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'The Gem' rose Reviews & Comments
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Initial post
23 DEC 13 by
hebe
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HMF, wondering if you would amend your listing of MvH as 'shade tolerant'. I have it growing right under a jacaranda (raised terrace, so not too much root competition). It has been there nearly 3 years, and is now sizeable (about 4' high by 7' wide, and would be almost twice that width if a possum hadn't eaten shoots on first planting). It flowers almost non-stop.
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Marie Van Houtte, Tea. From Richmond, Va.
Plainly a very great favorite of the old books, depicted frequently. The shape of the bloom is very nice, the coloring basically white, sometimes yelowish, but most attractive when touched with a kind of pink. Thus form and color are its advantages, and health. It has too few petals to be a show rose, and has some of the most horrible thorns in the rose garden. My Marie has the additional bad habit of trying to grow sideways for 3' or so, rather than upward. I moved it, more or less sentencing it to death, but it always came back strongly. Very nice, but one's enough.
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Anybody grow this rose in the US along the southeast/mid atlantic blackspot belt? I've requested this be propagated by my favorite rose nursery based on a recommendation in a new book on tea roses and wondered if it is healthy and if it gets as big as the book suggests. I'm hoping people can answer yes to both questions, as I'd like this one to size up and anchor a flower bed at the most prominent corner of my brick ranch house, the sunny southeastern corner that I see as I pull in to my driveway. I'm in Richmond Virginia which is zone 7, but along our brick wall of the house it approaches zone 8 for a microclimate.
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An impressive plant of 'Marie van Houtte' grows in the Mary Kistler Stoney Garden at Tryon Palace in New Bern, NC (hot, humid coastal location). The health of the foliage throughout the growing season is much better than average, altho it is not sprayed. The plant is easily 7 ft in height and equally as wide. Based on my observations of this plant over several years, I would answer YES to both of your questions. Today (Nov 17 and cold) the plant had several dozen blooms.
Tryon Palace was the home of NC's royal governor during the colonial era. The grounds contain a number of gardens, several of which incorporate OGRs. The Tryon Palace website includes photos of the gardens.
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Thanks for the reply. I went to the web site and that is one impressive garden. I don't fancy formal gardens much, but the photos of the one at Tyron are very beautiful. Alas, no rose pictures, but if she is healthy down there, I think they are even more steamy there than in Richmond. I have Trish at Ashdown Roses propagating Marie van Houtte for me for spring 2009, and I may get two if they have more available so I can give one to a friend to try.
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