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bellarosa009

Suggestions for red groundcover roses

bellarosa
9 years ago

Hi,
I'm thinking of adding some low growing red groundcover roses to my front entrance way next year and was looking for some suggestions. Has anyone tried any of the Meidilland roses, i.e. Ruby or Fire Meidilland? Are there any Kordes groundcover roses you can recommend? Thank you for any suggestions.

Comments (7)

  • Patty W. zone 5a Illinois
    9 years ago

    I hope you get answers on RM. It's color showed as more of a dark pink tiny flower. However maybe I was not sent the correct rose. Not at all like the pretty pictures I see on a search of this rose.O'kay I just googled Fire Meidiland and these are their new version's of their of their old ones or ask if you can get your money back if they don't look like their pictures. Honestly the flowers on these roses are not even close. I had both and their flowers were tiny and full. Fire was orange red. I'm seriously confused. The pics I'm seeing look exactly like Kardinal Kolorscape.

  • bellarosa
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I hope I get a response too. The other rose I was looking at was Kashmir. I hope I'll get some feedback on this rose from folks living in the colder zones.

  • buford
    9 years ago

    I don't know if it's still in commerce, but years ago I bought these ground cover roses from J&P called Roseberry Blanket. They stay low, but will spread, have nice red flowers, will have nice hips in winter and are very disease resistant, even in my zone. I think it's a Kordes and it might be now known as Roseberry Vigarosa. I also had Sweet Vigarosa, which was also known as Neon, which was a hot pink. That also spread out, but did get a bit taller than RB. I know Palantine sells the Vigarosa roses.

  • nippstress - zone 5 Nebraska
    9 years ago

    It kind of depends how much ground you want to cover and what you want that to look like. Kashmir is a nice rose and totally trouble free in our zone, but it's not what I think of as a groundcover. It's a 3-4' nicely rounded bush, and the flowers are more of a crimson than a true red in my climate. I love it - it's trying to pump out blooms even in its first year in the bed - it's just more of a low to medium specimen rose than a ground cover.

    The red groundcover I do grow currently is Red Ribbons, and it's a Kordes. It has the more typical ground cover growth - about 18" high and 5' wide on a good year. It doesn't exactly fill in the space completely, as in weed control, but it's totally carefree and hardy as a rock. It has relatively loose blooms and they're a little on the crimson side of red, but it's a pretty steady bloomer all summer.

    If I were to plant a red ground cover again, I'd probably go back to Red Cascade. That one is also 18" high and as much as 10' wide. It puts out these amazing octopus arms that weave around everything else in the bed, and the blooms are these quarter-sized lovely dark red double blooms. You could clip a small spray of them for a boutiniere if you caught them early enough. Again, it doesn't fill in enough to be a weed control, but it sure can cover ground at a wide distance.

    Cynthia

  • meredith_e Z7b, Piedmont of NC, 1000' elevation
    9 years ago

    I really think Red Cascade is the one I tried and liked very much so long ago. I can't be sure, but that would be my first choice to give a shot.

    I have Roseberry Blanket and love her :) But she's often not really red when it gets hot here. I get a lot of deep magenta roses from many reds in the heat. Her hips are nice and red, though! And she's wonderful - bulletproof and not too tall.

  • bellarosa
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks everyone for your suggestions. Btw, I thought Red Cascade was a climbing miniature rose? Anyway, I'll have to look up your suggestions on helpmefind - my favorite rose website of all time.

  • nippstress - zone 5 Nebraska
    9 years ago

    Bellarosa - whether Red Cascade climbs or sprawls depends on how you grow her. If you tie her up to a support, she climbs. If not, she covers ground. What makes it work as a ground cover is that it doesn't just bloom at the end like most climbers (which would make them poor as ground covers). Instead, it puts out a lot of short laterals at regular intervals, so blooms pop up all over the place. As I recall, mine had about 4 or 5 main canes, each of which spread in a different direction with scattered blooms along the length.

    I agree - hmf is the best website for roses! Everyone should support it if possible with a premium membership so it stays around!

    Cynthia

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