Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
dsd2682

Roses You Love To Hate (And Hate To Love)

SoFL Rose z10
10 years ago

HI All,
I have never been a fan of the Knock Out rose. I find its blooms so boring but everyone always raves about them and is always suggesting them for my climate so I caved in and got myself a double red one a few weeks ago. I just took a look at it this morning and DANG if it doesn't look fabulous. Its covered in blooms and is just so care free and bushy (no disease). I cant help but love it even though I love to hate it. It made me think of another rose that I hate to love. My Cherish rose is always full of black spot and always looks wimpy and spindly, but she keeps blooming! And her flowers last super long in the vase and they are just so perfect and pink. I always think of getting rid of her but then she has these moments when she blooms profusely and then soon after succumbs to black spot and goes almost bald! Then the cycle repeats itself. I hate that I love her so much because I'm so short on room in my garden, but I just cant part with her (we have a love-hate relationship).

So which roses do you love to hate and which do you hate to love?
Lets share!

Comments (33)

  • ogrose_tx
    10 years ago

    Lol, I "hate" Knockouts too, and have the double red, and yep, it's gorgeous.

    My love/hate rose is Golden Celebration, and, like your rose, after it blooms it goes bald, ugly, ugly, ugly! But oh, those roses, the scent, are to die for...

  • auron22
    10 years ago

    I hate to love my Dr,Huey (i'm assuming it's dr.huey....)
    It's so beautiful in the spring, but once summer hits, it's done blooming and loses all it's foliage from black spot. I also think it has canker. I keep wanting to rip it out, but then I see how full of flowers it gets in spring..

    (hope link works, recently got a flickr)

    KO's mess with my head. When i'm not looking at them I don't like them, but when I see them I love it....

  • SoFL Rose z10
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Ha Auron!
    So so true about Dr Huey and KO's.

  • michaelg
    10 years ago

    Roses I got rid of for misbehavior but still miss a lot are Angel Face and Gertrude Jekyll.

  • seil zone 6b MI
    10 years ago

    I'll second Michael's Angel Face. I can't bring myself to get rid of it because A. it was Mom's and B. when it blooms they're gorgeous! The rest of the time it's a black spotted leafless mess!

  • auron22
    10 years ago

    D'oh, didn't even post a link. I'll try again.
    How can I get rid of something so pretty?

    Here is a link that might be useful: Dr.Huey

  • SoFL Rose z10
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Totally!
    Angel face is NEXT on my list. WOW she's ugly. She's all thorns and stems and then blooms on top. How does she bloom with no leaves?
    She's the rose that made me like singles (or semi doubles). Till I got her I hated single roses. But she totally charmed me. And that fragrance and color and she lasts in the vase too. But man, is she full of black spot. She is truly one that I really hate to love! She's a hot mess!

  • kathy9norcal
    10 years ago

    My Angel Face is always gorgeous and has flush after flush. I am in a very dry, hot climate with no blackspot. It is just finishing its second amazing flush,
    {{gwi:288224}}
    I would say try it, only if you are very dry and hot!

    What do I love to hate? Mr Lincoln was a bomb for me. I, too, won't even consider Knockout Roses. Any red that ages blue or purple is a dud IMHO. I will also sp any rose that can't bloom in the heat as the growing season here is hot and long. We don't get blackspot but rust can be a problem. Abraham Darby was a rust magnet in my yard, even though it could have made a great climber. Away he went! I am on the fence about Vavoom. It is a huge bush but its blooms fry over and over again. Even the new leaves crisp. I think it must go away this winter. Don't hate it but I never loved the blooms even in spring.

  • SoFL Rose z10
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Kathy, so jealous of your Angel Face. We have a nice long dry season here where it stays pretty warm from September-May. I'm going to wait and see how she performs then. I really love her blooms but she's so susceptible to BS and i don't spray (at least not very often). I have sprayed her but still she looses her leaves. She really is a beauty though and she must be a site in all her glory w/out BS.
    I agree with you that reds that turn purple or black are out for me too! My Mr. Lincoln turns mauve with age, but she's rarely red to begin with. Usually magenta in my climate.
    I love my Europeana because her flowers never fade. She loves the heat here too.

  • Kippy
    10 years ago

    Auron

    I love your red rose. Looks rather similar to the samples of Dr H that I had. But I am considering capturing a root of it and putting it in a large pot just for that burst of Spring red.

  • pat_bamaz7
    10 years ago

    I have Singin the Blues...seedling of Angel Face that is supposed to be better. Only my second year with her and so far much more disease resistant than Angel Face here, wonderful fragrance and a great, long lasting cut rose...BUT blooms only last an hour or two before wilting on the bush in our humidity. Jury is still out since its just her second year, but if I'm only going to get cut roses from her long term, she won't be worth the space.
    Gingersnap is my main love/hate rose. Usually my first rose to bloom in the spring with a huge flush of blooms in the most perfect shade of orange against clean, dark blue green foliage. After that first flush, the blackspot sets in, leaves fall off and the blooms shut down until fall. Gingersnap has actually been blooming non-stop for the last three months this year, though, and no blackspot yet...must have loved the strange, dreary spring we had...I'm sure it will revert to it's normal troublesome self soon.

