'Jeri Jennings' did not grow much when we first planted it (in what was probably too much shade and too much competition from other plants). After 4 years, it was still only about 10 inches high (it is a hybrid musk which is supposed to get around 4-6 feet). Since I never take roses out unless they are dead, I tried to give it more care & food. Now it is 2 years later, and I was happy to notice that it has gotten about 3 feet tall, and it still getting taller! The top of it has gotten out of the shade of the Cramoisi Superior it is next to on one side, and the ROMN on the other side of it - I'm sure that helped.

Some folks on here want their roses to be mature in 6-12 months, but in my experience, that just does not happen, at least not with old roses or old types of roses. So, I mostly don't complain. WIth one rose, I did. I planted a rooted cutting of Belle Portugaise, and after 4 years it was 12 feet tall, but had never, ever, bloomed, not one flower. I told it if it did not bloom the following Spring, that was it. Of course, the next Spring it covered itself in the most gorgeous, elegant blooms I had ever seen - they are still my favorite in the whole garden. So, perhaps I should have threatened it sooner!

Jackie

Yes Jackie you are so right. I thought my RDV would do good in year three, but it took it to year four to start showing me what a great rose it is. We just have to be just a little more patient, but we get rewarded well!

I loved you sharing your experience Jackie! Does anyone else have a story to tell?

Oh this is good news on RDV! I have her planted in different types of sun and soil situations, including a pot, and she's just sitting there. I was getting quite discouraged and thought that maybe she just didn't like it here.

Strangely, my RdV bloomed late in its first year, and this in a garden where most roses take forever to establish themselves. Go figure! I took it out because it was agreed that it was not a good rose for my climate, with little bloom, and I could see that it would be too large for its spot.

All of mine have buds now so I take it back, LOL! Except for the one I've been coddling in the pot, go figure.

Pink Perpetue. I mean, it was one of the very first roses I first planted, in a bad, if sunny, position and a body bag to boot, so it had a severe handicap, but still. It's my dad's favourite rose, one he used to grow so I put up with it being a mangy unfragrant, blackspotted mess with ugly foliage that refused to climb, with two spindly canes and maybe half a dozen blooms - total - a season. Even dad reluctantly conceded that it was lowering the tone of the border and consented to look at possibly replacing it with something more attractive. And then, last year it suddenly, after six years, grew half a dozen solid canes and gave three solid bloom cycles. Even the blackspot was better this year.

I still hate it, but I have to (slightly petulantly) accept that it has actually earned itself a position.

Re RDV - mine, after four years in a pot, has indicated it wants out by growing through the bottom, and now I have to find it a place. Ugh.

How long did you wait before taking it out Ingrid?

Lavenderlace I'm glad yours is doing good for you.

I'm glad for your dad but sad for you in the case of Pink Perpetue. I'm glad RDV is doing so well for you fduk!

Bumping up, hoping for more stories, inputs, ect. This is not a thread about RDV, just about any rose that you thought wasn't going to do well for you, then ending up surprising you. I would love to hear everyone's stories, I'm sure everyone has one to share.

Does it have to be an antique rose?

Reine des Violettes is a good, strong grower here and pretty darn healthy as a no spray rose. Her color really leans toward the deep mauve range, and she has good remontancy when mature. I'd say mine (at my last residence) took 5 years to reach glory.

As a general rule, I give roses 5 years to impress me. This allowance has saved some of my now favorite cultivars including Buff Beauty and Zephirine Drouhin and many less vigorous own root plants. Own root The Prince takes his time to catch up with grafted plants, but he does eventually fill out and thrive in my garden. Even grafted The Prince does not become much of a plant for 5 years. By year 8, The Prince is healthy and filled with waves of Gallica purple blooms!

Tea roses in my garden are notoriously slow starters, but they begin to show real promise after 5 years. By year 8, they look like actual shrubs instead of gangly, oddly angled piles of sticks with sparse foliage and blooms sprouting like lollipops. Duchesse de Brabant and Triomphe de Luxembourg flowered frequently by year 2, but shrubwise, oh those awkward years!

Rose gardening, like parenting, is a lesson in patience and understanding of difference and diversity! Carol

Lavenderlace it can be whatever rose that you have a story to share of, I guess it doesn't have to be an antique.

Carol I think what you say is so true. I know to give Teas more time too. I thought that by year three everything should be able to show you something, but I guess some roses need longer. I know I need to be more patient myself. I'm so running out of space, but I'm just going to have to get some big pots, because there is just so many more that I really want to try. It maybe because some of my roses are so new/ small still that I keep wanting more, forgetting the ones that I have still have to mature.

I really enjoyed your story Jackie thank you so much for sharing it! I'm so glad that your cuttings rooted for you!

The Queen of Violets, RdV, can be very finicky and HATES to be pruned. Give it time and let it fill out and get twiggy and it will bloom its head off.

I can't think of one that surprised me by growing well. Unfortunately most of them go the other way. They have a marvelous first year and then, pffft, the next year they're terrible. But every season is different and brings new challenges.

