22,153 Garden Web Discussions | Roses
I've been really pleased with the roses I've gotten from them the last couple of years, despite the bankruptcy/supplier issues. My bare roots have been large, sturdy plants & when one of my container roses arrived dead they replaced it immediately. I got Full Sail, Sugar Moon, scentimental, Julia Child, Pope John Paul, Opening Night & a Don Juan climber; all pretty reliable roses, so maybe that's why I had better luck than some others have had.
I agree, Diane - just seeing the variety of settings and roses and colors and companions in everyone's gardens would be terrific. The pictures here are wonderful, but it would be great to host a "GardenWeb national tour" like they do local garden tours. Of course, we'd have to get funding - perhaps we could divert some of the advertising money we support on this site? (smile) As for the mailman, it was absolutely the least I could do for the lovely gentleman who uncomplainingly delivered to my door all those immense boxes of mail order roses. He retired the year after Eurodesert closed, and had delivered over 75 boxes of very heavy mother plants of roses from those sales alone. I don't think that affected his retirement, but you never know... Regardless, sharing our garden is half of the fun of having it.
Cynthia
Happy New Year everyone! I wish everyone and their gardens a healthy, happy and vigorous 2015.
Sorry, I would be on more but been having computer issues during the holidays. Hopefully it is fixed now.
Anyways, I find that I tend to like different colours each season. Over the years, I've noticed that I have a majority of pink roses as well. It is ironic since pink is not my favourite colour in roses. I do like the pale, soft ones but I really cringe from the shocking lipstick pink..lol. I think my problem was buying roses based on book reviews and the catalogue pics.
Then I went for yellows since I do like yellow roses. Of course, now I noticed the yellows I have is too beigey, which I don't like either. I like the strong golden yellow. But in a way it is a good "disappointment" since beigey yellow and pinks do look good together.
This past season I went for a few reds but mainly apricots. I think this upcoming seasons I am going for lavender and bi-coloured roses but especially bright coloured ones. I noticed that most of my roses end up being pale and I want bright colours in my garden.
My mom would keep buying rose bushes a few times a year, and she always seemed to be drawn to the pink and pastel orangish color roses (and a few mauve purple ones too). I got frustrated and thought these were ugly colors. I don't think she was even consciously aware of the type of colors she was drawn to.
I prefer the bolder plain solid colors: red, white, yellow, bluish purple. I have a hard time understanding what the appeal of muted or tinted colors is, to me they look like someone mixed all the paint colors together and got a murky brackish mix.
Thanks very much you all for giving me more information about Savannah. Does anyone have a suggestion of a rose to pair it with? It is not far from three large shrubs of Peachy Oso Easy, one Ebb Tide (she is the problem), and a Chuckles. Its also not far from some Mme De La Roche Lambert, an old hybrid P that is a magenta pink. Its not in season much after June. I can move Chuckles, or the HP, but not the OSO Easies. I have white alyssum all around the bed. There is a Heritage several feet from it. I guess this is too much info. Other than the Peachies, I have no coral other than a baby Caramella in the bed anywhere. Thanks again. Mary
Hi Carol,
We do have more heat and a longer growing season...I usually have blooms until around mid November. Most roses will get too tall to stay potted for long here, but most don't ever get as dense as Grand Dame has.
Ingrid, I'm really hoping Grand Dame performs well for you, and you end up loving her...keep us posted.
Judith, Mine is in full sun all day and has no trouble handling it...blooms are long lasting and don't crisp. You're probably hotter than me, though. We hover in the mid to upper 90's for long stretches, and usually do have some low triple digits...but triple digits don't normally last for extended periods
edited to correct at least some of the bad spelling & grammar...I must still be half asleep...lol
This post was edited by pat_bamaZ7 on Thu, Jan 29, 15 at 10:36
Did those start as bands? I planted 13 roses as bands last spring and over time I discovered that the thorny ones didn't start out thorny, but when they settled in they'd put out large canes with lots of thorns. It scared the snot out of me but it looked just like your picture and they turned out fine.
azjenny, RRD is not common in AZ. Most of our grafted roses are on Dr Huey rootstock not multiflora. While I still watch for RRD, cause those pictures are terrifying, it isn't something that any local rosarian has reported. Many of the older roses that like a light freeze start putting out lush new growth as soon as the temps warm back up. At this point, all of my roses appear to be ready for spring so winter pruning time is pretty much over.
Hi Lily
Thanks for the photos - they help a lot. Good job too of sleuthing out the types of roses. For John Cabot, I think the best plan for you in spring would be twofold: First, prune out the deadwood after the spring weather starts to kick in (i.e. when the forsythia start to bloom) - in that first photo everything black or brown definitely needs to go, and even the green canes with the purple behind them need to be pruned until at a fresh cut the cane is creamy colored in the middle (no dark brown centers). That will leave only healthy cane to support the blooming canes. Don't worry if it gets pruned down to a foot or less above the ground, but leave as much healthy can as you can to work with. Then second, tie the canes as much as you can toward the horizontal and put up a support between the rose and the wooden fence for the rose to climb on. If you cut the canes down to their stiffest parts you may not be able to bend these original canes sideways, but work with the new growth after it puts out new canes in the spring (these will be more flexible). What I might do for support of a big heavy caned climber like John Cabot is put a few deer panels (from a feed store) behind the rose and stake them into the ground. Then there's something sturdy to tie the rose canes onto but it will disappear as the rose puts out leaves.
