22,153 Garden Web Discussions | Roses


Hi Sincerely 100, it's interesting that you mention our similar climates. Do you have alkaline soil, too? In spite of the heat here, we have a short growing season because we are so far north. I could really like a little longer to enjoy everything. I've noticed that heat does dissipate the rose scent, and that more humid climates get better wafting, which almost never occurs outside here, but inside the house the scent of a rose bouquet is much more strong in the air. I get no scent from Augusta Luise which is on your list. But I'd like to add Angel Face and Young Lycidas to my list.
Have a good winter. Diane

Hi Diane, thanks for your comment. I don't think our climate is that similar as my is so hot for so long. However I think we may have similar noses as we seem to enjoy similar roses for scent. Yes I have alkaline sandy soil. Our bore water has a pH of 9!! I have to keep adding acid and trace elements to the soil to keep the garden green. I do have an Angel Face and it does smell good too but not as consistently as the above mentioned roses. I've just ordered a Young Lycidas today as well! Heard some good comments about its scent. I will keep you posted. Many of my roses are not scented in the first year. PAOK is one of them. It flowers a lot and I hope it will become fragrant next year. I smelled one at a rose show earlier this year and it did have a very strong perfume and a note which I enjoy. Beverly also took a year to produce perfume. Do you cut the Augusta Luise? I cut them when they are half open and keep them indoors. As they open in the vase overnight they become very strongly scented and the scent will last for about 3 days. I got this rose because of its perfume alone. I smelled a vase of these at a rose show and they smelled like strong pot pourri. Everyone was in awe of its fragrance. I knew I had to grow one.


The good news, is that as much as I hate those same kind of weeds you are battling in my garden, they pull up pretty easy and I have fewer and fewer each year. I don't think we had hardly any and then there was a forest fire near by and wow coated with them.


In my garden the summer blooms are just another ok mauve-red that fades in the sun, but the spring & fall blooms can be absolutely stunning. Don't quite know how to describe, purple with blue & black velvet tones that are like no other rose. Has good hardiness in my z4 area but needs to be sprayed for black spot.


Ash Wednesday is a once flowering large climber without the "HT" shape, and lacks the intensity of coloring in comparison. It's a pretty rose, but not really something useful in creating the "decorator" colors in the hybrid tea class. It would require many generations to tame it and introduce the shape desired. Grey Pearl opened the door for roses like this to enter the market. Nothing quite like it had been introduced before. It had been available ten years by the time Ash Wednesday arrived on the scene. By then, almost half a dozen others in the lavender to tan shades had been introduced from its breeding. Kim

No, I didn't know that Dr. Huey blooms only once a season--in the spring -- and no one mentioned that in my previous post. And I can't recall if my rose gets a really bad case of blackspot.
My garden is such a mess -- the soil needs to be improved, billions of weeds need to be pulled, roses need to be moved (the are too crowded) and I want to add 4" of bark mulch -- that I don't want to wait until summer and fall to see if the "Dr. Huey" re-blooms.
If only "Dr. Huey" remains, I'd rather know now so I can dispose of it instead of relocating it and disposing of it later (after I do all of the above work).

Please note that you can have Dr. Huey in your garden even when there is not a "scion" or top rose at all.This is because, if someone dug it up to get rid of it years ago, it can still come back from root bits. Very annoying rose. We just noticed another small bush of it (because it bloomed) in a place where it has been dug up and eradicated twice already in previous years. Dr. Huey is why I never plant roses which are not on their own roots - I think we will be digging it up for decades. When it is healthy, it is a lovely once blooming climber. However, for whatever reason around here it tends to be covered in PM all the time.
Jackie


You are lucky to have at least one of them Ingrid. I got none of these..lol. I am waiting for next week to see what my local nurseries is carrying. Unfortunately our weather is cold right now and most nurseries are delaying time to bring the roses out. We just had some light snow and hales on Thursday..sigh.

The Kordana are quite prolific bloomers and will readily bloom again. It is only April so be patient. They will respond well to a balanced fertilizer (a plant fertilizer for blooming plants should do) but be careful not to apply too much nitrogen or they will grow quite tall. After they finish the first bloom shear off all the flower stems down to the second set of leaves and you should get another cycle of bloom for mid to late summer. These will need full sun to perform their best. To assure the best hardiness I would not prune roses late fall in Upper State NY. I would do my last cut in early August and then let the plant go dormant. Hard pruning should be done after President's Day to shape the plant for the coming year..


28-32 isn't going to hurt your roses, even new growth. Colder than that and it will. We got down to 25.9 in the last freeze at the end of march. I did lose some new growth and my hydrangeas were toast, but everything else was ok. I did protect some of the smaller roses.

I have Gardens of the World and it is just about the most vigorous heaviest bloomer of them all. No mildew but not as tall as Granada with red-pink-white blooms that resemble Cherry Parfait. It is much better than Cherry Parfait IMO both for strength and bloom quality. I highly recommend Gardens but I don't know if it is available.
I would never be critical of Californians since I love it there. I know when we get out there I'm not going to want to work all the time in the garden like I do here. It is a 100 percent completely different lifestyle.
As far as Granada is concerned, with the regular spraying I do anyway powdery mildew is a problem barely worth mentioning even on Granada. I think some years I haven't even seen it at all and I can't think of any other rose in the garden that gets it. Granada is my favorite red-pink-yellow blend because it is so big and vigorous and such a good producer of it funky colorful blooms. I would suggest that on the the west coast where you can grow it without worrying about PM you ought to give it a try.

This is definitely a rose that loves dry heat. My Granada has not been sprayed and has no mildew or blackspot what so ever. It produces large flushes in quick succession. Each flush will have more than 100 long stem roses perfect for cutting. It is also very long lasting as a cut flower - around 10-12 days in a vase. My garden is in zone 10 Mediterranean climate with 40 degree C dry heat in summer. My Granada is on Fortuniana rootstock so extremely vigorous.

Bagged roses are bareroots, at least they were before they broke dormancy. You can repot them now, but be prepared for wilting leaves, which might happen after transplant. Water them very well before and after transplant. Better now than when the canes start growing out.

Thanks for your reply diane_nj! I differentiated them from a typical bare root rose that has a larger root system intact that aren't sold in bags thinking they'd be less able to withstand a repotting 2 wks in. But maybe you're saying it doesn't make a difference how big the root system is,a bare root is a bare root. Do you think the wilted leaves will bounce back?







The bush was planted 25 years ago and was deer food for a long time. I noticed a bloom last year and caged it. It is a tall skinny bush and I built a tall skinny cage. I'm hoping it will fill out when protected. I got about six blooms last year on repeats. When I cut off the stem for the picture I posted I accidently got a branch and there was another bud on it. It opened in a vase but has faded a little. The first picture was taken in the evening and the color wasn't quite right. Here's the faded bloom taken in sunlight.
I'll photograph it again next time it blooms.
Thank you very much for the info Steve. Ordered a rose band, hope it will grow fast. :-)