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'Léonidas' rose Reviews & Comments
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Here in South Africa, Leonidas is said to be quite touchy about its care, being a florists' rose, & is hard to acquire for the garden. My one planted last year has thrown up a few absolutely exquisite blooms (even to giving me florists' colour in the autumn with the cooler temperatures) but has not proven to be a strong grower, despite getting the same care, sun, compost, mulch, fertiliser, spraying & water as the others that are getting quite carried away with themselves & have to be hacked back periodically. We are not in an especially hot or dry area of South Africa.
Are there any tips as to what Leonidas really, really wants in life?
I have just bought another one from a different source just in case the original is just not a happy camper in general.
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#1 of 6 posted
3 DEC 07 by
Unregistered Guest
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This one has truly beautiful blooms, and mine has the most novel coloration in the early spring and fall when temperatures are cooler (as does Hot Cocoa). When I got my plant, the nurseryman said it was "not a beginner's rose" and needed a lot of care (by which he meant disease control). Mine hasn't taken off either. It is definitely hurt his year by downy mildew, which is especially bad in my area this year. I think it's just not a particularly robust rose, but I'd love to be proven wrong!
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Thank you both for sharing your experience with HMF.
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We've been growing this rose for at least 5 years in my mom's east San Diego, California garden, and we now have 3 of them, as I also thought "we must've got a bad specimen" twice. Leonidas is just not a strong grower here either, and it is the first rose in the garden to get mildew and rust, both. And we do spray with the exhibitor's routine of exotic spray materials. That's what the nursery guy meant when he said "it's not a beginner's rose." It's definitely NOT "set if and forget it." And none of the three plants have ever had more than one or two surviving basal canes at any one time.
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Despite the introducers' claims that Leonidas is a good garden rose for virtually any garden in the Los Angeles area a few years ago in rose society meetings, this rose is one which was chosen specifically for its performance under glass. Those wonderful colors only appear when temperatures and duration of light are tightly controlled, or when your outdoor conditions closely replicate them. It is NOT a strong grower under most garden conditions and, in my experience, in an area where disease is not usually problematic, it does require chemical intervention to be anywhere near "acceptable". I love the odd colors and jumped at the chance to grow Leonidas when it first became available. It languished here for two years until I delighted in cutting the plants up for the trash.
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A friend of the abbey gave me Leonidas about 7-8 years ago, and I was not happy. I knew it to be a touchy, weak grower, and I didn't want that color anyway in a garden that largely featured pale Teas and English roses. I put it in a spot on a hill, out of the way, and ignored it, except that I fed it like the rest of the roses, gave it periodic watering, and didn't really prune it in January. I must say, after year 5, it started putting out thick basal canes, and is vigorous now. It blooms a lot, and is garden worthy - it just took a long time. It is a rose that likes plenty of compost and regular feeding with good deep watering every week or so. I was very surprised at how it took off. It is mildew prone in the climate I live in, but not too badly. Overall, Leonidas has been a nice surprise in the garden here.
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#6 of 6 posted
8 AUG 17 by
 jmile
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I think that you hit the nail on the head when you said that you don't pamper this rose. Mine grows big and healthy too. I water deeply every 2+ weeks. I throw horse stall and chicken droppings on this and others of my roses sporadically when I clean up after the animals. There is a mixture of alfalfa, wood shavings and pine needles also in the waste mixture. We are very hot and humidity is usually in the 20's. I do not spray my roses. This roses survives just fine when others die. We had irrigation problems last year when our Irrigation District lost some of their old old concrete pipes. This and other of my roses spent August and September without water. It survived when others did not.
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Initial post
29 MAY 17 by
jmile
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I will give you the formula for growing this rose. Live in Brentwood California. My Leonides gets very hot temperatures in the Summer and it loves it. The colors are magnificent as is its form. It is never sprayed and had beautiful healthy leaves. I throw some old alfalfa/horse manure from the barn on it along with other roses. Sometimes I just wonder if the plants used in the production of a particular rose have lost something over the years. I know that very few current Peace roses in the nurseries are like my Grandmother's original Peace rose. They have lost something in translation.
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Out of all my roses, this has been by far the poorest performer. It's slow to grow, the blooms have bull-nosed every time, and unfortunately if it gets any sun at all the color is a garish lava orange shade and nothing like the photos. I have sprayed, fed, watered, cooed, sang to, and otherwise pampered this rose and it just won't thrive. I will be moving it to a greenhouse for a second chance at life before I give up on it completely, but I wouldn't recommend this as a variety for someone who doesn't want to dote on it for exhibition or some other reason. It's a real shame as it truly does try to bloom, but the plant itself is just terrible. Mine is an ownroot and that may have something to do with it.
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The following was copied from US Plant Patent 9997 for `Meicofum` aka, Leonedias.
"The female parent (i.e., the seed parent) of the new variety was the `Krimony` variety (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 8,845). The male parent (i.e., the pollen parent) was the `Mme. A. Meilland` variety (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 591). The `Mme. A. Meilland` variety commonly is known as the `Peace` variety. The parentage of the new variety can be summarized as follows:
`Krimony`.times.`Mme. A. Meilland`."
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