O Seil that RdV is breath-taking!!!!!!!

Seil that is such a beautiful picture of RDV, thank you for sharing! I wish your roses would surprise and do better than have a marvelous first year and die. Here's to your roses Seil and may they start getting better and surprise you for a change.

I'm going to also add another one on here, This is my 5th year I believe with CDR, I thought he was just never going to stop growing and never give me any blooms, well this year he's giving me some, and although alot of my roses did get setback from this last cold snap we had, he was one I made sure to try and save, I really wanted to see those first blooms! So he surprised me this year by finally blooming!

Seil, your RdV is gorgeous - thank you for sharing! I have it on order for this spring and I hope mine eventually looks exactly like yours.

Alana, dumb question: what rose is CDR?

Vaporvac, I believe Alana is referring to Cardinal de Richelieu. She has a green thumb, fingers and palm and grows many roses that, in my garden, would fail to thrive if I lived in the south.

Alana, my husband and I mass ordered a pile of 25 gallon injection molded nursery pots as my birthday present one year. They're not cheap, but they are great for growing roses! Carol

Thank you everyone! Unfortunately that photo is from before poor RdV suffered through two polar winters. She's only half that size now. But like I said she really hates to be pruned at all and this should be the third year of grow back so maybe I'll see her like this again soon!

Spectacular... I want mine like that...

Seil, I've put RdV back on my must have list after viewing your photo. I hope she bounces back for you! I had been successfully downsizing while collecting a few must haves not currently in my garden. Now the scales are tipping again! Like Alana, I wonder where I'm going to squeeze in more roses that I "can't live without" in my garden. Time to reduce the back yard seating area and dig more beds for RdV, Etienne, Ellen Tofflemire, Madame Driout and all those 2-3 gallon rose babies which have grown up while smashed into my driveway "nursery" area. Carol

Vaporvac Carol is Right, CDR is Cardinal de Richelieu. Carol Thanks so much for the compliment! I never thought I had green fingers or palms, lol. I count myself really lucky and fortunate that the roses I really love have done well for me. On the other hand I have killed Archduke Charles twice, and Le Vesuve once. Along with a few others. I am trying Archduke Charles one more time. I will be getting him from Linda this Spring I hope.

I know what you mean about the backyard seating, my husbands like, "where"s all my grass going" and I'm like " It's just less you have to mow, Dear! LOL" I will be putting some in Large pots because right now he says I can't have no more yard, but I'll change his mind...eventually :)

I have a reine de violette that I need to move because we have to put a fence where it is. How shade tolerant is it? I am in zone 6

Jackie,

That's funny about your BP. Maybe it had been seeking more light? Mine, admittedly grafted, bought the autumn before, planted in a pot and then put in the ground last October, currently has quite a few buds while climbing 8-9 feet up a tree. I hope it will survive the fierce competition for water and nutrients with the Pistacia atlantica it wants to climb...

My very first RdV blooms are just starting to open and I just got a whiff of the most exciting fragance (for my nose)! I just love it when something tickles my fancy like that! Are the leaves peppery by the buds?

I wasn't that thrilled with her before now actually.

Nik, yes - my BP was not only on its own roots, but it was across our narrow driveway from a 12 ft high very large barberry bush. So, I think your theory about it wanting more light is correct. Now, several years later, it has only two large bare canes which bush out into a large rose bush after getting about 10 feet tall. It has also sent canes the other direction to the third story of our house into the sun.

Jackie

My BP has the advantage of trying to climb on a decidous tree so it can grow a bit all through our mild winter. Let's see how it copes now that the tree will be leafing out. At the moment the tree is full of its insignificant chaki green flowers on bare branches which give it a funny look and will be leafing out soon.

Need some advice please for antiques!

We're having 30 mile winds again but over 40 mile gusts. RdV and MadameIP are really getting beat up by the wind and their heavy buds are being banged around.

Since these are my first blooms, I don't know what will happen if I cut the blooms only partially opened to lessen the weight on the branches.

Some varieties I can cut a heavy barely opened bud and it goes on to bloom in the vase and others just sit there and rot in the center. Which way do these girls behave? Thanks!

Eden (climbing). It was slow to take off, like 4 years, then it exploded with blooms all summer.

Lavenderlace, I missed your post somehow, I hope someone helped you. I wouldn't know what to do be sides tying them to something.

altorama That's exactly how she was for me, most of mines blooms got messed up by that late frost though.

'Mme. Antoine Rebe' -- The plant didn't want to take off, and the blooms, though nice, were not plentiful.

This spring, she has bloomed non-stop from early February on. Only a few left, now, but new buds are setting. And the single blooms have great substance, and a texture like the finest silk. I've fallen in love with her.

I have had a few but this one is the best. It's an unknown rambler started from a cutting and in its third year it exploded! I wish I knew what it was.

It's very beautiful altorama you are lucky to have such a find! :)