October 29th, 2009
Rose ‘Blush Noisette’
2009-10-29. Rose ‘Blush Noisette’. Zanthan Gardens
Update: October 29, 2009
After our month of rain, roses all over Austin are blooming in profusion. I see ‘Knockout’ roses on every corner. I’m not a fan of their cherry red color so I don’t have any. I much prefer the baby pink of my old-fashioned ‘Blush Noisette’.
‘Blush Noisette’ has survived both the 2006 and 2008/9 droughts and seems as happy as ever. However, 2009 was the first summer that it didn’t bloom much. I kept watering it and cut back some of the old growth to the ground. When the fall rains came, it tripled in size and this week has begun blooming profusely.
It has not quite reached the size or number of flowers that it did in rainy 2007 but it’s getting there. If you live where the water is plentiful, it will thrive. If you don’t, it will survive happily, not just grudgingly.
April 23, 2007. This is the biggest ‘Blush Noisette’ has ever gotten.
The best thing about the fall bloom is that dry cool weather alternates with the rains–and so the flowers haven’t succumbed to their usual tendency to ball.
Dateline: November 9, 2003
‘Blush Noisette’ has a baby powder fragrance that wafts on the breeze. It’s the only rose I have which surprises me with unexpected whiffs of scent that I can smell even if I’m digging weeds 10 feet away. In my garden, it’s is in bloom more than any other rose, even in the heat of summer.
The pale pink flowers bloom in little nosegays. Unfortunately they don’t open at once. And the individual blossoms frequently ball (turn brown before opening as shown in the photo below). They don’t seem to ball in wet weather like ‘Souvenir del Malmaison’. I think they do it if I haven’t kept up with my watering. This bunch opened over a week where it which began dry in the 90s and ended drizzling in the 40s. ‘Blush Noisette opened its biggest flowers ever in the cold drizzle.
I grow ‘Blush Noisette’ as a freestanding bush rose. It has formed a nice vase shape about three feet cubed.
Update: 2018-03-18
I prune, weed, feed, and water rose ‘Blush Noisette’ which is starting to have buds. She is getting just too much shade from the Texas mountail laurel. I’ll try to open those up a bit.
by M Sinclair Stevens
November 10th, 2003
I have a friend who grows literally hundreds of roses on what used to be his family’s large farm. He had one “set” of Blush Noisettes that never opened. He gave them away and got “another set” from a different vendor. These are totally different and have done fine. He has ten now, gave the other ten to a park in Florida.
October 29th, 2009
What a beauty! My roses all seem to peak in the summer–clearly I need to pick up some new bushes to spread the blooms into the fall.
Where do you live? In Austin, roses can suffer from heat and drought during the summer. They bloom best in the spring and fall when the daytime highs are in the more temperate 70-80 degree range. I often have roses blooming at Christmas. As long as we don’t have a hard freeze, it is the amount of rain that seems to make the biggest difference. Roses also like an inch of water a week which is hard to come by here in the summer. — mss
October 29th, 2009
Your Blush Noisette is a delicate beauty and she’s looking wonderful right now. How nice to have that soft scent surrounding you while you’re pulling weeds.
October 29th, 2009
Beautiful.
October 29th, 2009
Great testimonial for this rose! I’ll see if I have a spot for one. I do love my Knock Out, but I am a definite fan of these old soft pinks and fragrance.
Her flowers are a bit messy so she’s not an ideal cutting rose but she smells so sweet. A great landscape rose. — mss
October 30th, 2009
It’s such a lovely, old-fashioned thing. I’m glad it made it through the drought and rebounded with beauty.
October 30th, 2009
I’m looking forward to seeing the feature on your garden on KLRU feed after it airs. Nice preview on CTG blog.
October 30th, 2009
Your first pic looks like a flower encircled with rosebud satellites. Roses have been an acquired taste for me and your bloom in orbit has furthered my interest -thanks!
October 30th, 2009
Oh, what a sweetie she is. That delicate coloring, and I could smell the baby-powder scent as you described it. Nice!