Since you have successfully saved them from their travel trauma, now I would pot them up into 1 gallon pots - those band pots are too small. Keep doing the other things you are doing with them for several weeks, until they get better acclimated. Then I would give them more sun, and leave them in the one gallon pots for at least 6 months to a year. Then I would plant them in the ground.

Why do you bring them inside at night? Are there critters that would eat them otherwise? If there are critters, I would put them inside of wire cages, so the critters cannot get them, but I would leave them outside. Is there a different reason? Not being familiar with gardening in your area, I have no idea, but you must have a reason for bringing them in?

Congrats on saving them - sounds as if you already have a green thumb!

Jackie

I have no practical experience but I have seen roses growing in Gambia on the 13th parallel, a semi-tropical climate. Roses were rare but I saw china and tea roses in hotel gardens and outside official buildings, always grown in the shade of trees.

It's tough being in one climate and desiring those originating in another. While you have already received quite a few roses, before you go to the trouble of ordering more from the US please consider a closer source of roses bred for a climate more similar to yours. Girija and Viru Viraraghavan are breeding roses in India, using R. clinophylla and R. gigantea along with some old Teas, Tea-Noisettes, Chinas, and others which grow well in their climate. I suggest you look at the link below to find out a little about the roses they have bred. While I can't say that the roses you chose won't work, you might wish to expand your collection to include those which are actually being selected for doing well in a tropical climate.

:-)

~Christopher

Here is a link that might be useful: Viraraghavan, M.S. on HelpMeFind

I strongly second Christopher's suggestion that you look into the roses being created by Viru Viraraghavan.

His roses are bred specificaly with tropical conditions in mind.

Jeri

Hi,
boncrow66, jim1961, mariannese, thanks for all your advices.
jacqueline3, I did put the roses outside at night : ). I'm trying to find perlite to make a good drainage soil before potting them up, it s not popular in my country. I lost Rosarium Ueterson due to rot root from the long journey in box, though.
jerijen and AquaEyes, thanks for mentioning about Vivu Virarahgavan. I'll research more about him and his roses.

Please take a look at some of my roses with new shoot this morning. I put garlic bulb on top of the soil in each pot to avoid any pest on these weak bands.

Cheryl

Cheryl, those plants look quite nice, for young own-roots!

Jeri

If you can keep them in pots with GOOD drainage, they should do very well for you. Can I ask what part of Viet Nam you live in?? The mountain area, along the coast or down in the delta. Location makes a big difference.

You can grow successfully in pure sand. Put a layer of compost on the top and fertilize at least once a month, or weakly, weekly. Renew the compost whenever it gets thin.

- Thanks Jeri, I wait every morning to wake up and see new bud, new leaf coming out :D
- ken-n, you are right about the location. Our capital in the north, next to China, has a better climate, could be considered has some kind of 4 seasons like temperate country. I'm living in central of Ho Chi Minh City, largest city in the Southeast of VietNam, next to Cambodia, with heat and humid year round.
- hoovb, thanks about the sand tip. I don't know that we can actually grow rose with pure sand. I though we use sand as a part of mixing with soil only.

- Do you all think it's too soon to pot up these bands? Since they are only 2 weeks here. I think they are still acclimating, we should better dont touch them, plus I havent seen any root come out from drainage holes as a sign to pot up like many people said in this forum.
- Could I use cow manure and peanut shell as compost to mix in and on top as mulch? I cant find any bark or peat moss here.

This post was edited by LeBlossom on Sat, Oct 18, 14 at 13:02

Ah, Ho Chi Minh City. I know it very well. You're climate will be a challenge BUT with a little care your roses should do well. The one that should do extremely well once established is Belindas Dream. This rose does very well in a hot, humid climate. Mrs B. R. Cant will also do very well. You should be able to get rice hulls to use as a mulch. Also, don't use fresh cow manure. Let it age to the point where it is dry and you can pound it into powder. Then only use a light layer 2 times every year. You also should have easy access to fish. When planting your roses into larger pots, put a layer of soil in the pot, put a hand size fresh fish on that layer and put another layer of soil in the pot. Now finish putting your rose into it's new home. Also you can use ground up fish when you do the cow manure. Just make sure the pots drain well. Roses do well in moist soil but will die in soggy soil. Good luck and enjoy watching your roses grow and become the talk of your area.