  • diane_nj 6b/7a
    10 years ago

    I don't like red roses. At all. I have two, just to make my mom happy.

    I love to hate Pristene. One-caned wonder, blooms when it feels like it, but when it does, it is beautiful. Also, one morning left for work, a bud was just starting to unfurl, it was fully open by the time I came home that evening.

  • ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
    10 years ago

    I love Le Vesuve but hate its small, mean thorns with a passion. You can't touch that rose without getting snagged no matter how careful you are. The hate part really intensified after I slipped and fell into Le Vesuve before falling down the hill. Those deep scratches didn't go away for months!

  • roseseek
    10 years ago

    Iceberg. Ubiquitous and boring, but a real horse! The one rose everyone has known the name of around here, whether they were interested in roses, or not. Available at virtually every retail outlet here in the Valley, including grocery stores, in bud and bloom, from one gallon through boxed specimen. My local Ralph's Supermarket has the original form as standards outside their front doors. They're planted by the thousands at every housing tract and gas station because they refuse to NOT grow and NOT to flower anywhere they are planted here in SoCal. After deer (or "gardener") attacks, they're in full flower within six weeks, while most others take two or three months (or longer!) to recover. They will perform in conditions guaranteed to kill lesser roses, thumbing their noses at their detractors. Familiarity does breed contempt, but with so much going for it, how can I NOT love to hate or, hate to love it? I would have been honored and proud as could be to have raised such a rose! Kim

  • SoFL Rose z10
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Roseseek you hit the nail on the head. Exactly how I feel about knock out. Just too common. But darn if you can't help but appreciate its easy care and abundant blooms.

    I actually have iceberg and I love her. We had 5 days straight of non stop rain and she only dropped a few leaves. I thought, well no rose can withstand that. And even though she looked a little scrawny she held up well. Lowe and behold I took a look at her this morning (about a week later) and she had so much new growth and so many buds that you would have never know she looked scrawny at all. I was so impressed!
    In S.FL you don't see roses growing at supermarket parking lots or on the highway landscaping etc so to me it's fantastic. But in your climate with all the great roses I'm sure you're sick of looking at her. Lol

  • roseseek
    10 years ago

    Actually, I have a gardening client who grew several roses in pots on her condo patio she'd bought from Trader Joe's and other places. Two were the throw away "minis" with the overly large blooms. One was a Bronze Star one can wonder and the fourth never flowered so I'm not sure what it was supposed to be. They had to exist in a really bad place with insufficient sun. They did an acceptable job until she bought her house. The ONLY place she has to grow roses is against a west facing stucco wall, pierced by two large windows at the rear of her garage. There is a very large concrete patio fronting the 12" deep planter, so the reflected, radiated heat is brutal. She actually placed her patio table and umbrella in front of that bed to help shade the roses against the worst of it. It's engineered soil with less than a foot of "top soil" laid on top. Sprinklers keep things watered. The roses were horrible! She put a wooden trellis between the two windows and planted Social Climber on it. The poor rose fries as did the others. She asked for a suggestion about replacements and I suggested she look at Pink Iceberg. It grows all over town so she could see what it will look like on her patio. She didn't want cut flowers and didn't care about fragrance. She just wanted volume and color.

    I bought four Brilliant Pink Icebergs and installed them last month. They had surface mildew due to water stress at the grower. It was just after the last spike to over a hundred, so I explained to her to expect the mildew. I was just barely able to excavate four, five gallon holes and get them planted. I saw them yesterday, one month after I planted them. I'd removed the buds I could easily find to help push them to grow faster. I didn't dare spray with anything other than water. They were gorgeous! The new foliage is spotless, NO mildew! They all had a few spent blooms with opening flowers with many buds developing. A month after planting, during weird hot, then cool, then hot again temps combined with widely fluctuating humidity and they looked marvelous. She, of course, is thrilled. Her Icebergs are filling the space perfectly and they flower like machines. She can look out her French doors from the kitchen and den and see a huge living bouquet of pink and white. And, all she has to do is pay the bills. What's NOT to like? Kim

  • SoFL Rose z10
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    You see? We might hate em but we still love em. If only all roses were so cooperative!

  • nastarana
    10 years ago

    For me it is the Peace tribe. Not really appropriate for my zone and climate, but I baby them anyway, to be rewarded with maybe one stunning blossom per summer.

  • jaspermplants
    10 years ago

    I love Iceberg, even if it's ubiquitous. After all, what's not to love?

  • nanadollZ7 SWIdaho
    10 years ago

    Ditto on Angel Face here in hot, dry, desert south Idaho, Kathy. She's gorgeous with never a trace of blackspot--because no rose gets blackspot in this desert. However, I do have a rose I love to hate, Caramel Antique. For years, it has refused to grow and produced just a handful of blooms per entire season. This past winter we had a horrible January, and when spring rolled around, Caramel Antique looked like a bunch of dark, dead sticks. Yes! I could finally give the heave ho to this poor excuse of a rose. I continued on about my spring chores and then decided to get a beautiful Easy Does It to replace CA. Finally a rose that knows how to bloom. At about the time of my purchase, I noticed that Caramel was bursting forth with healthy leaves and a bunch of new canes. She is now blooming like mad. Foiled again by that stinking rose! And now where will I put Easy Does It before July arrives? Here is why it's so hard to part with Caramel Antique.

