My GdM had been struggling for a couple of years. Leaves are large and delicate and easily damaged in windy weather. It didn't help that last year I was very inconsistent with spraying my roses with sulphur rose. This spring, when it became apparent that growth was not what it should be, I pulled the plant out of the large pot it was sharing with Warrawee (I figured root competition wasn't helping either) and repotted it in an 18 litre pot of its own, in pure coconut coir. I remembered how well it did in coir when I first got it. I also moved the pot to a more sheltered, warm spot. With the co-operation of unbelievably (for England) good summer weather and kelp-based bio-stimulants as foliar spray, the rehabilitative programme has worked really well.

There are three disadvantages to coir, compared to soil-based compost: it degrades over time and needs replacing; even if buffered, eventually it seems to affect the nutrient balance available to the rose; and if you have vine weevils in your garden, they will thrive in it. That means replacing the coir every third or perhaps fourth year and being diligent with weevil control measures (I use nematodes). The pluses are that in my experience, in climates such as mine, some roses (such as teas or non vigorous earlier hybrid teas) respond well to it -- they simply seem to grow faster. I imagine that, as a light and airy medium, it is conducive to the formation of fine feeding roots.

Introduced in the UK by the Wheatcroft Brothers.

Ref. 1960 Wheatcroft Brothers Rose Catalogue

I love Grace de Monaco, and I find it crazy that Peter Beales seems the only nursery still selling it. It’s a superior rose in all respects. The first plant I got failed to establish well and I threw it away, but the one I got the following year took off beautifully and is vigorous. I grow my roses in pots. I grew GDM in coir for a couple of years and it did very well, but this winter I switched to soil-based compost. It is still doing very well and has buds on it right now that will open in a few weeks. The scent is what rosarians describe as tea. Not a smoky tea like Lady Hillingdon, but very sweet, pure tea (no fruitiness, no floral notes). It is also nice and strong. The flowers are large and packed with petals that have a silky sheen. They are beautiful fully open, and have an old fashioned look. From memory they last quite a long time. The whole plant has a refinement that makes it look a little like a tea rose, though it’s more erect and tidy than a typical tea, yet without the rigidity of some hybrid teas.