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Perpetua: How do you like Cornelia compared to Felicia? Does Felicia has a stronger wafting scent than Cornelia? Thank you.
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#1 of 11 posted
4 JUN 17 by
perpetua
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bit too early to say!I for one can't detect much smell in either of them,perhaps I smelled them at the wrong time of day or maybe they're just too young to have already developed their specific perfume.they are however both worth having.very floriferous and at less than 1y/o,they both made it at minus 17 celsius this winter,with graft protection,naturally,but the branches had no winter dieback.I'm actually more worried about finding a good way to prune them in the future,as I don't want to allow them to develop their natural shape.
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Yes, perhaps too young to develop perfume. Two of my Austin roses: Christopher Marlowe and W.S. 2000 didn't have strong scent until 3rd year. Jay-Jay gave a fantastic tip of pruning old-garden roses RIGHT AFTER BLOOMING. I don't even prune my old garden roses. My zone 5a winter killed Madame Isaac P. to the crown .. she's very short now, but blooms well.
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#3 of 11 posted
4 JUN 17 by
perpetua
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I thought only once flowering roses(those that bloom on old wood)were pruned in summer,right after flowering...I could be wrong,as I have a very limited experience with roses,but aren't hybrid musks supposed to be pruned in the spring,like all repeat-bloomers?
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I wonder why HMF stated "lightly prune or no pruning" for Cornelia and Felicia. If a rose is that small, there's no chance of survival in my zone 5a winter.
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Hello Perpetua and Straw,
I grow a handful of hybrid-musk roses, the only pruning I do to my roses is to remove older wood, any growths that are three years old are removed. In other words they are pruned more like a shrub than a rose. This particularly applies to the more spreading varieties like 'Prosperity' and 'Cornelia' and I sometimes peg down any upright growing shoots to create a better shape and it helps stimulate more growths from the base of the plant.
'Cornelia' is one of my favourites, like 'Prosperity' it grows about 1.5 metres high and about 3 metres across. Out of 'Felicity' and Penelope' I prefer 'Penelope' the best. There is slightly better contrast in the flowers which opening peachy- pink fade into white. And there are the famous pink hips but alas with me they only ever ripen to a pale orange, (sadly none are photographed on HMF). 'Felicity' is slightly more compact and upright, for a grower in a temperate climate with limited space, this is a first class plant. I grow 'Wilhelm' on its own roots, to me this is the least exciting colour and it is one of the most upright hybrid-musks, lacking somehow the elegance of the others but it is constantly in flower.
The hybrid-musks' best attribute has to be their ability to make their best flowering growths at the end of September into October and their most delicious subtle colours with no strong sun to bleach them out. Here I have to say 'Cornelia' excels, great sprays of shoots and wonderful peachy-salmon tints that and absent earlier in the summer.
I would reccommend hybrid-musk roses to any gardener in a cool climate, they are very rewarding easy to grow shrubs.
Andrew.
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Hi Andrew: thank you for your experience with hybrid musk. I will order Cornelia and Penelope as own-roots Is your soil fluffy & acidic, rather than sticky clay (clump up in a large chunk) ?
I'm growing Buff Beauty as a tiny rooting in a pot (with fluffy potting soil), would like to know the best type of soil for hybrid musk. Do hybrid musk prefer acidic & loamy soil? Thanks for any info.
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Hello Straw,
Oh how could I have forgotton 'Buff Beauty'! Yes I grow that one as well, another that has its best flowers in the autumn. My soil is well drained acid loam, but my father grew 'Felicia' on very heavy clay, it was one of the few roses that actually grew for him and my grandmother grew it on almost pure chalk and it grew well for her too.
Andrew.
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Thank you for the info. & really appreciate your experience. I didn't know about Felicia liking clay. Last year I accidentally killed 2 Felicia rootings, by making the potting soil VERY LOAMY (mixing in 3/4 fluffy perlite) .. it was too dry, and they died. Will try rooting Felicia again, this time with less perlite.
I also killed William Morris (gallon-size) by planting in dense & heavy clay, made too wet & acidic with cracked corn. I didn't know that William Morris prefer loamy & neutral pH soil.
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When my father's house was built the constructors shimmed off all the millennia of woodland soil (and sold it) leaving behind very heavy yellow and blue weald clay. The only time it was workable was about three days in spring and the same in the autumn when the consistancey was inbetween plasticine and concrete. No roses grew very well at all, except for 'Felicia'.
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My plant of 'Cornelia' grows most closest to the manner of Maddalena Piccinini's photograph, in my climate it has this pinker colour, rather than almost white. The flowers are slighly smaller than other hybrid-musks but there are more flowers in each spray.
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Andrew: Your father's clay sounds like my sub-clay, below 0.5 meter of black-top-soil. My sub-clay is yellowish/brownish glue, which I dig up and throw away. Water can't drain fast if there's compact & dense clay at the bottom. There's more phosphorus available in your loamy & slightly acidic soil, which enable roses to have deeper pink. Phosphorus shifts bloom to the red-zone. In my alkaline clay, less phosphorus, and the colors are faded.
Our tap water pH is 9, which zaps out phosphorus & potassium, making nutrients & trace elements less available. Nearby rose park: their Abraham Darby gave only 3 blooms in hot weather, and the blooms are whitish beige, rather than pink. Thanks to Perpetua' recommendation of SOLUBLE FERTILIZER NPK 8-16-42, I'm ordering similar SOLUBLE FERTILIZER NPK 8-20-40 (plus trace elements) in this month of hot & dry and no rain.
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