She is smashing! I love that color ♡

What a fabulous color!!

Gorgeous!

What a sight for sore eyes!!!

I loved that rose so much when I had it, except when it needed trimming as it had the most wicked thorns of any rose I ever had. Nothing smells better than this rose.

Ooooh!! I wish I could smell those gorgeous roses!! Great, vibrant color!

Absolutely lovely. But in TX, do you need to spray it?

I ask, because in out SoCal coastal conditions it was incredibly subject to fungal disease. The only rose I can recall that blackspotted, rusted, and mildewed all at the same time.

In Austin I didn't spray last year at all we had tremendous heat.

MIP is one of the only roses I ever had to shovel prune. In our cool and frequently damp and rainy Springs, it balled horribly - 100% of the blooms. Initially, I would hand open the blooms every morning, but got tired of that. I was very sorry to finally get rid of it (I left it growing for 3+ years to see if it would improve, but the balling continued through the Summer, even though our summers are totally dry), because when I hand forced the blooms open, some were the most gorgeous blooms I had ever seen. Just mentioning this so people will try to find out how this rose acts in THIER area.

Jackie

In 2015 the Telegraph newspaper in the UK named Madame Isaac and Variegata to their top 19 garden roses list. Madame Isaac was number 1. It grows well in Austin and in England.

One of my favorite roses when I lived in the Bay Area was the Bourbon, Reine Victoria. It was grown by Schwartz and released in 1872. It was named for Queen Victoria of Great Britain. It was originally called the Shell Rose, for obvious reasons when one looks at the cupped flowers with shell-like petals. The flowers are carmine-pink, which age to pink with a strong fragrance with around 30 petals. It blooms in medium to large, double small clusters, with a cupped, globular bloom form. Reine Victoria blooms in flushes throughout the season. The unique fragrance is strong, yet light and sweet - fruity -at the same time. It might be my favorite as far as scent is concerned. Its growth is upright with long vertical canes growing to 8ft. The canes are rather brittle and can break from the base if you try to bend them too fast. In appearance the rose is rather delicate and lacy, the canes need support in windy weather. You can peg the canes for more blooms. I love this rose, but have had plants completed defoliated by blackspot in two days that even destroyed the canes. I have also had problems with thrips who seem to love the buds on the plant like no other rose. They can eat them all up in a few hours. Perhaps a systemic would help, but I try not to use them because I have Satsuma mandarin orange trees and loquats growing in my garden. By the time you see there is a problem, spraying is too late. How depressing when you love a rose like this one! Right now I don't have any Reine Victorias in my garden I can't handle loosing them after all the work of growing them and waiting for the flowers.

Jackie I have not had that problem with Madame Isaac, but I have with I have had great success with another Bourbon, Souvenir de la Malmaison which I only grow in it's climbing form. I balls a lot for me and I have do do the same thing. It seems to me Malmaison has thinner petals. Souvenir has the first blooms in my garden which are white, light pink shading, darker outer petals. It has a strong, and unique tea fragrance. Once you smell it you will never forget it. The flowers are large, 5inches, very double, and are borne in mostly solitary, small clusters, cupped-to-flat, with a wonderful, quartered bloom form. This is a perfect flat cabbage rose. It blooms in flushes throughout the growing season and can even have blooms in December and January. As mentioned already this rose has a problem with flowers balling, especially the early ones in late winter and early spring. It grows without thorns on long, strong canes which I pegg vertically for more flowers. Like all bourbons this rose is best grown on it's own roots, and will clump into a loose bush. I also get short runners on this rose, too, when its on its own roots. I have had mildew problems with this rose, especially if I over fertilize it in and it's a wet spring. Souvenir can take the Texas heat, but the flowers can suffer a little in direct summer sun. They are long-lasting flowers when you leave them on the plant. Thrips seem to like this rose too.

It was grown by Jean Beluze, (1793 - 1869) who lived in Lyon, France and was introduced in 1843. It is said to have obtained its name from its introduction in Russia where it was supposedly grown at Pavlovsk and Tsarskoye Selo in the Imperial and Grand Ducal gardens there as a memory of Josephine's garden in France. Alexander I of Russia was good friends with Josephine and visited her at Malmaison during the war with Napoleon. The Tsar sent his mother plants - especially roses - for her gardens at Pavlovsk from France in 1815. I imagine that Josephine would have given Alexander plants from her famous garden for his wife and mother, but I have never seen this documented anywhere. Roses and lilacs were very important in the Imperial gardens, some plants even had full time guards to protect them in winter. Enormous care was given to them, Nicholas and Alexandra used to visit a rose in their gardens that was said to have dated from the time of Catherine the Great and was over 100 years old. I am not sure how Souvenir might have gotten back to France in 1843 to be released under the name. Alas, I suspect the origin of the name in Russia is a romantic legend.

I want to love Bourbons, I really do. Mme. Ernest Calvat is quite tender here and Reine Victoria is my weakest grower. I want to keep trying but maybe they just hate my climate.

I grew it in Scottsdale, AZ and it took over the east side of house, acting like a climber but very bushy. It was easily 12 ft in both directions and climbed all the way to the roof. It was a monster of a job to trim it both after the spring flush and again in the fall to cut back the summer growth so you could pass by. I'm not sorry we moved and left it behind. But Oh the flowers! There was nothing like it. It loved the heat. The canes would grow up to an inch in diameter. It was no spray and perfectly healthy there.

Gorgeous blooms, Bob!

Mme Isaac is way too big for me to grow her, so I can only imagine her famous fragrance, but I really enjoy seeing pictures of her. Is yours in a pot? I think I see a pot but perhaps that's just nearby. Thanks for sharing those wonderful blooms!

Yes, she is growing - very happily - in a pot - a beautiful italian-style terracotta one

Bob - I thoroughly enjoyed what you shared with us about Bourbons and your take on the ones you love best. What a treat that was! Your pictures are sublime!! :) :)

Jackie - yeah, that would get old fast.

Liz - WOW!

I am also very interested in the roses of ancient Rome and Byzantium -besides my obsession with Bourbons, Damasks and Gallicas.

I am growing MIP in a container (half-barrel), too, successfully so far (5 years), in sort of a pillar arrangement. I'm not planning on a long-term relationship, really; a relatively cheap plant was available from Annie's Annuals so I decided to at least have the experience, as long as it lasted. Blossoms and scents are so sublime. I imagine she wouldn't do well at all in the less-than-ideal native soil conditions here. My impression is that she is a rose that likes nice things and being pampered, which is possible in a container -- lots of Osmocote and water for this one. Healthy, loves the heat.

@Bob Atchison - Pallasart - Hagia Sophia

That is wonderful history about Mme Isaac Pereire. I love that rose. I had it in CA and planted it again last fall 2022 at my new home. I am looking forward to it climbing, it beautiful bloom and raspberry scent! It has long been a favorite OGR of mine w/ it’s delicious-enticing blooms! It seems very hardy-not one brown cane as a newbie from my freezing NY winter. !

Love your calvat, Reine Victoria, and SdLM photos, too!!! Exquisite! Yours do very well!