On Sun, 15 Jun 2003 09:33:13 -0700, Cass
wrote:

dave weil wrote:


Sombreuil has been an underperformer for me (mainly due to the lack of
afternoon sun I think) but that works well for its location, which is
fairly limited in size anyway.

I like mine okay except for the fact that it ages so ugly. I love the
blushy center. But I am not really attracted to roses with 9,000 itsy
bitsy petals. It is a lot more shallow-cupped than I had thought it
would be.

My problem with Sombreuil stems from the fact that it was a spindly
little thing when I got it (part of the reason that I don't order from
Vintage Gardens any more). It's done surprisingly well in its third
season, and, as I've said, it's probably for the best, although I hope
to eventually create a wall of rose on the porch. I've got 10 foot
canes, but the ends aren't very vigorous.

I also have it own root from Vintage and so far, it is a 5 foot shrub.

Really disappointing, eh? Have you had better luck with other Vintage
Garden roses?

You're way ahead if you have 10 foot cane. My budded Sombreuil tends
to throw relatively show basals but then continuing laterals that are
pretty long. I've heard that you should feed it a lot ("push it" is the
expression used).

So far, laterals have been pretty anemic. However, I've noticed a
second one that's popped up that I just noticed.

a vigorous stand of mint.

We call this redundant. ;~)

Yes, I suppose so.

I guess I'm disappointed that it hasn't been nearly as vigorous as CB,
which was planted at the same time. CB has been really amazing in
terms of coverage. Here's a recent pic:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/ddweil2/CBJune10.jpg

If you want a tree climber, how about a rambler mixed in there with a
rebloomer? Long John Silver throws 12 to 16 foot canes the first
summer. Ahh, myrrh scent, white white blooms with tons of petals, in
clusters.

Here's a cluster from a distance with a visitor posing:

http://home.earthlink.net/~cbernstei...knLongJohn.jpg

Here's a bunch stuffed in a vase of other other once bloomers:

http://home.earthlink.net/~cbernstei...ges/Oncers.jpg

Closeup actually in focus, unlike the others:

http://www.rosefog.us/imagesJtoZ/LongJohnSilver2.jpg

It's a species hybrid, so it should be hardy for you.

I created a new gallery that shows Sombreuil. It's a huge gallery
because I used most of my June 2003 Week 2 folder and I was too lazy
to prune it (just like my gardening skills. You'll see lots of
redundent images and some wildy differing exposures, because none of
the shots without dedicated names, i.e. Yard001, etc. have been
tweaked in any way.

To go to the Sombreuil shots, jump to #192 and keep going. You'll see
the growth habits, to include the rather weenie ends, ends that sort
of taper off into nothingness.

Also, you see in contrast, how vigorous Old Blush and The Fairy
climbers are. On 198, you can see the 9 foot cane arching to the sky,
and it's only one of about 8 5ft + new canes. The Fairy also has lots
of new vigorous canes.

If you go through the entire gallery, you can see what the gardens
have looked like in the past week. As I said, there are a few
redundent shots, so be patient. Of course, to fit the shots on my web
site, I had to reduce the size. Also, there may be a few shots that
were shot with portrait orientation and need to be rotated, but I
don't have time to go through, so you'll likely see a few sideways
shots.

....a few minutes later...

Well, I *was* going to post this gallery, but unfortunately it's about
260 megs, even having downsized the pics groan

Guess I'm going to have to do some pruning.

Then again, can I zip it down and still have it display properly?
Anyone have any tactics about this sort of thing?