22,153 Garden Web Discussions | Roses

Lynn, my Don Juan is about 8-9 yrs old, southeast corner of house (best spot for our climate) and receives irrigation from both the spray-pattern emitters positioned on it and a deep-flood from the hose every couple weeks during the summer. Today the high is 116F and it'll be over 110F for the rest of the week. Possibly I just have a bad plant but there hasn't been a 3-inch bloom on any of my roses since July 1... about the time it hit 115F several days straight. That's pretty common around here especially after the monsoon winds come rolling through on top of the heat.

moroseaz,

Your current temperatures are similar to our July and beginning of August, with the exception of a 120+ day here and there ( July). Having those regular 100 teen days in August too, separates Las Vegas from AZ. We hit 106, I believe, today, and last weather check we were in the 101-103 range for the next few days, so about 10 degrees or so more where you are give or take; which is significant. Our temperature decline, while it is still hot, begins in mid to late August.

My Don Juan is watered daily via a drip line irrigation that sends water down around the root zone. It also is well mulched. My first flush was from late March or early April all the way through mid June. The current bloom is the first 3" bloom I have seen during the summer. In August, unlike July, the plants receive a reprieve as the lows dip down into the high seventies or so for hours, whereas in July, it dips down into the mid to high 90's for a couple of hours or so.

Your Don Juan has definitely been there long enough to show you how it is going to perform given the same input.
Good luck.

Lynn

The ARS trying to sell HTs of any kind as a "gateway" rose to bring in new people who want to grow roses is so antiquated it's silly. Please tell me that the goal of this whole thing wasn't to increase general rose sales.

Believing my only options were HTs I didn't grow roses in my perennial gardens for 20 years. It wasn't until OGRs became something less fuzzy in my mind and I realized I didn't have to purchase my plants locally (since no one sells OGRs here!) that I dipped my toe in the rose world. A study that (1) promotes HTs and (2) claims something you spray is "easy." Would have done nothing to capture me and that much more to push me away from roses in general.

Having it taken so long for me to finally find Tea roses it makes me sad to see them so maligned by associating them like this with HTs--intentionally. I really get why someone like Jeri would be unhappy about this. It's like her life's work of educating us about Tea roses has been hijacked. Just as she seems to be making some traction they come in a try to steal the goodwill she and others have built for Tea roses by erronously glomming on to the "Tea" name.

Consumers, in general, have often confused HTs and Teas because they just don't understand the difference. We see it here on the forums all the time. "My Tea rose.." and it regularly is an HT. The ARS' mission statement says they exist to EDUCATE. I'm glad others see the fallacy of this "education", too. Kim

Ok...so Ingrid changed my mind.

Hybrid teas are the ones that got me hooked, so they will always be special to me. I think they can be quite beautiful planted en masse and the individual blooms are lovely, many have wonderful fragrances. I love all roses though and want to give them all a chance. Maybe not Knock Outs, but even they serve a purpose.

Why can't they understand? I feel your frustration. My dad made a mess of the garden too when I was just starting out. After a while he stopped. I have had plumbing crews and other service people smash down plants far outside of the work area, even those roped off. I can never understand it. Sometimes its like you have to stand right there watching and waiting to be ready to make a rescue. I do whatever I can myself and try to hire people that will listen if I can't do it myself. It's that " they're only plants " way of thinking and it drives me crazy.

Keep them watered and clean up any raggedy cuts. I would probably go in and cut out any dead growth and clean up/ shape the plants as long as they are getting a trim now. go together to buy some mulch to help them along since they don't have the leaves shading the roots now and the heat will come on. That makes a big difference in helping them bounce back. As soon as the heat passes, you can feed and I bet you'll have some great roses around Thanksgiving. Let us know how it goes.

Thank you all for your responses. Hopefully he will get the hedges cleared out soon as it is a mess right now. But I will keep in mind to water and fertilize after the heatwave is over. I'm going to cross my fingers that they grow back. I think I am more annoyed that he doesn't care about landscaping and can't appreciate it enough to maintain things. He just wants to get rid of all the trees, hedges that he can get his hands on. I need to keep an eye on him when he walks around with the cutters.

