Faux-thello

Most of the roses in my garden come from mail-order clearance sale bareroot stock: Rosa rugosa 'Blanc Double de Coubert' (I think this name is almost its own anagram) and 'Rosaraie de l'Haÿ (of the famous diaeresised-y), David Austin English roses 'Bibi Maizoon' (the most beautiful pink cabbage, smelling like a parfumerie), 'Redouté' and 'Graham Thomas', and the pert, perfect polyanthas 'Fairy' and 'Red Fairy'. This past season, they took to the garden and strutted their stuff, oblivious to the fact that they were acquired almost as afterthoughts.

I've been pleased with the selection and bargains in the end-of-season offerings, but I'm pretty sure the rose pictured above (in a photo from late summer) is a mix-up. It was supposed to be the David Austin English rose 'Othello', a rose of dark crimson and tall habit. This one got to maybe thirty inches tall in a south-facing border, and look at it: there's no hint of the brooding Moor...at best it's a sunburnt Hibernian. It flowered sparsely, in a muddy dark pink and with an uneventful fragrance. We'll see if it demonstrates other redeeming qualities next season, but for me it will forever be tarred with the name 'Faux-thello'.

Comments

[Patricia Tryon]

Grafted, or own root?

[Kathy]

I was wondering the same thing: if it was grafted stock and the graft died and you're only getting the rootstock. I don't know much about roses, but as with any plant, in the end it doesn't matter what the name is, but whether or not you like it.

[Chan S.]

If I remember correctly, it was grafted stock. So far my reaction to this rose is "meh", but I might like it better in a different location punched up with interesting companions. We'll see.

[Fred]

Wow, I have a Bibi and an Othello too. (I know. It's so *wrong*.) The Bibi bud looks great but I've been disappointed by the way the bush gets leggy and droops. It can't seem to keep its buds out of the dirt.

This was a bad year for the Othello, at least in S.E. Michigan. The stalks didn't get as tall as last year. The Othello blooms are *huge* and fragrant with citrus, but when they fade they turn fuscia which is not what I wanted. (The photo in the Wayside Gardens catelog looked like a nice deep burgundy.)

Looking at your photo, all I can say is, that could be it. I need a sense of scale; are those blooms mamoth-sized? If not, it's the faux.

[Chan S.]

The blooms are medium- to smallish, on stumpy canes, and they come out in (and stay) a fuschia that's somewhat muddier than what the photo portrays, so...faux-geddaboutit. (Sorry.) On the other hand, I am very happy with Bibi. I am a *big* fan of its cabbage-rose bloom and its exotic fragrance. Interestingly, its first bloom this spring had the nodding opium-addict problem, but the reblooms (on longer canes) later in the summer managed to defy gravity.