In hot, humid central Florida, the roses on your list that have done well for me are: Belinda's Dream, Clotilde Soupert, Cl., Cecile Brunner, cl., Fields of the Wood, Mrs. BRC, SDLM, Cl., Sombreuil, and Don Juan. Mrs. Isaac Perriere and Abraham Darby were so so. Eden was terrible. The rest I have not tried.

- thanks floridarsez9 for your feedback on the roses : )
- thanks ken-n, I'll try with fresh fish when potting up the roses. I think it's better than package fish emulsion. Also, I prefer organic gardening. And we ve got a lot of rice hulls here. You know a lot about my country, have you been to Ho Chi Minh, ken?

Hi, I really want to know your update about the roses. I live in Indonesia and a very newbie in roses. Its so so so hard to find a specific kind of roses in Indonesia, the nursery only know that they sell roses, not knowing the roses name. I wonder is it possible to grow your roses from seeds. Because I don't have access to import plants from other country to Indonesia.

Hi Dewi. You can grow roses from seeds, but they won't be true to the plant they came from. They will be a new rose, often pink single-petaled flowers, but sometimes something unique. For a rose true to the plant, you would need to root a stem cutting.

I would like to hear an update from Lebossom (Cheryl) too, but she hasn't been active on this forum for awhile. I hope her roses are doing well and that yours will too. She obtained her roses by emailing nurseries at burlingtonroses@aol.com and gardenangel22@gmail.com

Hello from South Florida, a climate somewhat similar to yours. I grow many roses and you have done your research as I see you have ordered roses that will do well in the hot and humid. Nahema is an excellent one that should do well for you. You may also want to try Duchess De Brabant, Dick Clark, and Easy Does It. Those all do very well for me. Also Quietness is a good choice. Good luck with your roses, I hope they do very well for you. Let us know how that garlic works out for you and post photos of your blooms as they come along. We'll be here to help you with any problems that may arise. Good luck!

SoFl, Dewy renewed Leblossom's post from 2014. Did you see Dewi's question too?

Oh I see! Yes, you can grow roses from seeds but they will never look like the parent rose. You will however be producing a whole new rose never before seen in the world. However, chances are you will produce a somewhat boring pink variety or many weak plants that wont grow well so I do not recommend this as a way to get roses. I think you should try ordering from the nurseries that Leblossom used instead.

Hi everyone, thanks for your attentions on my really old post. All my roses are doing fine here and they are growing up pretty fast. You know, even though they all grow in small pots, but blooms are always appear in my garden.

Below photo is my roses after 6 months.

Because most of my roses are climber. After a year or so, I made 2 simple bamboo trellis for them to climb on.

And this is my roses this morning

dewi_ptkdn, I really understand your concern about nurseries only know that they sell roses. That is the same situation for nurseries in my country. Set apart rose type or rose history, they have zero knowledge about rose... You know, our countries are still very unfamiliar with temperate plants, especially rose. We shouldn't compare to US or UK nurseries, they even have Rose Societies. Maybe in a near future, we will have our own.

Rose can do well in both temperate and tropical climates. But they will do their best in temperate i think. You can see that my roses are doing fine. They blooms quite often, but still, we cannot compare to those grown in temperate zone. I think a climber full of blooms like what we often see in google image is not possible in this tropical weather. You know, that taught me to appreciate what I have within my reach. For me, every morning when I see a new tiny green leaf, I'm already happy. More than a year ago, when I decided to import the roses, I didn't even expect that they will bloom. At that time, a climbing rose full of green leaf is already my dream. Some of the climbing roses in my garden haven't bloom yet until today. But, that's fine for me, everything has their own beauty. So for rose addicts in tropical country like us, we must try and find the way ourselves. You only need some very basic knowledge about rose, the rest just follow your passion and your instinct. Go ahead and start to grow your rose garden.

