This is the area where Sweet Mademoiselle is planted.

Since it’s so difficult for me get a good picture when the sun isn’t so bright, I finally picked a sample of everything growing with Sweet Mademoiselle, and plopped them in a cup. Not bad from a distance, right?

Then, I brought them indoors to look more closely. Sweet Mademoiselle is the bright orange/coral stuff.

Below, Boscobel on left, (love) Sweet Mademoiselle on right(do not).

She somehow manages to look better in these photos than to the naked eye. Really she does! I need to go back and look for a photo that shows how she can look like one of those carnations that’s been made to drink a colored dye. We’ve all seen those hideous things for sale as cut flowers. She has that same look, right down to to the uneven dye takeup along the outer petals!

I guess what I’m asking is this. Does she stick out amongst her companions like a sore thumb, or is my dislike of orange making my eyes go directly to her. She IS far more neon than she looks in these pictures. She does mellow nicely in the vase, but not so much outside. What do you think? Meanwhile, I’ll try to find a picture of that fake dyed look. Thanks, Lisa

I rather like all your pics of Sweet Madmoiselle. It looks very lively to me, not fake at all. But I’m a fan of bright colors, and I know not everyone else is. There is a shade of coral that I find really ugly, I call it dead salmon fish...Touch of Class and Folklore both fade to that color. Your SM is much nicer than that.

That first pic looks like you managed to grow a zinnia too that is an exact color match for Sweet Madmoiselle, lucky you, lol.

Well, the only photo I can find that shows the artificial dye look is this one. Sweet Mademoiselle is on the right.

Along with her unnatural color, it looks like the dye didn’t get evenly taken up along the outer petals. I know I’m making a big deal over something trivial, but I’m normally a “ plop ‘em in where I have space” kind of gardener, and I normally stick with pinks, whites, blues, and purples. This is one of the first times I actually had a plan in mind, and I branched out a bit from my usual color scene. I’m not real big on removing roses, either. I usually only do it when it’s absolutely necessary.

Does anyone have a specific suggestion for another companion plant that I could use to tie all the roses shown in the above photos together? Or should I repeat more of something you see in the cup that’s already in that bed? I think I’m fairly good at putting bouquets together, but I seem to be hopeless at putting whole, cohesive beds together. The only way I could even “see” what I had to work with in that bed was to pick a sample of each bloom, and put them all together in a cup. Only then, could I “see” my colors together. I highly recommend this method for anyone else who’s challenged in this department. It helped me! Thanks. Lisa

Thanks Ben! We cross posted. Yes, the zinnias aren’t really my favorite color either, but they do match nicely. When Sweet Mademoiselle bloomed for the very first time, I found an old pkg of mixed zinnia seeds that I had deemed “too bright” for me. I hastily scattered some around Sweet Mademoiselle and when they began blooming, I removed the totally inappropriate colors, and left those and the cream colored ones. I’m toying with the idea of scattering the darker ones around Princess Charlene de Monaco, and a few more of the ivory/pale yellow ones around Sweet Mademoiselle as I deadhead them. They grow so quickly, they may still bloom this year.

So Ben, I take it your vote is that Sweet Mademoiselle looks fine with the others, and I’m probably “color prejudiced”? :) Lisa

For me Sweet Madmoiselle and Charlene don’t work together. If you didn’t have one or the other, all the other colors look fine with either SM or PCdM. SM washes out PCdM, or PCdM makes SM look day-Glo when you have them side by side in close up. But the distance shot looks fantastic

I never thought of it or saw that Ben, but I see it clearly now that you’ve pointed it out! You’re right, because I can’t see them looking nice in an arrangement together. That’s unfortunate, because I bought Sweet Mademoiselle with exactly that in mind. I have Sweet Mademoiselle planted with two Princess Charlene de Monaco’s. Every catalog description stresses the pink in Sweet Mademoiselle, and then mentions peach/coral tones afterwards. I was also nervous about Boscobel from the very beginning, but Boscobel has really pleased me, so far. Boscobel starts out with a neon orange bud that scares me as much as Sweet Mademoiselle’s buds do. However, Boscobel opens to a more pink color. It’s very bright, and has coral tones, but Boscobel fits with what I had in mind for this bed.

Boscobel’s buds are really bright orange/coral.

But Boscobel opens way more pink than orange. I love Boscobel’s color and form!

Lisa,

I think our minds are trained through conditioning from very early childhood to expect a rose to be red, pink, or white. That conditioning lasts all our lives.

Orange, purple, and yellow roses are therefore not "natural," to our unconscious, but well conditioned selfs. This is why some colors in roses are not accepted as normal....our unconscious mind is exerting itself.