In my experience, John Cabot is a heavy spring bloomer with only sporadic bloom later in the summer. That is one of several reasons that you want to leave as much healthy cane as you can, since the rose will bloom mostly on old wood. That may be why you didn't see much bloom when you last pruned it. You particularly want to keep as much as you can of the main central cane, since climbers want to grow their main cane out to their preferred height before they do much blooming. Still, the dead cane will do you no good so you do need to prune it out. If you still don't get much bloom after it has more like 4-5' surviving cane after a winter, part of the problem might be the relatively limited sun in that spot (at least as far as the pictures look). Roses prefer around 6 hours of direct or at least filtered sun a day, though some will bloom on less.
Darlow's Enigma is a good example of one that I have that will bloom on less sun quite well. The guidelines for tying up a climber don't apply to this rose as far as my experience goes, since this rose wants to be a big 6' or more bush and at least 4' wide, with a multitude of thin canes that will all bloom when happy. You'll need to get in there and (carefully, for your skin's sake) prune out obvious dead wood. I only prune Darlow's Enigma once in the spring and he gets a surface trim, since he's full of tiny branches with major prickles that catch me every time. In my experience he blooms off and on all summer with almost no care from me, though the blooms are quite small and mostly impressive as a group rather than individually. I'll attach a shot that has him in the background to give you an idea of his habit - he's the white bush at the back blocking the neighbor's windows. The limited sun will bother him less than John Cabot, so mostly give him plenty of water when needed and let him be.
Hope this helps!
Cynthia
Ingrid, thank you for the website suggestion, and Sam, thank you for the weather info. Our neighbors here had beautiful roses, so in my case I'm thinking it was my excessive pruning :/
Cynthia, thank you so much for the detailed info about these varieties and pruning and climbing supports!! And thanks for the picture!
The fence with the roses faces SSW, so I think that the roses get full sun, except for the ones that are partly blocked by the chokecherry tree.
I really appreciate all the help! :)
Hi again, Kim,
Up here nothing is going on in the garden--all looks gloomy and dead, but I know it isn't. Things are just sleeping, but it's hard to be patient. We have a short, intense growing season.
I'm glad you were able to obtain bud wood from a friend. What will you be doing with the grafted plant now that it has taken? Will you be crossing Blue Bayou in the future with something else? What if you came up with the ultimate blue rose? I've thought of that quite a bit, and wonder if it could be done. The rose world would beat a path to your door.
Is it legal to cross a rose like, say, Augusta Luise (Tantau) that is still under patent with another rose to produce something new? I'm very uninformed about this kind of thing. I mention this rose because I think it is so unique and might produce more unique offspring. It's all so intriguing.
Have fun with Blue Bayou and all your other projects.
Diane
Hi Diane, thank you! I was thinking of taking the healthiest lavender/mauve and crossing it with the healthiest copper/apricot/amber to see what might be accomplished in the tan/russet shades. There are a few which come to mind to use, but we'll see how they progress. Oh, yes, it is legal to use patented varieties for breeding, unless you happen to have one which contains a patented gene. Not that they "created" the gene, they've simply moved it from one genus of plant to another and we mistakenly permitted them to be patented. So far, the only rose known to contain such a gene is Applause, the "blue" florist rose, which isn't blue. There are newer contracts being written for new roses being released for testing and distribution which demand the return of any mutations and promising seedlings obtained or discovered by the distributors and testers to the originator of the variety. Fortunately, those don't pertain to you and me, the end purchasers who wish to explore and experiment with them. Good luck being patient until spring! That isn't something I think I would be very good at! Kim
Here is a link that might be useful: Applause
Wow, I have never seen roses like yours, Diane. They are gorgeous and almost otherworldly to me, very sculptural. I think it is one of the things that we don't often see for those of us living up in colder climates. I may have asked you before but are those just one individual rose plant especially the JC?
Hi, JJ,
Thank you so much for those nice comments. I give Julia all the credit.
There is one Julia plant on each side of the sidewalk. The Bernstein-Rose plants are below the Julias and much smaller. I love both roses, but Julia outblooms Bernstein-- and everything else, for that matter.
Diane
Thanks Jerijen, Diane & Dan. It make a lot of sense Jeri after you explain it in that perspective. I guess I never thought about genetics in plants. I only think about it in human terms. I guess I took it for granted. I always assume that the seedlings would be "similar" in appearance to the parents and would inherit any mutations as well. I guess in modern terms, cuttings would be its "clone" if you want the exact plant. Makes perfect sense now. It makes more sense now after many readings that refer to when hybridists wanted to "create" new plants through its "seedlings" by pollination. Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.
OH I hope they sell Chihuly here in WA at the box store, that would be a find! Got Marmalade Skies there last year, but they wanted full nursery price. I got it anyway.
BTW- your Gigi is SO cute! I hope she continues to do well and bring you joy.
Well, perhaps I've jumped the gun but I've pruned 3 of my well-established roses, one old Hybrid Tea & 2 White Meidillands. I've noticed that my Rugosas haven't broken dormancy yet but everything else has. I live in coastal W.WA, hope I don't regret my early pruning but they seemed to need it, breaking out everywhere.
Hi to all fellow western Washington rose lovers! I have to admit- I got the itch too!
Red Intuition was leafing and I had a Neil Diamond and Veterans's honor waiting to be planted.
It may be too early and as Morz8 said, we might still get a freeze. Yes I know better but couldn't help it!
Perhaps I'l regret it later, but let's cross our fingers we'll continue on with this mild winter and feel lucky we're not back east.
Even though its been in the pot 2 years, it is not a monster and would be very manageable if put in the ground and not pruned - I would tie the canes together with hay string then plant the rose. Just didn't know if I should prune or not. Sounds like this one shouldn't be pruned - since it is dormant now...might just go ahead and plant, mulch and water it and tie the canes to the fence.
Seil, always love seeing your photos - you have gorgeous roses! Thanks for the reply.
Judith
Thank you, Judith, for your kind remarks. I'm glad you enjoy them.
If it's dormant now is the best time to do it. It will wake up and not even know it was moved, lol!