorgeous rose, but until I hear reports of her happily blooming in conditions comparable to mine (anyone?), I will love and envy from afar...

I've noticed that any rose that wants to hang onto its leaves too long will get pretty cruddy looking. Is that a Damask trait showing up, or do other rose ancestors provide this reluctance to 'let go'? As the weather gets cooler, I expect most roses to hang onto leaves as they decide whether they're going dormant yet, but some roses seem disinclined to let go of their foliage long before cool weather sets in. I guess those are the roses that need a 'Dr Huey' solution, and should get cut way back after they bloom in the spring?

Virginia

Yeah, vmr, learnt that the hard way. I enjoy my annual tulips too :-). Teas and Chinas are my thing.

vmr423 which part of South Carolina are you in again? Here leda is doing great! Beautiful spring flush. She is actually planted beside Orphelline de Julliet. Maybe get's a little crud, but it don't get it horrible. I can't find a picture right off, but I didn't get as many this year since I was in a car wreck in June. Here is ODJ though :)

Hey Alana-

Sorry to hear about the car wreck, and hope you are pretty well 'mended' by now.

I live in Charleston where we don't have enough chill hours for peaches. I have a 'Cardinal de Richelieu' also, which has grown quite a lot since I got it last year, and I'm hoping for some flowers this spring. That was sort of my 'test case' to see which OGR's I can grow here.

I have admired your 'Orpheline' before; it's lovely.

Your summers are probably as bad as ours (if you're far enough inland, they may be hotter), but I remember that you get snow and ice there, which is only an occasional thing with us. Even these last two winters only provided one snowfall, although I did have the bird-bath freeze up a few times overnight. If I had lots of funds for experimenting, I might try a few more OGR's, but I'm still so new to roses that I've been trying to stick with the likely suspects (mostly Teas, Chinas, Polyanthas and Noisettes), and those are quite lovely and satisfying to this newbie. But if 'CdR' and my mystery purple OGR provide some bloomage this spring, I may be tempted to try a few of the once-bloomers that do well for you. At least I'll know they're heat-tolerant, even if I don't know if our winters are cold enough. It's mostly the rich, deep, dark reds and purples that I crave; if I can get them via Hybrid Chinas, that's close enough.

Again, I hope you're recovering well from the accident.

Thanks for the encouragement,

Virginia

Hey Virginia,

I hope CDR does great for you, I'm hoping mine will bloom this spring as well since putting on size. Maybe later if you like we can go through what is doing well for me here. I believe the Hybrid China's are the better way to go. I love the deep dark reds and purples as well. That's why I just had to try them.

I live in Lee county, but on that little corner up top (if you look on the map) that goes between to Kershaw county and Darlington county. I believe that helps me, because Kersahaw receives more colder weather. As a matter of fact when I look at the weather, I always pay attention to what is being said for Kershaw, because even if Lee county is not in to get it, if Kershaw is, I know I will receive a more significant amount than what is said.

My mother grew up in Charleston. She loved it there. My granddad lived close to it before he passed a few years past as well. I think she grew up on a island over there? I can't recall the name.

I'm recovering well from my wreck, but my neck still bothers me a good bit. I have a appt. tomorrow with another doctor. I know he will have to do another test to find out whats wrong with it, I've already had a x-ray.

Do you have a chiro? Mine fixed up my neck in two accidents I had.

Alana, I'm glad you're recovering, and hope the neck problems soon heal.

I hear what you say about weather patterns. When I look at the local weather stations at Weather Underground, the closer stations aren't always as accurate as stations that may be further away, but have more terrain similarities.

There are several islands near here, of course; some of the more populated ones are Sullivans Island and Isle of Palms which are east of Charleston, and Johns Island, Kiawah Island, Wadmalaw Island & James Island to the west. Would you remember the name if you heard it?

I do keep an eye out for your posts to see what you're growing, and what's doing well for you; I figure that most old roses that do well on the Eastern Seaboard and Gulf Coast are fairly heat-and-humidity tolerant. Although I know most OGR's want colder temps (and/or less daylight) in winter than what we have here, I also know that there are some exceptions, and I'm curious about those outliers. It's not so much that I'm a zone-pusher at heart, it's more about hankering for those deep, dark reds and purples that aren't usually associated with 'roses for the South'.

I think we may have talked about native roses for this area before, so I'll just mention that I got a Swamp Rose (R. palustris variant) from ARE this fall, and it's getting pretty big already. It arrived just before the record rainfalls of early Oct., and seemed to really enjoy that!

Good luck with the neck and the doctors,

Virginia

PS i forgot to mention how much I like your species Tulips- very nice indeed!

Hey Buford, I got a chiro and went to him until the kids started back school. I couldn't do it all anymore then. He did help some. The doctor I saw today thinks I have a pinched nerve in my neck, because of the arm pain I have and perhaps a couple of herneated (sp?) disks in my neck. I was driving with my left arm, and had it straight on the wheel, so that's why my neck and arm received almost all the injury. I go for the MRI tomorrow and see him back on the 15th.

Virginia, I believe it was Sullivans Island. I'm pretty sure, but not 100%. I'll have to ask to be sure. I always wondered how Swamp Rose would do here. I always thought of trying it. If I can find a spot to plant it with out the DH knowing I may just do that ;) I'm glad you enjoyed the species tulips!

I'm sorry for taking the thread off topic Chris!

Today I was driving to work and got rear-ended again. And they guy just drove off! Luckily there wasn't any bad damage and I'm not injured. But I am beginning to think that I have a bullseye on my car.

Glad you weren't injured, Buford.

I'm glad you weren't injured Buford! People act so wrong! I thought the girl who hit me was going to take off at first. She was in a rush and not that concerned for me or the kids at all. The kids didn't get hurt thank the lord! Don't feel bad about that bullseye Buford I think I have one too. I'm always avoiding wrecks because people just don't know how to drive!

Chris do let us know what you decide!