I think the single, most beautiful display I've ever seen on any rose may have been years ago, on a 'Reine des Violettes" that we pegged, nearly flat to the ground, with just enough arch to prevent the canes' snapping. It was astonishing when it flowered. Hundreds of closely-packed flowers. On the other hand, we've never done it again, because after that flower flush, the structure of the plant was a mess, and we pruned at it for a long time to make it "normal" again. And it was a lot of work to peg it in the first place. Nowadays, we grow it as an untrained, unsupported bush, which easily reaches 6-7' tall by nearly as wide in a season. We do prune it fairly hard, especially for height, in the spring. We get a major bloom flush in the spring, then a few flowers here and there all summer, then another heftier flush in the fall. It then continues with a few flowers through the winter, until we prune, usually late February or early March. (this is in Lakeland Florida) Malcolm

I like those irises too. I wish they bloomed a little longer, though. Yes, you do get a little colder than we do here. We might get one or two nights down to 28F, but mostly in the low 40's or high 30's. Good for things like citrus and avocados. I even have pentunias and snapdragons that survive the winter and regrow in the spring. I don't mean reseed, I mean the same plant survives like a perennial. This is not so good for the roses that need a winter chill to form buds, as they never really go dormant. I do manage to grow a few hostas and astilbes in pots on the patio. The containers cool down more in the winter, and I help them out by dumping ice on top on cold days. They do best the winters that I plug in my garage fridge for tulip bulbs, and put the pots in there for a few months. I wish I could stuff some roses in there! Lisa

The not-RdVs are other roses that have been mislabeled somewhere along the way. Not necessarily bad roses (see Cynthia above) but not thornless almost-purple Hybrid Perpetuals. Some suspect RdV is actually a sport, not a seedling, because one of the imposters strongly resembles the rose she's supposed to be a seedling of. I'm glad ARE has the 'real' RdV! Thisle Thrower, how as RdV done for you? You're even colder than me, so if she does alright for you she may be worth one of my few remaining spots! I would've said 'there's only one RdV', but HMF tells me there's a gallica named 'Reine des Violettes' too! https://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.46899 No references past 1840 though, probably doesn't exist anymore.

I find that pegging works better when canes are no lower than horizontal from the origination point. Sure, you'll get blooms during the first flush like in the pic above, but after that, the stems that are lower than the cane's origination point will start dying back to where the stems are at or above the cane's origination point. So I prefer to use some pieces of tree branches, or bamboo stakes, stuck into the ground, and tying canes to them so that they're just higher than the origination point on the cane. This usually means at least six inches above the mulch line, often higher. You get the same effect, but without the post-bloom die-back at the tips that happens when you peg the ends to the ground. If you're worried about how the stakes would look, mine disappear among the companion perennials -- the tree branches, especially, just blend into the background. For whatever reason, roses with Rambler ancestry don't seem to suffer the "lower tips die-back", and seeing how Ramblers and their species ancestors often have canes spilling down out of trees tells me it's something inherent to them. But things like Bourbons and Hybrid Perpetuals don't have this ancestry -- their ancestral species grow up and lean outward at the tips. Personally, I grow 'Reine des Violettes' as a short climber, sort of espaliered against a raised deck railing. But in your colder zone, pegging low might be a better bet, since the rose would benefit from snow-cover in Winter. :-) ~Christopher