A little while ago, I mentioned to my friend who shares my rose passion, that I can finally say that I'm starting to feel satisfied with my assortment of roses. I have approximately 50 varieties, with a few repeats. that said, ...sigh...I need Grandmother's Hat. 🤔. 😊 yep...I need that rose!

I remember reading that Annie was given her GMH by Barbara Worl herself. All the roses at Annie's are own root -- they are all propagated there at the nursery, and I don't think they do any grafting. So I'm surprised that a rose from Annie's was grafted. I wonder what the explanation is.

Jackie, I'm so glad to read about your spring cutting back/cleaning up of your GMH. I'm in SF and have also had the "crud" after a beautiful bloom. I think I'll do as you did and see what results.

My GMH was the first to bloom this year, and gosh, what a wonderful and much-needed joy to have those roses, and to be able to share some with my house-bound neighbor. Such a wonderful rose, and even with some "crud" and a period of nudity after blooming, it's one of the healthiest in my challenging situation, and I would never be without it. Time to propagate some more to share . . . .

I also have a baby GMH that resulted from simply sticking a cutting that I cut clumsily by mistake from the mother. The baby is still in a much too small pot, but it is strong and healthy produced a number of blooms. I don't have room to plant a bunch of GMHs, but I totally understand why Jeri has a dozen!

Lesli, yes--you must have GMH!

Sheba

This morning I did dig down to try and get to the place where Dr. Huey was coming off the GH rose, and I found it and cut off the Dr. Huey bits, and put a nice layer of compost all around both GH bushes. Hopefully DH will not reappear - I don't care how it happened, but I was certainly surprised!

Jeri - I was happy to hear that yours puts out a lot of GH suckers too - not having to propagate this rose, because it propagates itself, is yet another great benefit of it, along with the amazing blooms which keep coming back until Nov, and the astounding fragrance.

Jackie

Jackie -- that may be why it survived having been long-forgotten. It's tough, and it suckers just enough to be a survivor, but not enough to be annoying.

I actually asked Annie's where they got their GramHats ... since I have 3 different clones, I like to keep track of such things. And they told me also that they got it from Barbara Worl. So this is what I think of as the "Bay Area" clone ... and it probably matches my Mare Island "Northside Pink" clone.

These are all the "Limberlost" clone.

I will post some pics of mine after it clothes itself and starts blooming again, which, from past experience, will be soon!

Jackie

Does anyone know where I can get a Grandmother's Hat? everywhere I have found them, they are out of stock.😕

Lesli, I just bought it from Burlington Roses. Check with Burling to see if she has any more...

I just got a catalogue from Annie's Annual's, and there is an add for GH in it (own root!).

Jackie

Jackie,

On Saturday I cut some canes back a good bit and stripped off "cruddy" leaves from my GMH. I am hoping that she will spring back with new healthy growth as quickly as yours does--eager to see how she responds! Last year, there was a very long stretch where she looked sad and nearly naked, then finally she leafed out and bloomed again; this spring flush was the best ever. So I'm really hoping for a good result. I also need to give everyone a nice compost dressing and some fish brew -- they always love that, and I'm way behind schedule.

Thanks for the inspiration!

Sheba

Just wanted to add that my GMH did indeed respond very well to the cutting back I did and stripping off of cruddy leaves. Very quickly I saw some new sprouts and now, 20 days later, she has leafed out very nicely and there are new buds starting. Thank you, Jackie, for the inspiration! I think after the next bloom I might cut stems back even lower, to try to inspire more bushy growth. My plant is quite bare-legged up to the last 2 feet or so of growth, so I'm hoping cutting back (and maybe training canes somewhat more horizontally along the chain-link fence she is planted in front of) might help. But this is already a very big improvement. As I recall after last year's first flush, she did next to nothing for many more months and looked sad and mostly naked.

GH is very trainable and prunable to keep shorter, in my experience. Just go for it!

Jackie

For the first few years we had "Grandmother's Hat", we pruned it every year, rather as you would prune a Grandiflora. It responded well to that.

Interesting, Jeri! I really don't know much about pruning (even less about Grandifloras), and as a rose newbie, when I read that the old roses in general don't care for or need much pruning, I was relieved. But now I see that GMH and probably some of my other roses would do better with more snipping than they've gotten. Yours are so very full and leafy! I cut back about 2 feet overall but I think after the next bloom I'll do the same again and see if she won't respond by leafing out below the waist. ;p

To be honest, it doesn't bother me in the least that roses are bare toward the base. (My husband once remarked that Hybrid Teas were "ugly plants with bare bottoms".) But one way to address that is to plant low, leafy, shrubby things down there.

My go-tos for cane modesty: Culinary sage makes a great, semi evergreen ( and edible) cover for naked legs. I'm a big fan of Salvia officinalis 'Purpurea'...because it's purple. Lavender is another helpful, evergreen-ish, culinary bare bottom cover, and I like that it's not one-size-fits-all. For Marchesa Boccella, Lavandula angustifolia is enough to get the job done. Some Hybrid Teas, tall HPs and older plants of whatever variety can be 50-75% bare thorny canes, and for those I like to plant Lavandula 'Grosso'. BIG lavender. Carol

P.S. I'm lovin' all the Grandmother's Hat photos, and the fact that GH is out Dr. Hueying Dr. Huey. What a great rose!

Portland! Just the sort of thing I'm thinking of! Right on target!

Jeri, Carol, those are all good ideas for underplantings--thank you.

It's not really that I don't care for the leggy look -- it's more that my plant is so very sparse. She was at @ 6.5 feet tall, with greenery only above @ 4 feet; and there are only a few canes. When she's blooming -- seems like a nice quantity of bloom for the greenery, but I want to see more leaves. That's really the issue. I think the snipping back will do the trick, tho--she's really leafed out.

I really don't know much about pruning and such and have mostly avoided it -- but only about a week ago, I did a lot of cutting to the rose that's been winning the "Most Miserable in My Collection" prize -- Dupuy Jamain. And -- incredible -- that rose is already showing a LOT of fresh new growth, after doing next to nothing for the past 2 years except mildew and blackspot and rust!

Going to try this on a few of my other struggling/loser plants and see how they manage.

Strategic pruning really CAN be useful!