I plan to buy Andre le Notre (Betty White) and Jardins de Bagatelle in the near future. This despite my dislike of the apricot or yellow petal bases seen in some, but not all, of their photos and mentioned in some, but not all, references. (Actually, apricot or yellow petal bases occur in French white/light pink roses going back at least to Ophelia, through Michele Meilland to the two presently considered.) In the HMF photos of Andre le Notre and Jardins de Bagatelle some appear with these colored petal bases and some appear merely light pink. The apricot effect is usually more pronounced when Andre is more fully open, but some photos (Olya_A and Vollmer) show it open with little or no visible apricot. Two photos from the same grower (Aprille) show Andre both ways. My question is when or why does this occur? Could it be different plants of these roses? More likely, could the lighting for the photos play a role? Most likely, does the weather, i.e., temperature (geographically, seasonally or daily), affect this difference? Mike, Michigan
In reply to your question about André le Nôtre, the apricot colouring on some photos must come from the lighting. Though, I wonder if there are not also variations according to where the rosebush was bought. Henrique Rodrigues is always very good on colours, his photos corresponding to the true colours ... but his photos of André le Nôtre don't look like mine at all. Mine came from Meilland directly, here in France. It is actually a very nice pale pink, with a slight apricot tinge at the base of the petals. Not a 'baby pink' like Savoy Hotel, but pink ... (Difficult to describe colours!) And a good strong rosebush with loads of flowers. Highly scented. The only problem is that the blooms get spoilt with rain and actually tend to get stuck and not open if the weather is very wet. I haven't got Jardins de Bagatelle personally, but from what I have seen when visiting Meilland's fields it isn't pink ... It is described by Meilland as creamy white with a slight pink tinge. If you are looking for a true pink, how about Savoy Hotel? A smaller rosebush, with less scent, but a good one!
