Purple Rain. Yuck :(

Why are purple roses so difficult? Granted this is in the heat, but it was like this days ago when it was cooler. The flowers turn crispy critter before the end of the day.

I had such high hopes for this, and the foliage is so nice. It's in a huge planter in full sun. Good soil, plenty of water. Can anyone who has had luck with Purple rain give me any hope? Should I move it to a shadier spot or is this hopeless?

Thanks,
Di

This post was edited by ratdogheads on Tue, Jun 25, 13 at 16:33

Is PR a new plant? If it is not well-established, the flowers will be shorter lived that those of an established plant. A little afternoon shade might help, but since you are in zone 5 with a short growing season, too much shade isn't a great idea.

You could try a temporary shade cloth structure to see what that does to your flowers.

'Lavaglut' looks great!

Your Lavaglut is beautiful! Sorry about Purple Rain. I though maybe shade would help too. What are the petals like? Are they very thin. Sometimes roses with very thin petals just don't hold up well. Ones with more substance seem to last longer.

PR is a new bare root planted this spring, so not an established plant. I hadn't thought of this as possibly just a new rose problem, but good point.

The petals are quite small, but thin? I'm not sure. So far they've shriveled up so fast I can't tell! I've been looking on HMF and everyone else's pics look great, nothing at all like what mine looks like, darnit.

It's in a pot so I'll give it a trial in a spot with afternoon shade. It's a really BIG pot, my husband will be so thrilled. Or maybe I should just dis-bud it this year anyhow since it's a new plant. There are dozens and dozens of blooms and probably that's too much stress for the first year.

Could this be an indication that it doesn't like growing in a pot?