And I think you should try to import some roses from the US or Thailand, because growing rose from seed is not easy and will take a long time. Let me know if I can support you with any information, I will be more than happy to help :)

I think your roses are beautiful on the walls down the alley.

Wow, your roses are doing wonderfully LeBlossom. They look extremely healthy and happy. Do you fertilize them often? They may bloom more if you feed them regularly. However they look very happy and you've done a great job about keeping them so well cared for. I too have never found that my roses bloom like what you see on google. Mine are like yours in that they bloom but one or two at a time and like you say, that is good enough for me. I'm just happy to have blooms! I'm so happy you updated us with your success. Its very inspiring! Roses are very versatile and adapt well almost everywhere!

You're roses are looking great. What ever you are doing, keep it up. I like the way you are using the bamboo. A LOT has changed since I was in Vietnam. It was a long time ago in not so pleasant situation (1968/1969). You see I was part of the American 9th Infantry Division, 47th Infantry Brigade, 3rd Battalion Mobile Riverine Force. I was stationed in the middle of the Mekong River, by Dong Tam. We had to go up to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) several times. Even though a lot of my memories of Vietnam are not too pleasant, I have often wondered what it would be like to grow roses in the Delta area. You have shown me that it can be done very well. Keep up the great work and try to pass your passion on to others. The more roses in your city, it will always help to beautify everything.

Thanks for the update on your roses

Ken - thank you for your service. My brother was in Viet Nam 1968/70, with the 101st Airborne, way up near the border in Phu Bai (sp?). He was actually an official photographer, so he mostly stayed on base, taking pictures of big shots, and, of course, dead soldiers. He was 18 years old when he got there. Being a CA boy, he had been mad about surfing. The best thing he remembers about VN was that the Red Cross flew them to the coast to go surfing several times!

Jackie

Ken I would also like to thank you for your service during the Vietnam war.

Leblossom your roses look great so keep on keepin on, your doing a good job. And just so you know none of my roses ever look like the ones I google either lol. I like your attitude towards gardening in that you are grateful for what you have especially in a challenging environment.

Ken, thanks from here as well. I knew a lot of boys who's number came up in the lottery conscription and they got little thanks and certainly no recognition when they came home.

LeBlossom, you are doing amazingly well with your roses. Your bamboo trellis has given me some ideas for my garden. It is good to see you encouraging others to grow roses in a more difficult climate.

Yes, Ken, thank you. My father was a teacher during the Viet Nam war and many of his former students died. I'm glad you made it back and I'm sorry for your fellow soldiers that didn't.

LeBlossom, I love the greenery with the occational bloom. I'm sure they are concentrating on growing and will bloom more in the future, but they look great now. Your roses might want larger pots someday, but by then you will know which ones are the best performers.

LeBlossom, We're also sorry your country suffered so much too.

Thank you everyone, i really appreciate all of your sharing and encouragement : ). I wanna share with you some blooms in my garden this morning. You can see that all my roses has less petals compare to yours. It's a way to adjust to the climate i think.

Autumn Damask, the fragrance of this rose is very strong. I read somewhere that they grow this type of rose in France for perfume industry.

Fields of the wood

Pretty! Thank you for the close up photographs.

Yes, the heat usually makes the roses produce less petals than advertised and sometimes smaller roses too, but still beautiful!

Thats a very distinctive bloom form on your yellow rose. You could start your own post on here. Someone may know that rose.

