Rob,
I just received Postillion and Aprikola. I had been really looking forward to getting Aprikola and then I saw Postillion. With its parentage I thought it should be a good rose. I read some of your posts about it and it seems you weren’t too sure about its disease resistance.
Have you moved it yet? If you have, did it improve its resistance? Have you tried any crosses with it?
By reading more, I think I am also going to get Lion’s Fairy Tale, Sterntaler, and Chinatown.
Thanks,
Mike
Hi Mike,
Postillion is still in the same spot. It is a big shrub now (I forgot to prune it this spring) and has some pretty flowers on it now. Disease resistance is average. It defoliated 50% this year, which a quite a heavy BS year. So I’m not completely disappointed since I have completely naked roses also. Giving it a better spot will probably improve it’s resistance as well. It certainly looks better than Lichtkonigin Lucia (80% defoliation in a better spot) from which it is derived.
Lion’s Fairy Tale is a nice rose, and very resistant to BS. However, it is a bit susceptible to mildew. This is normally not much of a problem in my area, but this rose gets it here. So if you have a lot of mildew, I would choose something else.
Chinatown was horrible here, completely defoliated. I removed it from my garden this spring. Its parent, the much sought after Clare Grammerstorf, is even worse though. It’s completely naked now. There are much better yellow roses and I no longer see any reason to go back to these old yellow varieties. (They also fade badly).
I still need to try Sterntaler. Maybe Pierre has something to say about it? For other yellow Kordes roses you could try Gelber Engel (big floribunda, flowers are not perfectly formed, but good rebloom on large clusters and good, but not perfect, BS resistance) or Sunstar (introduced last year, also floribunda, don’t have it yet). Would be interesting to cross them with Julia Child and see what comes of that…
Let me know how your Aprikola is doing! For me it’s still a rose immune to everything we get here and seedlings show above average resistance too. Try to cross it with something that is resistant to anthracnose or cercespora (can’t remember which is which), because my seedlings, although free of BS, do get this stuff.
Rob
I grow Gelber Engel and cannot say it has a nice habit as it throws 1,5m long stiff upright to arching canes. Health and strength are very good. Flower could be better. Yellow is far better than Tequila’s one. Fertility, germinability untested. Sets many OP hips.
I do not grow Sterntaler as Kordes does not consider it very BS resistant: 3 stars out of 4 that is not enough for me.
Aprikola with the same 3 stars out of 4 rating does well for Rob and after two tries (different year and location) never overgrew BS for me…
If you find a good one just let me know as I am looking for some also…
Taming Rugelda is what I do actually.
And I consider going back to foetida.