My Sweet Fragrance, as much as I like it, and what a lovely shade of peachy/apricot it is, still looks fake to me. It does draw my eye to it because it has a beautifully colored and shaped bloom, and also because my unconscious mind says, "There's something wrong here, check it out immediately. There may be a problem needing attention." .

Moses

Lisa, I could not agree with you more. I bought sweet mademoiselle and was surprised to find that I too hated her coloring. It looks fake, and like somewhat neon. It clashes with all my other roses and although I left her because she's a good grower/has good resistance to disease. I've been very disappointed in the color. I never thought I'd be so finicky about coloring, but I too just dont like it. I find it hard to point out why, but all I know is I dont. It doesn't look the same in pictures but in person its just not a nice shade. Its a weird pink orange shade that looks like the stains mercurochrome leaves behind. Not quite pink not quite orange, just chemically looking.

SoFl, that’s it, EXACTLY!!! Every time I look at a picture of Sweet Mademoiselle I think, “She looks much better in these pictures. Her color is WAY more artificial in real life!” That stain really shows it better than any picture of her I can take. Thank you! I keep thinking that maybe she will cool down and pink up, once the temps come down. We’ll see about that. She’s on Dr. Huey, and I dread digging her out. Actually, I dread even asking one of my sons to dig her out. I doubt I have the strength, and longer she stays in the ground, the harder it’s going to be. I can already hear them. “What?? We just put in this rose for you! Now you want us to dig it up because you don’t like the COLOR?!?!” That sort of thing makes zero sense to young men. My obsession with roses makes zero sense to them already. This is really going to sound crazy to them.

Mr. Moses, you’re probably right on some level, but I don’t have the same reaction to the yellow and purple roses, I grow. I think I may have developed such a strong dislike for her that she could hardly redeem herself anymore:) I didn’t think I could dislike a rose so strongly, but I do. Whatever my mind has been conditioned towards, (or against, in this case) I don’t think I can overcome it. Like the “golden child”, who can do no wrong in her parents eyes, I’m afraid Sweet Mademoiselle has irritated me to the point where she can “do no right”. I hope not, but that’s the feeling I’m getting.... Lisa

I’m also with you, Lisa. Your pics of SM look terrific but in person she looks like bright crayola pink and orange. I pulled her out. I had been so excited to grow her ever since she was released in Europe but to find this out after purchasing her was a huge disappointment. I love other orange roses such as Lady Emma Hamilton, Crown Princess Margareta, Lady of Shallot and others. I just can’t handle the bright/unnatural/fake color of SM.

All I can say is I love mine. I like bright colors and have it planted with red and South Africa. So far so good with it.

Perhaps Patty is on to something. Yours probably stands out (like an ugly duckling) because she's in the wrong colour scheme. If you had her with colours that complemented her I'm sure it would change your perspective...... or not.

To me, she goes with everything in that bouquet except Boscobel. But that doesn't take into account how different she looks in person. Nor the fact that you aren't sending Boscobel anywhere. She has only been in the ground 3, 4 months at the most. If you are going to remove her, it's certainly not going to get any easier no matter who does it :). Can you get your 'helper' back for that one job? Should be just his sort of thing, removing plants.

The only thing jarring to my eye is your SM next to that lavender colored dahlia (it is a dahlia, right?). Orange and purple don't 'play nice' to my eye. I love coral and pink together though. I just wonder if your SM's color will change since she's still so young? The form is so pretty!

We crossposted, Nicole. Yes, I did wonder about that Dahlia, but there’s a story behind it. I had that Dahlia there for almost 5 years, a huge clump. It was my favorite for cutting, since it was a nice color, nice size blooms for using with roses, and lasted forever cut. Then, last summer a gopher came along and ate it all up:( Except it didn’t. I thought it was completely gone, but a few months ago a bit of it came back. I’m waiting until it goes dormant again to move it,( into a gopher cage this time.) Unless, it looks fine there without Sweet Mademoiselle. So the Dahlia wasn’t in my plan. I thought it was gone, but Mr. gopher must have left just enough for it to survive. Lisa

The hardest thing for me is to remove a very well performing rose that I just don’t like, especially a nicely fragrant one. So I sympathize with you. I have Sedona, she was supposed to be a sunset blend , but has turned out to mostly a garish orange pancake (much worse in my eyes than your Sweet Madmoiselle). But she’s healthy, blooms generously, smells of sweet rosy pear, so I hang onto her.

That said, we put so much effort into our roses, and we’re very particular because we’re aficionados, so I wouldn’t hesitate to remove something I just didn’t like overall. There is only so much space in the garden, and we put continuous effort into our roses. I’ve sidelined Sedona into a pot, but if I saw something more suitable and that was the only space I had left, she’d be a goner.

