Mister Lincoln wants to be a majestically tall plant. If it is cut short, it has a reputation for insisting on regrowing to its preferred size before it will bloom. From its knees on down it tends to embody the bare legged Hybrid Tea look, so it makes a good back of the border plant where its bare legs are disguised by foreground plantings at least five feet tall.

Mr Lincoln rose bush.File# 01

One of my Mister Lincolns has the ideal spot for such a rose - it is planted against a fence which, in that spot, climbs steeply up a hill, and where it provides the very first glimpse of my rose garden from the fence side. The fence is five feet tall and made of widely spaced horizontal boards. As one approaches the garden, Mister Lincoln towers over the fence and is often loaded with eye-catching red blooms. From the garden side, the bare legs are completely hidden by Eyepaint, Teasing Georgia and Linda Cambell.

The Mister Lincoln rose gives me three good flushes per year and though there are some sleepy periods between flushes, when it is blooming it is a most dramatic and pleasing entry plant. It is a classic Hybrid Tea which gives me great measures of pleasure.

See also our picture of a snap frozen Mister Lincoln Bloom