Hi there,

I'm from Malaysia, specificly in the island of Borneo. My roses are either imported from Thailand or Indonesia. Some from Cameron Highland. Growing roses here are a huge challenge especially having hot and humid environment all year round at constant temperature between 27°C-34°C everyday. We usually have the monsoon rain between November till early February. Apart from that, it also seems like the haze disaster appear anually from July till end of September due to the southern wind blowing north and lack of rain. My roses suffer the most from chili thrip last October 2015. Thanks to all the rose lovers from this site, I manage to safe them all. Some turn out dead after that due to canker attack, but so far most I manage to safe. Thanks again to this site, I learn a lot about growing roses here. I have never been to Vietnam or Indonesia but I think our climate is similar. I took some pictures of them just now.

Soutine imported from Indonesia.

Damask own root bought locally here.

Imported from Indonesia. No id.

I also have Party Time, Oklahoma, Midnight Blue, Claire(David Austin) and Fragrant Plum imported from Thailand, very bright pink hybrid tea(no id) I bought locally and Red Intuition plus another one without id imported from Indonesia. They're not blooming today so no picture to display. I'm still searching for purple rose though. It is not easy to get purple rose in hot and humid climate as they all turn deep pink here, but I don't think I'll quit searching. I'm still learning and experimenting. I hope I'll find my purple rose soon.

Einin....You are growing beautiful roses thank you for sharing your photos.

Thank you too everyone for sharing your roses. You may have inspired someone else in tropical regions to grow roses as well.

Thank you Patty. I'm still learning. My latest project is to transfer all my potted roses to the ground. I notice their immune system is better when planted on the ground than in the pot. Still experimenting though. I do notice that Don Juan is doing well here too. I have yet to transfer it to the ground as I do not have trellis to support it.

By the way Ayakay, your 2nd rose(the white one) look like my Pope John Paul II two weeks ago when it was blooming. Any fragrant? Mine, yes.

Today, my Party Time and Claire blooming. Here are their pictures:

Very thick cloud early this morning and heavy rain till noon. I notice the presence of black spot and downy mildew on few of my roses. I pluck those infected leaves and throw them away straight. Hopefully it hasn't spread its spores yet.

Thank you, LeBlossom. Your post is so meaningful and informative.

I am in HCMC too . I have an Abraham Darby and a Princess Alexandra of Kent in my partial shade balcony. I am searching for some other colors.

Can you recommend in your list which rose is winner, runner ups for non-stop blooms, fragrance or vigorous health?

From your garden and mine, I think roses in tropical climate must be in partial shade even they require them in full sun. My roses (Vietnamese) in terrace suffer the full unrelent sun. Now they are burnt, maybe other diseases... My balcony is too small but the terrace is not suitable.

One more question, how about the size of the pots? I see them small?

Thank you!

I debated whether to start a new thread, or to jump onto this one. Well, here I am. So much of what has been said in this thread applies to me, that I thought it was best just to keep up the "tropical country" theme.

I live in Papua New Guinea, just north of Australia, and from about 3-6 degrees south of the equator. I live in the highlands, so our climate is more moderate that the ones mentioned so far. Our temperatures range from the low teens to the high twenties Celsius. We have a "dry" (usually only relatively so, but this year it was extremely dry) season in what would be Spring and Summer in the US, and a "Rainy" season the rest of the year.

I live on the campus of a hospital, where foreigners (mostly Americans, but some Brits, Aussies, Kiwis have lived along side Papua New Guineans for over 50 years.

There are rose bushes all around the station. I have no idea of their provenance, whether imported or obtained in country. I don't know names of any varieties. Most are large sprawling plants, mostly pink, but couple shades of red, some white.

I have two interests. One, I've been taking cuttings from different plants on the station and nearby villages. There is lots of advice on line about how to start roses from cuttings, and so far many of my cuttings are still alive and even thriving.

My second interest, and the basis for my questions to all of you is that I feel someone should be caring for the rose bushes around the station. They mostly have long branches, with a few looking old, thick and woody. Many of the stems are long and spindly. They seem to have been cut back randomly, and many of the stems branch in wild directions. On most of them I see a few blossoms. On a few I see profuse crops of flowers.

