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Recent Questions, Answers and Comments
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my tip - follow the smell!
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madame bérard should be without prickles!
the loubert's version is clearly not and has great resemblance with 'comtesse de noghera/ mme jules gravereaux' from other sources.
a mixup had occurred of adam and mme bérard at beales' roses in the past, if i remember well, when they sold erranously a non-prickley "adam", and so did afterwards a good number of nurseries.
loubert's rose is definitely another thing and may have come from the l'hay-les-roses-collection where i saw a prickly madame bérard 15 years ago.
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Fellow rose growers,
I'm trying to determine if a plant which I encountered in a friend's garden in South Norfolk, England back in 2014 was actually a 'Norma Major'. If there were any visible differences to NM I would say the blooms might've been of lighter weight (since they didn't lean outwards as the photos on these pages seem to show NM doing) and maybe of a slightly deeper (though dullish and non-vibrant) orange-pink. It's a little hard to tell from the photos here if there is much orange tone in the flowers.
Every colourfast bloom of 4 inches diameter looked almost lantern-shaped and kept that perfect form as shown in Beth's photo of NM (Id. 128065) not flattening out into discs of wavy petals like 'Duke of Windsor' (and which is a much shorter plant).
Question: Are NM's flowers any wider than 4 inches? That would definitely rule it out.
At least 5 feet tall (like NM), the prickly plant was open, rather sparsely foliated and was braced against an exposed south-facing wooden shed by a single horizontal wire.
The immediate smell of the flower was only of mild 'rosiness' but curiously, when I put 2 in a vase of water, the next sunny morning the entire downstairs atmosphere had been flooded with an exotic 'buoyant' aroma of sweet strawberry mousse, other fruits and a hint of lime. That fragrance greeted me halfway down our stairs from behind a closed door and 2 rooms away. This phenomenal scent production is the reason I am posting here for help, being similar to (but more pleasing than) the 'Special Anniversary' rose of 2003 by Edward Smith UK but I stress: NOT big, cabbage-like blooms as with SA, Fragrant Cloud etc.
The blooms lasted 5-8 days in the vase practically keeping their full scent - then the petals dropped cleanly.
I noticed that although in the Description page it says just 'mild' and 'sweet', the Norma Major rose has 2 member ratings of 'Excellent' for its fragrance.
Any other suggestions for the ID. or is NM the one I'm looking for?
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Reports of this rose being "nearly thornless" are far from accurate. It's a Hybrid Bracteata and it has a fair amount of straight, needle-like thorns that can be a handling hazard. It has a very light fragrance that only some people can detect. It requires a bit of imagination to declare it "fragrant'.
That said, it is an exceptionally good rose and grows with abandon with minimal care, yet rarely exceeds a 2.5 foot rounded, mannerly shrub. But you have to be a fan of this particular coral hue to appreciate it. Mr. Moore was particularly fond of coral colors and it appears often in his work. (Its does fade quite a bit by the time it's done)
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