Last updated on December 2nd, 2011
Just now, my green and white garden shed is washed with pink, for on its clapboard wall the delightful Rosa ‘Zephirine Droughin’ has exploded with bloom. This is the first miracle of June’s parade of roses, and there will be others too, very shortly. Let me know if you wish to hear about them. In the meantime, let’s discuss the remarkable pink number that is rambling up and across the shed.
Bred in France and introduced to European gardens in 1868, Zephirine Droughin is a rose that invites love. Even in shady conditions and poor soil, it produces three opulent floral flushes each year: June, August, and October. The deep-pink, semi-double flowers are powerfully fragrant. I can only describe the scent as “infinitely inhalable.” 
Zephirine can be a 6-foot shrub or a 12-foot climber as you please. I prefer to have it climb, and improve the pedestrian architecture of the garden shed. For vertical support, I attached a black, aluminum trellis to the shed. For lateral growth – and you want to encourage this, because it forces more flowering – I simply attached wire to nails on the clapboard siding.
Now, should you decide to train this rose on your house, pergola, or what-have-you, rest assured that you can bend and tie the canes with bare, naked hands. For this rose, as I have said, is remarkable: It does not have thorns.
I don’t provide Zephirine with any winter protection, because it is tied to the shed, and thus safe from drying winds. But in a more open position, you will want to mound its base with 18 inches of shredded leaves, shredded bark or plain soil, once the ground solidly freezes. Of course, if you live in zones 6-9, such protection isn’t needed at all.
Tolerant of shade, wonderfully fragrant and mercifully thornless, Zephirine Droughin is a definite keeper here at A Garden for the House. I think that you might enjoy it, too.
I can’t tell you how much I enjoy hearing from other gardeners. I invite you to post your comments, whatever they are, below.
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Judy says
Your description of your roses was so complete I can practically smell them from my NYC apartment. And I love the no-thorns perk — kind of like watermelons without the pits. Keep up the amazing work!
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Ah, shucks. Thank you, Judy!
Dorothy Ernst says
I love my Zephirine Drouhin roses for all the same reasons. The sweet scent is intoxicating and I always invite my visitors to come and enjoy this rose. Unfortunately I have begun to lose some of my Z. D. roses to basal rose disease. Part of the garden’s evolution.
Thank you for sharing your garden and home with us.
Marilyn says
Thank you for the information on the Zephirine Drouhin rose and all the other good info on others roses. I will be shopping for the ZD soon. I have a perfect place in a corner for the ZD since it tolerates shade. I plan to move the one rose that has struggled for years and give it more light that is planted there now there now.
Trudi Dido says
Help! my gorgeous red rose sstarted out great but now is covered with black spot. ! I
have cut back any and everything close by to give it more air ,now what?
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Trudi – Sorry to hear your red rose is plagued by black spot. To stop the spread of this fungal issue organically, remove infected leaves immediately. Any leaves which have fallen from the shrub must be picked up and destroyed (do not compost them).
Black spot thrives in moist conditions. Consequently never water a rose with a sprinkler. Roses which receive 6-8 hours of full, blazing sun are less likely to be plagued by black spot.
Cathy in Cleveland says
Where did you purchase the trellis for your Graham Thomas rose?
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Cathy in Cleveland – Believe it or not, I found that trellis at an “Odd-Lot”-type store.
Jan says
Hi Kevin,
My ZD is planted on east side of house, climbs the deck pole and blooms only ONCE a year…in June.
Any suggestions?
Would DEFINITELY LOVE to have it bloom 2x more!!!
Thanks,
Jan
Alyce says
My ZDs are outdoing themselves. I planted three of them on the screened porch wall for shade, and they have performed as planned and beautifully. In fact, they need some restraining at this point. Is there some way I can send a picture of those climbing and cascading canes?
Alicia O'Neal says
I see a thorn less Rose bush on a trellis is lovely.
Peggy T Rickard says
Where can we purchase the ZD rose?
Carol DeWald says
I love everything you share on your newsletter & have shared it with many friends! I am a huge fan of your greenhouse milk jug seed starting system & was so successful with the plants I started that way–no more growing spindly little plants on windowsills for me!
Viviana says
Hello, I live in zoning 10 but I would like to try buying a ZD rose, My backyard gets like 60 mph wind and my soil is like sandy. but it there was a way to modify the soil, maybe plant them in big planters and far from the 102 degrees that we get in summer, or in a spot where the wind does not damage it, they would survive
I am planning to buy a 5 gallons because I am very impatient and I need to see them grow fast.
Can you please let me know if that would be possible and if so, what can of soil I can buy?