So, what can I do to keep these bushes healthy, to help them to produce more flowers? How should I prune them? How should I fertilize them? We don't have access to commercial fertilizers except small quantities of very expensive product. I plan to cut back or pull out the other plants that are crowding many of them.

Thanks,

Andy

Here are a couple of the plants that I want to care for. This one is sprawling, and tangled with a couple of other plants.

It bears very few, but nice small blossoms.

And another. The deep red color is not common here:

Any advice will be appreciated!

Andy

LeBlossom, Ayakay, Einin Dee-- it's so good to connect with fellow rose gardeners from tropical areas! Einin, I am from Borneo too (Brunei) :) All of your tropical-growing roses are just drop dead gorgeous (Such health! Such deep green leaves! Petals...!) I'm new myself, I'm not even super familiar with the names or breeds of roses I have but I'll slowly learn.

Andy, though I can't offer much of advice, just wanna saw it is a heartfelt thing your are doing caring for these lovely blooms!

Andy, I think maybe you should start a new thread, if no-one responds to your queries shortly. The temperature range you describe is a quite a bit cooler than tropical, and perhaps, less humid, being in the mountains.

I'm sure one of the many experienced posters will be able to identify your roses, and give you the right advice. I hazard a guess that they are Chinas.

Thanks! Yeah, I'll hold out til tomorrow, and if there's no action here, I'll start a new thread in the hopes that it gets more attention. I've found some information on pruning, but some of the descriptions are not clear, and many apply to a climate where there is a clear dormant period.

aiyoooo so glad to find fellow tropical asian gardener... i am from indonesia, live in jakarta and currently restarting my roses after switching to orchids this last 7 years. Glad to see that the roses you guys had can thrive so well and so healthy, it gives me hopes and strength to plow forward against small blooms, bs, mildew and black rots :)

salam, niken

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the late reply. Maisarah, I'm from Kuching. Nice to meet all rose lovers from the tropical region. I'm trying to find ways not to use chemical pesticide or fungicide on my roses. I wonder if hydrogen peroxide will do the trick. I manage to stop canker from spreading by using hydrogen peroxide so I was wondering what else can it do.

Hi Cheryl,

Are you still around? I'd like to know where you are in VN?

Hi, its very possible to grow roses in tropical climates, im growing a big garden in Dominican Republic in the center of the Caribbean sea, in lowland our climate is quite similar to yours; anyways its quite important to know certain things of the soil and pest of tropical areas, contact me at: manuel_bellon@hotmail.com

I am so happy to find this topic. Thanks all for great contribution. I live in Ho Chi Minh city too and started growing rose a couple of months ago. I am still learning but I believe that we can grow tempertate rose plants in this city with some care. The most important thing is lighting; rose would love morning sunlight in this city (till 12pm) but afternoon sunlight will burn young leave if they expose to direct sunlight too long. So growing rose with morning direct sunlight and afternoon shade is important. However I have a balcony with afternoon sunlight only; I do have 3 rose plants on this balcony (Alexandra of Ken, Red Eden and Spirit of Freedom); I make sure that my roses expose to direct sunlight only 2-3 hours; remaining time is with great light but not direct sun. They are doing quite well and Kent provided beautiful flowers last month and now some more are coming :)

Wow! So excited to come across this thread today. I also live in a tropical country (Lagos, Nigeria) and have become obssessed with trying to grow roses after finding a miniature rose in a local gardening centre here. Like the original poster, I've scored online trying to find a place to buy and wondering what exactly to buy. This thread has been thrilling and inspiring, and also chuck full of information. Thanks to everyone who contributed to it. Here is my rose. I've been able to propagate a few more plants via cuttings from it. I have no idea what it's called. Will definitely use the info I got from this thread going forward.