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| Can anyone tell me what the characteristics of a free flowering rose shrub are?
Also, what is the difference between a rose that is continuous flowering verses repeat flowering. Thanks, Kim |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by mike_rivers z5 MI (My Page) on Fri, Mar 9, 12 at 9:46
| As best I can determine, "free flowering" is not defined in any dictionary. When I come across the term, I take it to mean abundant flowering, not necessarily repeat or continuous flowering. A very subjective descriptor. Repeat flowering describes a rose that blooms for at least two periods of time, separated by a period of no blooms, during a single season. It's the opposite of once flowering, which describes a rose with only one, relatively brief, period of bloom during a season. Continuous flowering might best be described as repeat flowering where the period of no blooms approaches zero time. |
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| But "continuous flowering" suggests only a few roses at a time. Basically it takes around six weeks for a particular stem to develop and bloom. Therefore, no rose can be in heavy bloom most of the growing season. I think of "full repeaters" and "partial repeaters." The full repeaters bloom heavily for about two weeks at regular intervals with about a month of downtime between. The partial repeaters make a good flush in May-June with a scattering of bloom later, or maybe a fairly good flush in the fall. Often these are vigorous shrubs or climbers that grow long shoots during the summer. Climbers described as repeat-blooming may vary a lot in the amount of summer and fall bloom they produce. |
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- Posted by wirosarian z4b WI (My Page) on Fri, Mar 9, 12 at 11:49
| My observation is the roses with a low petal count, 10-12 or less, are usually the fastest to repeat & are most commonly the roses that are described as continuous bloomers. Examples I've grown: Nearly Wild, Carefree Delight & Funny Face. It also requires that the rose has a good set of "repeat bloom" genes in its makeup so there are many poor repeating & non-repeatng low petal count roses because they don't have a good set of repeat genes in them. One of the fastest reblooming high petal count rose in my garden is a Kordes rose called Antique Caramel, it is not a continuous bloomer but it amazes me how fast it can rebloom. |
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- Posted by Kimby_berry none (My Page) on Fri, Mar 9, 12 at 13:42
| OK.....on the pickering nurseries website the Carefree Wonder is described as a free flowering. So is it going to bloom all spring, summer and fall? |
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- Posted by mike_rivers z5 MI (My Page) on Sat, Mar 10, 12 at 8:40
| Kimby, I would conclude that 'Carefree Wonder' is gonna have lotsa flowers. Anything more detailed would be sheer speculation. |
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| Carefree Wonder is a landscaping type shrub rose similar to Knock Out and meant to bloom a lot throughout the season. That's what "free flowering" means to me. I don't know what the advertisers mean by it since I don't think most of them are into roses. Otherwise I wouldn't see some of the ridiculous descriptions there are in a lot of rose catalogs! |
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