Steve, I'm glad you didn't give up. I think you have begun to beat them now.

That baby deer is giving you the stink-eye...

He's saying, "come at me, bro!"

Hi Tigers,
I have Chrysler Imp and Veteran's Honor. Plus I'm an aussie living in the USA but I know Melbourne fairly well! I love both these roses but 2 things: you will definitely have to spray regularly and I'd place them where they get sun from sunrise to noon or so. CI has the most fantastic fragrance, beautiful rose form and is quite a nice shaped bush to boot. Veteran's Honor is simply the most amazing vivid shade of red I've ever seen. It's incredible. Unfortunately, little to no scent. Seems like a nice plant too and pumps out the flowers. Have you been up to the rose gardens at Weribee Park? It's been quite a few years since I was there but they used to be great and they might have specimens for you to check out.

Thanks guys for all your help great info.Yes I have been to the rose garden in werribee wonderfull place and great roses there.I'm just looking forward to see how all 3 go to be honest after reading and speaking to people about them.I must say all 3 roses are pretty rare to come across here.

So sorry to hear about your Mom, Kousa. I've been through that too so I know what a strain it is. I'm glad my pictures were some comfort to you.

Thanks very much everyone. I feel for you too Seil and I know that it is not by accident that your roses are perfect and beautiful but by a lot of constant care, attention, and love that your roses give you such wonderful blooms.

I envy you guys who share your rose obsession with your S.O. But then I remember he shares my horse obsession, so it's all good. It's really kind of funny, because he doesn't understand spending hundreds on roses, but wouldn't blink if I suggested spending thousands on another horse.

Thankfully I do not have the room for spending hundreds on roses, well after I add in the fact I just started my 'container garden' this year. So now it'll just be maintaining haha.

My SO is half and half with supporting. He knows how happy these roses make me, though with the state of the porch, he kinda grumbles when I suggest walking through the garden center hehe. He's actually even helped me on occasion when I ask nicely for a strong man :)

And update for ya'll, those 3 roses came in today and not one comment was made by him, AND yesterday when we wandered through my Lowes, I found the stevia plant I've been looking for all season and he suggested I buy it now! Yippee!

I'm with Seil in the sense that I'll make a more convincing case for my nominees with pictures, though I admit I don't have photos of some that are true contenders. Like Kate, I left the Austins for the OGR list, and there are plenty of moderns to compete for the spots:

Apricot: AARGGGH - this was my (second) toughest category...Abbaye de Cluny? Polka? Bonita Renaissance? My beloved Versigny? Since I've posted one of Versigny recently, and the others are more Austin-like, I'm going with Celeb that I rarely see mentioned here on GW.

Bicolor: OK, for a lover of weird roses this is the only category that could be harder than Apricots. Heart 'n' Soul - already won my "best of Shrub" award. Edgar Degas - heartbreakingly lovely en masse and not too shabby individually. Red Intuition definitely but I don't have a photo. I'll have to go with the kind of rose that anti-modern rosarians hate, that's garish contrast, stiffly formed petals, and virtually indestructible lasting blooms. This could be either Love & Peace or Dream Come True, but my photo was better of Dream Come True.

Mauve: Poseidon would be my vote simply for the health and vigor of the plant, with very nice blooms too, but I don't have a photo. Elizabeth of Goshen and St. Elizabeth of Hungary were in the running but their pictures were blurry. I'm going to go with Pillow Talk below, which is much more purplish than this photo shows, though Nimbus will always have a special haunting place in my heart (but is it really mauve?)

