Location, location, location. SdlM is awful here. But I have seen it elsewhere, and it was great.

Oh wow yours is sooo beautiful!!! Wowsers !!!

I’m excited for my Colette arbor. It had a lot of thrip damage last year. Somehow hoping the same doesn’t happen this year ! And it’s almost to the top of the arbor ! Yipppppeeee !!

I live in a very dry climate and SDLM is great here. However, if it rains at all (and it doesn't very often) the blooms ball and look a mess. But when it's warm and dry it is the best rose ever for this climate.

sara ann: your spring 2018 SDLM photo falls far short of my full expectations. It’s the 1st photo I have seen from you that is not totally outstanding. It seems out of focus. Did I mention I have no photography skills? Is it possible your memory of SDLM’s performance last year has been unfairly influenced by this photo (aside from the color issue)?

I agree the first photo could be outstanding if it were in focus.

My early season blooms on SDLM (and most of my OGRs) were very pale but the later ones were more pinkish. Either way mine was never very big but set lots of blooms. I'd take yours any day - pale or not!

That’s sounds like Charlotte for me.. bloomed fairly well last summer but with black spot and other stuff!! Into it’s 3rd year now. Waiting patiently as it is said for DAs.

As Jeri said, you have to have the right site/region to grow 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' well. Here in the Pacific North Wet, it was horrible. Few of the spring blooms opened properly, turning to brown mush before completion. And lets be honest, the best blooms this cultivar offers are the first flush. I moved a plant of it into one of the greenhouses where it stayed dry, but our long cool (and often foggy) springs were not to its liking even under plastic, so I rarely ever saw a bloom that lived up to its reputation.

To quote the late, great Peter Beales:

"This rose, at its best, is the most beautiful of all Bourbons, but at its worst, can be horrid."

In an English climate - which is similar to the PNW where I am - I can imagine Peter became very familiar with its "horrid" phase!

I have to say, that if it continues to disappoint you this year, you can expect it will go on disappointing you in perpetuity, in which case you'd be better off choosing something more suited to your climate.

I have to disagree with Paul a little about the spring blooms of SdlM being the best. I've noticed very little difference in the blooms throughout the year except for during the heat of summer. Even now the blooms, perched on a bush that is half eaten by rabbits and holding on to old, crummy-looking leaves, are beautiful, and that's after days of rain and very high humidity. Erasmus, your bush is gorgeous!

My SdlM here improves as the season progresses and gets hotter. So does Maggie it seems.

Yes, Ingrid, but you are in desert conditions, which are quite different.

But: "To quote the late, great Peter Beales:

"This rose, at its best, is the most beautiful of all Bourbons, but at its worst, can be horrid."

This was the argument I had, over, and over, and over, with my beloved friend, the late Col. Mel Hulse.

Mel maintained that EVERYONE should grow SdlM ... whilst I said that was true ONLY for those whose conditions allowed them to grow it well. Grown badly, it was a constant disappointment.

Jin, some people have had success with blue cups sprayed with cooking oil for thrips.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/omg-blue-cup-thrips-control-actually-works-dsvw-vd~3816744

Wow Sara-Ann - If mine looked fractionally as good as yours I'd be ecstatic. I've never been able to take a bush shot, as I've never had more than 2 or 3 blooms on her at any given time in the many years I've had her - and I think she's in a very good spot. I keep hoping.

Jin, let me know if it works for you.

If I get thrips, its usually just briefly though. The frogs show up and then all the thrips immediately disappear. The frogs are mainly nocturnal so they must go after the thrips at night. I just read that frogs and toads can see better at night and even in color, in pitch darkness better than any other vertebrate. So thrips and other bugs show up good for them even in the dark.

I appreciate everyone’s input. That bush shot was somewhat out of focus, I agree! Erasmus, your SdlM is gorgeous! I honestly believe the past two seasons for mine are atypical. Ordinarily, even in the spring the blooms are gorgeous. I’ve had SdlM since 2013. I left it potted up until 2015, I knew it needed to be in the ground. In 2015 and 2016 it remained relatively small, but in the beginning of the 2017 season took on a huge growth spurt. For the first time it set on about fifty buds and of course I was looking forward to seeing all those gorgeous blooms, the timing wasn’t good, because about the time those buds were beginning to open we had over ten inches of rain in a short period of time. In 2018 the blooms opened okay, they were a very pale color, almost white. It’s out of the ordinary to have that much rain here in a short period of time. I’m not sure why they weren’t their usual pink color in spring 2018. I live about sixty miles west of Tulsa, our weather is very similar. Tulsa Rose Society says SdlM is the best OGR for their area. I believe it’s proven itself here also, just had a couple of beginning seasons that were out of the ordinary, and when the bush itself was coming into its own. It is very healthy.

Dug out my favorite picture of SDLM. Taken a day or so apart. I so want this rose back!

What do you guys think of SDLM as a climber? Does the climbing version bloom any less?

I always go for the climber when something is offered as a bush or a climber..I dont know why lol.

My next door neighbour has the climbing version; it's growing in a rather shady spot and has a bare/ leggy/ not very fully leafed look. It seems to have just two main flowering times, in spring and autumn with just the odd bloom in between.

I planted one of my "bush" SDLM next to a trellis and have let it climb up the trellis. It blooms about as much as the bush. That is in my hot climate where roses get gigantic though.

The climbing sport of 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' blooms far less than the shrub version: basically a decent spring flush, then a little burst of bloom again in the fall that's about 20% of the spring flush. This is not a good choice for climates where the spring bloom season tends to be damp and cool, as the odds of ever getting a nice bloom are incredibly low. Last year we had a fairly warm spring, so I got to see 6 nearly perfect blooms on my climbing version, which was the first time in a decade.

Hmmm maybe I need the bush and the climber then. No cool springs here.

My Climbing SDLM's have about three bloom cycles per year. The bush SDLM have about 5. In my desert climate, the canes on the climber were well covered with those pretty blooms. It was difficult to train (stiff canes) or it was just my being not so skilled in terms of working with climbers.

Try giving it some extra blood meal/bone meal. .