Walmart has 'Hansa', which was a surprise. I picked up two for your yard because I certainly have no good place for them in mine! This is an almost purple, double or triple bloom form and good for hedging - suckers a lot.

I have three Magnificas, and they are definitely not only my favorites, but also the Japanese beetles'. Last summer, during Japanese beetle season, I cut the buds off before they opened. The alternative is for the flowers to turn into a nightmarish, writhing mass of hundreds (probably literally hundreds) of beetles.

Japanese beetles seem to like all my fragrant roses, especially light-colored ones, including my rugosas (but not more so than others). I don't grow the Fru, but she is reported to be very disease resistant here.

Thanks for all of the responses.

Cynthia, it was so kind of you to pick up those Hansa bushes for me -- how did you know that I am partial to purple? Just hold them in your yard for me until I can come get them. Which will probably be right after I pick up those boxes that my mother has been holding for me in her attic. (Since college.)

Julia, Blanc Double de Coubert is the first rose I fell in love with (via photo), and if I had enough room, she'd be the first in my garden plan. Alfie, your vivid description of the writhing masses on your beautiful Magnifcas made me sad. I'll have to do more reading on JBs, I did not realize they had a peak season. I take it that your roses eventually produced new buds later in the summer?

Lori's comment suggests that the JB problem would likely be no greater with Fru Dagmar than with any other rose I'd probably want in my yard (I have a strong preference for fragrant). So I'm leaning toward pushing forward with my plan, but reading up on JBSs first and considering whether milky spore would be appropriate (I saw some mention of this on the JB threads, which I'll have to read more closely).

My front yard is currently completely empty, and my neighbors don't have a lot of plants either, so I have no basis of judging how bad the JB problem is in our little micro-environmnent. If anyone has additional comments regarding JBs and rugosas -- and most especially, any info about Fru Dagmar's growing habits -- I'd be most interested.

Many thanks again -- Kate

Hi,
Two words: Milky Spore. Treat the lawn and beds, kills the grubs that turn into those little nasty JB. Get them early and treat your yard in the spring. Better results if your neighbors treat too. Best price I have found is Costco or Southern States.

Forget the bait traps, that just lures all the JB from the entire neigborhood to your yard.

Suz

I used some kind of Bt treatment I got from Gardener's Supply (you treat in the fall) and I do think I noticed a difference that next summer.

'Blanc Double' is a nice rose--very fragrant, little black spot problems, snow-white.

Kate, don't be too sad about my Magnificas :-). They produce a huge gorgeous flush in June before the beetles, and then they rebloom until frost. So missing out on two months of blooms isn't that bad, and disbudding them isn't that much work.

I'm not sure about the relationship between fragrant and Japanese beetles in my yard. They love the Magnificas, certainly, and they love the fragrant Mrs. Sanford hybrid perpetual, but they're almost entirely uninterested in Darrow's Enigma, which is also quite fragrant AND light-colored.

Hi All: Milky Spore takes several years to develop but it is a great help. I find that rugosas have a few beetles right on top, easy to pick off. Despite my treatment with Milky Spore, I had a few. But they were mainly attracted to my plum tree and the climbing hydrangeas. I'll spray with neem oil on them this year.

I'm also very interested in the Rugosa's, although will probably start out with the original single-flowered variety I remember from my childhood.

Growing up by the water on Long Island, NY, rugosa roses grew everywhere, along with beach plums, as they did well in the sandy/clay soil & salt spray. My parents had a hedge of rugosa's along half their property line that was about 3'-4' thick & 5' high. Since they were also wildlife lovers, they liked the fact that the hedge provided nesting sites for the birds, as well as autumn/winter food via the large orange-red rose hips.

Mom also made Rose Hip jelly & tea from the hips, & one year I made Rose Petal jam from the hundreds & hundreds of unbelievably fragrant pink petals. There's nothing like the scent of these beauties on a hot summer day. It's intoxicating.

They did attract a lot of Japanese beetles, but I don't have much of a problem with them on the climbing roses I have now, so am hoping that rugosas will perform well for me now that I'm in VA.

Thanks so much for all of the feedback. I'd still be happy to hear from anyone who actually owns Fru Dagmar, but in the meantime I am going forward with my plans for the hedge (and with research on milky spore). It's great to know that others are growing rugosas happily in this region -- I was beginning to think that we were perhaps too far South. Best -- Kate

I live in Montgomery county, MD and got Fru Dagmar in the spring of 2002. It has grown well and is about 3 feet tall and wide (with a little pruning). The flowers are fragrant and the foilage has always looked good (no diseases). The early flowers are beautiful, but many flowers in the middle of the summer are ruined by Japanese beetles. I haven't gotten many hips from it, but the ones I have gotten are big. Overall I am very happy with this rose,but you do have to be careful when pruning it because it is very prickly.

Here is a picture of mine:

Juliet

Fru Dagmar Hastrup is one of my favorite roses. Ours has blackspot-free emerald-green foliage, abundant clove-scented flowers, and hips in the fall. The FruÂs first flush of bloom looks like the bush is covered with a flock of light pink butterflies. In six years, ours grew to about three feet tall by four feet wide. Brookside Gardens has a good display of rugosas, including Fru Dagmar, in their fragrance garden.

We planted Fru Dagmar with Purple Pavement (Rotes Meer), another wonderful rugosa hybrid with double flowers, deep pink and fragrant. I donÂt recall whether it produced hips or not. Other healthy roses that we have grown include Roseraie de lÂHay, a taller rugosa hybrid with fragrant, double purple flowers, DarlowÂs Enigma, a vigorous shrub rose with abundant small white flowers and a wafting fragrance, and Marie Pavie, a small polyantha with very fragrant, abundant white double flowers.

Unless you are extremely lucky, roses in the mid-Atlantic will attract Japanese beetles. Alfie gave excellent advice about removing the blooms during Japanese beetle season if/when you have a problem. The beauty of rugosas is that they look like full, healthy bushes during the growing season. Most other roses will blackspot and look lousy for most of the summer in our climate.

The link below lists lots of other rugosa roses.

Good luck -- Bruce

Here is a link that might be useful: Spring Valley Roses

Juliet and Bruce, thanks so much for posting -- it's so great to hear that someone else _does_ actually grow this rose here, and is happy with it. I particularly appreciate the information on size -- I've seen so many variations in the books and catalogs I've perused.

Juliet that picture is enchanting, and gives a great view of the healthy foliage that everyone raves about. Bruce, thanks so much for the tip about Brookside -- I've been wondering if there was a public garden that had this rose. I went to view the collection at the National Arboreteum last year, but they had only the species (both rubra and alba), and perhaps one other kind of very large rugosa that was much too big to contemplate for my garden.

Thanks again to everyone for chiming in -- Kate

It may be late to chime in, but I'm growing Fra. She's easily 6 ft across, and 4 ft high. She's a 4 year old, and she tends to sucker. The canes are completely covered with narrow thorns.

She's never had any disease, and I (knock wood) don't get Japanese beetles in my garden.

She is ethereally beautiful, with a silvery pink single flower, and a fragrance that wafts down the path. I think she's my favorite rose.

Thanks for the link, Bruce7. I ordered from SV Roses (3 FDH's) ... They're sprouting, and appear robust ... Plan to keep them low and wide ... Thanks again!