Lily this was one of the first roses I ordered - a band from Heirloom maybe 4 or 5 years ago. It’s maybe 4 canes and a couple feet tall. It gets smothered my petunias, so it would probably do better if I kept it up better. I just don’t think it blooms that much. I decided to keep it for another year and see how it does if I take better care of it next year. I bet this would do better grafted.

Thanks dingo for sharing. Mine came grafted from k and m so far about 3ft tall and lopsided. I took this today, clearly I missed thepretty stage.. I looked on hmf to remind myself why I ordered it ... this photo sure isn’t it!

Hmmm Lily - I'm suspicious. The color looks wrong for Blueberry Hill. Blooms are true lavender for me with yellow stamen, and don't age like that. Now - is it my favorite rose - no, it's not. Mine was purchased with cl. Aloha as my very first rose purchases - I had no idea what I was buying.

My BBH was planted in partial shade, and I always wondered if it's placement was part of it's problem. In 8 years, it's about 3.5' x 3.5'. Foliage is sparse but healthy, and in spring flush it has enough blooms to count, but not the rest of the year. I just realized I have no pictures of it.

Angry update :|

Karen , I think you are right. I was just on instagram, and a user posted her rose , dainty bess. And it looks so so much like my picture. And I am mad. This is my 3rd mislabeled rose . I ordered blueberry hill from the rose society who partnered with a popular vendor . There really is no way to prove to the vendor that they gave me the wrong rose because they won’t have a record of my order,

here is the dainty bess pic . Honestly I’m tearing it out tomorrow, I’m so mad ,

One tell-tale sign of Dainty Bess is long red stamens...when your blooms are fresh, are they red? But I have to agree, your rose doesn’t look like Blueberry Hill at all, and I’d be upset too if the same vendor did this multiple times! Are these the same folks that gave you the odd looking Kosmos?

No Ben , all my mislabeled roses came from different vendors. And the rose looked so similar to dainty bess , I never took a pic bc I really thought it was working through its growth period. It always seemed washed out to me but I wondered if it was shade . Now I see it just wasn’t the right rose . My friend is going to be thrilled with my plant though.

Palantine is the weird kosmos . I see they don’t have it this year , wonder if it wasn’t good for others from them too ?

Lily,

Your roses may well be Blueberry Hill. I first saw them at the ARS gardens in Shreveport, where they were the entry roses into the chapel. I thought they were lovely in the middle of that pine forest.

I splurged and bought six. And I tried to grow them in Tennessee. The pale color of your photo held (Dainty Bess is more of a HT in growth habit.) BUT we have surrounding hay fields and it's been so rainy this year that the grass in those fields grows and grows and the thrips thrive. Those splotches on your blooms are thrips damage.

All of my plants were on Dr. Huey rootstock and that stock wasn't very good in my soils. Further, the plants were stressed enough that all showed RMV symptoms in both spring and fall on new growth.

It's one that I wish I had known and understood better, but it wasn't to be. I was new to roses and didn't know enough to chose rootstock and soils more carefully

Ok maybe it is blueberry hill?

Maybe i tad over react

I found one pic Ann ..

Taken in June . Sorry for being crazy there guys . I really let myself get upset over nothing.

:)

I've grown Dainty Bess for 14 years, and I agree that the above photo is not Dainty Bess. But I'm not sure it's Blueberry, either. I grew BH for about four years and grew frustrated with it's inability to take dry heat, its terrible thrips problems, and poor rebloom. Blueberry Hill looked good in spring, then rested for a lonnnng period of time, reblooming when it was still hot. This resulted in shriveled blooms, and more thrips. I finally removed the rose. Dainty Bess has been a continuous bloomer for me, though the blooms don't like the heat, either. There are so many of them, though, I'm willing to forgive the interlude of poor response to heat. DB grows very tall and lean here due to a huge boxwood pressing on it from one side. That boxwood has got to go (not sure who will take on the job, though--ha). Diane

Photos in the following post--I hope.

Looking pinker in this photo--Blueberry Hill

Dainty Bess

beroselover,

that's a lovely rose. That lovely rose looks nothing like the huge beds of Blueberry Hill that were at the American Rose Society gardens. And you're getting single blooms, not sprays.

I know you're way north and get sunlight filtered through more of the earth's atmosphere, but that level of purple.....wow.

Could you share with us your source for that rose?

Hi there stillanntn,

I think you are asking where I bought it. Around 10 years ago there were sources for roses grown on their own roots on the islands off the coast of BC. I ordered from two places on the Islands and can't remember their names, or where I got the Blueberry Hills, which doesn't matter because they both went out of business. I bought them on their own roots. The nurseries were small businesses run by a family or a single person who just became older and didn't want to do it anymore. It was the darndest thing, they carried a large selection, mostly old garden roses but some modern ones, and you could just call them up and order a single rose bush (I seem to remember a price of $10), and it would arrive in the mail a week or two later, small but healthy. The first photo above was taken when it first came here and was quite healthy. It deteriorated due to lack of sun. The second photo above was taken after some years of decline and having been taken from a pot and planted early this spring. , The flowers are not as high a quality. It did try to make sprays, but deer ate most of my second and third crop of buds. I could have killed. There's a single deer that checks out my place when the rose buds are ready — I kid you not. Fences next year. For photography, I usually try to catch them when there is no sunlight on them or just a touch. To get them at their best I go out around dawn when they are cold and just starting to open up. The bottom photo above, though, was taken on a hot day near sundown.

Below are a few additional ones, both taken when it was young and more or less healthy.

The stamens are right for Blueberry Hill, but that depth of color is magnificent. I wonder if that nursery had a mutation .....if so it would be worth keeping it going. (Seriously, That color is wonderful.)

October 18 - Well, there has been light frost for 3 nights here but Blueberry HIll is determined to produce one last blossom. Dark Desire and Falling in love are trying too, but due to cold weather they are moving so slowly they'll never make. I'll have to bring the buds in the house to watch them open. I have never seen Blueberry Hill's blossom go this color, it's distinctly pink rather than mauve. I think the cold makes the color more vivid.

beautiful picture!

All I can say is if I thought I was getting what bcroselover has and instead got what lilyfinch has I’d be bummed.

They are so expensive and need time to mature so now you have to wait even longer for what you want cause you’re starting over.

And for a chance at what bcroselover has I‘d sure be tempted to try!!!!

Sorry, lilyfinch :(