Looking back on it, the first time I saw Sweet Mademoiselle she had been out of the sun in a big tent for at least 30 hours. She didn't look so loud. So maybe she is contrary and is truly brighter in the hot sun, instead of fading like the majority of roses. If so, there isn't much chance of the situation improving. Maybe a parasol ? Life is too short to put up with something so bothersome, and luckily a wrong rose isn't something we are stuck with. Where is that gopher when you need him!

Lisa, my advice is: if you don't like her--regardless of the reason--get rid of her. The purpose of a garden is to give the gardener pleasure. If this rose interferes with this, send her on to that garden in the sky--or at least somewhere out of your garden.

Kate

Give her the shovel

Life is too short to have a rose that irritates you. We have a few good years, lets have roses that make our hearts soar

Yes i agree with Kate . Life is too short ! It’s ok if you don’t like it . No one here bred it , so won’t be hurt :)

The removal process is a pain but I always feel better once I get rid of one I don’t like !

Yes, you’re all correct. This rose needs to go away. There’s no chance of Mr. Gopher getting her Mary, since she’s been carefully planted in a gopher cage. She does soften indoors, so maybe the breeder worked VERY hard to make her fade resistant in full sun. He certainly succeeded in that!

This rose is just never going to make me happy. Her days are numbered, here. It IS hard to SP a healthy, good bloomer, Ben. I think I might know someone who might want her. That would make me feel much better than just dumping her in the trash. Lisa

Okay I too have mixed feelings about this rose. She is on my want list for next year. I assumed her color would be exactly what you posted. I need roses that say they are tall because they will usually be only half the size in my garden as stated in the description. I was going to put her next to a darker red on one side and yellow or lavender on the other. I have no problem with purple and apricot together (Abraham Darby and clematis Jackmanii). But now I'm wondering. I have Pat Austin and I never really liked her color but she is a good performer. I also got Dicky (Anisley Dickson) in a body bag this year and it is about the same color as SM but not double. Orange/coral roses are not my favorites yet I seem to have several?!?!?! I prefer apricot. Glad you posted this as no one seems to have contributed on either SM or Moonlight Romantica which I did order. I'm still out on her as she balled something awful and I haven't seen a repeat flower since.

Sometimes it works out and sometimes it just doesn't . It hurts me to dump a healthy rose too.

I have no more space so each rose needs to be one that I love.

I sadly sp Dick Clark and Malibu. I felt so bad but I now have a new bed for something I love.

In my opinion, the pictures are MUCH nicer than the original, lkayetwv. If you already have some close to her color that you’re not crazy about, be forewarned. She’s the color of an artificial kids candy, you would HAVE to feel guilty about feeding your kids. If you like warm colors, and place her with the right neighbors, she could be great. I love Abraham Darby and peach/apricot roses, but she’s nowhere near that. She IS tall and narrow, that’s true. I was thinking of her as a darker, non fade version of Princess Charlene de Monaco. I love PCDM, and she sets the bar high. Her only fault is that she fades in the sun very quickly. Sweet Mademoiselle doesn’t, but I wish she would. Amazingly, Sweet Mademoiselle STILL looks fresh and pretty in my kitchen sink!

I have Moonlight Romantica right next to my Sweet Mademoiselle. Moonlight Romantica is just starting to bloom more now, after being planted in February. My blooms have no trouble opening, but I’m in hot and dry, So CA. Sometimes MR’s blooms come single, and sometimes in a cluster. The ones in clusters are smaller, but still nice. The fragrance is good. This one may be slower to bloom, as it looks like it wants to climb.

Cluster, side view

That’s funny Lisa , mine is also by my moonlight romantica ! No problem at all with it balling . It’s a beautiful rose lkaye. Mine hasn’t bloomed a ton but I’ve enjoyed the ones I got .

Wouldnt it be great if we all were close enough to do the dirty work for each other!

Kristene , I was thinking of you and Savannah today . Mine put out a few nice blooms darn it . Why can’t it give me more than 3 at a time .. and always look nice like this?

Sorry lisa but I just want to share these pics :) hope you don’t mind !

I mean , this is what this rose should always look like !! Why Savannah can’t you behave .

Lisa, I actually like some orange roses - Westerland is a favourite, but I don't like your close-ups of Sweet Mademoiselle. That colour is odd to my eye too. I have no trouble (well, not much), getting rid of roses I don't care for. Shame I'm too far away to help!

I found my Boscobel to be an awful unnatural orange the first season here. It has improved toward pink this year, or I would have had to remove it too.