Orange: OK, I thought about sneaking in Oranges and Lemons or Andre Willemse since they're orange stripes, but in the spirit of the thing I stuck with the solids. It came down to Buffy Sainte Marie, Liverpool Remembers, or my final selection that's something indefinably lovely more than orange, Gilbert Becaud:

Pink, warm/light: Aloha and Savoy Hotel are definite contenders for me here, but Spiced Coffee allows me to squeeze in a color blend without exactly cheating on the bicolor category:

Dark/cool pink: Wayyy too many contenders here, as half of the roses seem to be some variety of pink. So once again I'll cheat and put in a lovely eye-catching pink that has an intriguing contrasting flip side (not exactly a bicolor in my strictest interpretation of that term), Shades of Autumn

Red: As much as I love the modern reds and particularly the deep dark burgundy reds, there were only two serious contenders here for me. One is the elusive Messire Delbard, who arrived in mail order with the most heart-stopping intriguing quartered blooms in a deep romantic dark red. Being a climber, he's of course a diva, and so far this summer he's sat in his corner and sulked like the four-year-old he is, refusing to bloom. I'm swayed by a pretty face, so he stays in hopes of future glory. The winner anyway probably would have been Nigrette. I first saw it in a rose garden in Goteborg Sweden when I was on business there in late May. Not the best time for a rose garden visit - almost the only thing in bloom was Nigrette, but my jaw dropped and I resolved I simply had to have this rose. It really is this deeply sensuous dark burgundy red purple black as in this photo, which makes up for it being a scrawny, gluttonous, blackspotted knee-high mess of a diva as it is (thankfully, it's hardy or I might have to bash my head against something hard to stop planting it every year)

White: I have quite a few whites but none that excel over the others. Cream Flower Circus would probably be my pick, but it's too pink to be exactly white. I have PJPII and Bolero, but I couldn't catch them being good, so I'll put in a photo of Lorise that has hints of pink on the petals that are NOT officially bicolored (ahem), so I'm not cheating

Yellow: Sutter's Gold was jumping up and down to get my attention and I almost succumbed, but it's sort of a bicolor, and you know I wouldn't dare to put a bicolor in this competition outside of its category (snort). I'll go with Michaelangelo, who lives up to a rather ambitious name quite well.

Russet: See, I'm not even cheating with bicolors in my bonus category - here's a solid color russet that has earned its favorite spot not just for deeply saturated russet double blooms, but for sheer tenacity in the face of my zone 4 pocket and several clematis that have threatened to strangle it, and nearly succeeded some years. This is Terra Cotta.

Of course it's impossible to pick the most beautiful roses, and my undying loyalty is absolutely swayed by the fantastic choices here, well, all but Nigrette. I guess I have a weakness for scrawny mutts with big dark pleading eyes.

Cynthia

I'm just going to say my most beautiful are, and in no color order:

Cherry Parfait (love the pic above, mine are exact!)
Rose Rhapsody (bought it on whim and can't get enough, a deep dark pink)
Love Song (really pretty lavendar)
Cajun Sunrise (a bicolor cream and pink)
Elle (um, I was told apricot, pics look pink on websties, in RL? I'd go with pink, but maybe I got the wrong rose??)
Colorific (an orange that the heat turns into a nice light red)
Ketchup and Mustard (the name annoys, but the flowers are very eye popping)
Fire n Ice (added it because it was a friends and has as special place in my heart!)
An unknown red (bought at a box store and has been a bloom machine!)
Love and Peace
Dream Come True (both equally gorgeous!)
Some honorable mentions:
Strawberry Ice ( a light pink)
Falling in Love

One day I'll stop being lazy and actually take pictures of my plants! Sadly, at the moment, I've just not had the time to devote enough care for them to produce any kind of decent photo. :(

Here are some pics I took earlier this year! (I'm not the best photographer LOL)

Fire and Ice

Ketchup and Mustard (not the best pic, but it's all I have!)

There are lots of things you can plant in your lovely new yard! If you want roses though you'll have to plant them out from under that tree to get any kind of decent bloom on them. You could put in a nice rose bed out from under the trees in the sunshine as the entry into the more shady "secret" area.

Thank you for all of the replies! I have a newfound enthusiasm for my shady area. Now I have to decide if I should plant all one type of rose as a kind of hedge bordering my secret garden or mix it up. I'll definitely post pics as this project gets going. Thanks again!!