Have to update my ideas about this rose's vigor. Cut the roots in half last year to give the plant more air and space, and planted the other half, a hoary old dead looking root and thick old trunk in the back (east facing). This spring that dead looking root shot up with incredible vigor, pushed out 4 flowers immediately, despite early shoots eaten by deer. Great vigor. The other half of the rose was cut back hard and sent up about 17 blooms on ramrod straight stems. Wow.
Color: a really pure cool lipstick red, the form is ruffled, and the fragrance is of fresh raspberries, with a bit of greenness in it.
Opening Night is one of the best performing reds I have. It responds best to dead heading back to a solid cane, or it will bloom on weak stems. This year both of my plants have had up to 35 blooms each at any given time. Wonderful cut flower.
I have had the rare thrill only understood by gardeners, when I split a large mystery rose I inherited when I purchased my house in two and discovered the original metal plant tag with it's name in between the two pieces! Turns out this is the rose I have!
I've been trying to cultivate her for 3 years now, with difficulty. The stems are very rigid and upright and the habit is very bushy, with leaf bunches coming right off main stems. Hard to work with without getting scratched, and the density of the foliage makes a wonderful home for insects.
As you'd suspect, she's a total disease and insect magnet; black spot, aphids, thrips, slugs, she has them all, usually at the same time. She's always a mess by the end of June. Defoliating helps somewhat. This rose is growing on the south side of my house, sheltered by an overhang, but still covered in blackspot.
The flowers are thick-petalled, velvety and ruffled, and given singly, borne on long, upright stems. They have a moderate fruity fragrance and are a lovely pure red color with small golden stamens. This looks like it's bred to be a long stemmed rose in a vase.
Comparing her to my other 15 roses, she takes the most work. I did get a nice flush in the spring last year, when I did not prune her at all (although got a puny yield this year for some reason). She has reached about 8 feet at this point and I'm thinking of pruning her all the way down (it's the end of June). Is that a good idea?
I am trying to decide between Opening Night and Cesar Chavez (AKA Beloved). They have the same parentage. For those that have grown both, please tell me what the differences are between the two, is one better than the other? The ones I have seen late in the season at municipal gardens have not made an impression. For what it's worth, I prefer Oklahoma over Mr. Lincoln and am giving Papa Meilland another chance before the shovel. Many thanks.
I would say Opening Night. I prefers which one is disease resistant, better bloom form, frangrant (some say true rose must have fragrance), and do well in your zone. Also I consider AARS rating and/or AARS award, plus HMF members favorite. I picked my roses base on three or more above characteristics. Speaking of red rose, I collected Kardinal85, Love's Magic, Ingrid Bergman, Olympaid, Firefighter, Barkarole, Veteran's Honor and I really want Black Magic-Not recently sold in US. And
Beloved is another offspring of Olympiad and Ingrid Bergman, and I like it MUCH better than Opening Night. Living in a dry climate where blackspot isn't a major problem, I can't speak for its disease-resistance qualities, however..
