This plant has over the space of 5 years (with 3 years in establishment phase) grown to a 2 m x 2m tree like shrub, able to support itself. Produces abundant hips, and is drought proof after establishment. In country QLD, zone 9b. At 5 years old it puts on a magnificent display regularly with deadheading, and produces a gorgeous sweet rose scent and carpet of petals beneath. Thick, rigid canes.
This is quickly becoming one of my favourite roses. A bare root plant potted in a 20 litre container in the winter gave me 28 blooms the following spring, of such perfect quartered formation (with reflexing petals), as to give any Souvenir de la Malmaison a run for its money. The colour is a classy shade of pink, and the scent very sweet, strong, and addictive, like face cream with a hint of tea. Does it always perform this well in this country, or is it a fluke due to this year's perfect weather? And if it is such an outstanding performer (we'll see about remontancy, I guess) why is this rose so obscure on this side of the Atlantic?
Hello. I have it in a 20 litre pot, so my conditions control the growth more than an open ground location would. With that proviso, it has grown fairly tall in one season (I have had it for almost exactly one year). I have trained/wound it around three tall bamboo canes tied at the top to form an obelisk about 190cm high. The rose now covers about 2/3 of it. So I'd say it climbs, but quite gently, it is not a rampant grower and it hasn't thrown up any massive canes (at least in its first year, and in a pot). Incidentally, it would still have some unopened blooms on it if I hadn't pruned them off in December.
Blossomtime is one of my 3 "desert island" roses if I could only have three. Presently growing it in Richmond, VA. When it was introduced shortly after WW2, it was listed as a Climber but quickly fell out of favor because it didn't climb. It is better grown as a free standing shrub. I find it to be very healthy, after the first flush always gives you blooms and when they open up have that full look and remain that way a descent time.and in fact I have one bud (frozen) on the bush now and it is mid December. Reminds me of Radiance in its two-toned pink blossom but has a higher center. This was one of the early New Dawn crosses after WW2 and one of the best in my opinion.
The first time I saw Blossomtime was at Sissinghurst garden in England. There is an old plant covering a large section of the side of the main house, a lovely old brick building. When I saw it (now many years ago) it was in full bloom and simply covered in the most lovely pink roses I had ever seen. The sight of those silvery pink flowers against the warm tudor brick was stunning and the memory of it is still vivid after 20 years. I haven't planted this rose in my garden because I don't have room for one, but I often think I should create space for one. It is truly one of the loveliest of all climbing roses.