  • SoFL Rose z10
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Nastarana: Peace is like that or me to (or was) always a stingy bloomer but man those flowers were big and beautiful when it did bloom. This year however she''s been a much better bloomer for me so I'm glad I held on. :) Never really full of blooms, but has continually put out 2 or 3 flowers (better than before!).

  • Campanula UK Z8
    10 years ago

    Zepherine Drouhin. 1 year in 3, I get a full on fabulous all over bloom....and it seems to take a couple of years of grim misery to recover itself, despite no end of rejuvenating feeding, watering and pruning. I am stuck with it too since it occupies a whole wall in my garden, growing over a black timber arbour. Rose replant disease means if I remove it, there is no chance of planting another rose in its place (and it is in a really difficult raised bed requiring removal of the entire arbour) so nope, am stuck with it. Next year, should be a good one and this year is still better than last year's debacle.

  • ken-n.ga.mts
    10 years ago

    I'm a real sticker about bush fullness (foliage) and USUALLY don't keep a bush around if it doesn't make a good bush between bloom cycles. But, the blooms on Sunstruck floor me all the time. This bush drives me crazy. No mater what I do I can't get any foliage on the bottom half of the bush. What makes it stick out even more is it's planted between Remember Me and Dark Night. Both of which are covered in foliage from top to bottom. Sunstruck must know it's staying around because of it's blooms. It is never out of blooms and to make matters even tougher on me, it smells SSSOOOO good. Plus, whenever anyone comes by the house they ALWAYS end up in front of it with their face in the blooms and walk away with a smile on their face. How can I trash a rose like that??

  • cecily
    10 years ago

    Comte de Chambord departed a couple of years ago. I couldn't bring myself to execute him but a nice lady offered asylum in Tennessee so off he went. The good: strong fragrance that scents your fingers after deadheading and wafts on the breeze. The bad: cruddy foliage. Not BS that drops and leaves a bare nekkid thorn bush but crud like a damask that just hangs there looking nasty. I didn't love him enough to spray.

  • nastarana
    10 years ago

    I should also mention Martin Frobisher, which decided to bloom this year after some little discussion about shovels and prime real estate. It is just pretty enough to keep around another year, a nice soft pink, which does not self clean. And is a sparse bush about 3' tall. Meanwhile other hybrid rugosas, planted at the same time or even a year later, Germania, Rose de la Hay, Ritausma, have grown above my head and are covered with blooms.

  • frenchcuffs13
    10 years ago

    Fragrant Cloud. What a BS magnet here and with out tons of fert it doesn't repeat quickly BUT i can't live w/o it's hot glowing color and breeze riding fragrance.

    Already sp'd and replaced this year with the same, let's see how long this one makes it. lol

  • bethnorcal9
    10 years ago

    There's probably lots of them. But what comes to mind right now is HEIRLOOM. Boring boring boring! And I have two of them. I think they were both mis-labeled bagged bareroot ones. Figures... ANGEL FACE is actually a beauty compared to HEIRLOOM. Oh and the so-called strong scent?? I don't get it. Where's that shovel????

  • strawchicago z5
    10 years ago

    Hi Beth: I killed my Heirloom last year, can't stand that gaudy purple. And the scent can smell like mosquito spray and licorice candy together ... pretty weird.

  • susan4952
    10 years ago

    My angel face is wonderful ! PJP2 always dies here. Soooo frustrating. And I mean ALWAYS. I love it so much, I order 2 every season. I know it is wrong zone but I mange to grow other high zone roses here but NOT the Pope.

  • jim1961 / Central Pennsylvania / Zone 6
    10 years ago

    Double Ko also grew on me...lol
    I miss my Precious Platinum, Livin Easy, Easy Does It, OTB, etc. as I had to SP them all because of severe fungus diseases...

    Mister Lincoln pi**es me off with slowww blooming & fast petal drop....lol
    But has been disease free so far since 2010! Go figure!

    This post was edited by jim1961 on Thu, Jul 25, 13 at 22:48

  • racin_rose
    10 years ago

    For me it's Leonidas. Ugh. He's young so I'm trying to give him a chance but...what a primadonna!

  • roseseek
    10 years ago

    Be as kind as you wish, for as long as you wish, Racin, but Lenoidas "ages like milk". He doesn't grow out of the problems, they're just expressed on a bit larger plant. Kim

  • sara_ann-z6bok
    10 years ago

    With me I think it's Bewitched. I've grown it for years and why I planted 2 more, I'm not sure. The one that I've had for a long time bloomed in the spring and has just sat there all summer, no indication that it's going to bloom again, frustrating. But it does put on the most perfect, fragrant flowers when it does decide to bloom.

Sponsored
Land & Water Design
Average rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars30 Reviews
VA's Modern & Intentional Outdoor Living Spaces | 16x Best of Houzz