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Your Favorite WILD Colored Roses?

13 years ago

Dark Night looks amazing. Then, I found a Purple (HT I think) with a gold reverse, and for the life of me, I can't find it again.

What are your favorite odd or WILD colored roses. The ones that make you do a double take in the garden, or shake your head wondering how that color combination could have possibly occurred?

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Comments (14)

ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
13 years ago
I grow mostly antique roses and they're not known for odd or wild colors generally. I do have Julio Iglesias, a striped modern rose, and since it's the only stripey I have I suppose I could call it odd, at least for my garden. I really love this rose, both for its appearance and its wonderful fragrance.

Ingrid
wanttogarden
13 years ago
This year I went crazy and bought Hot Coco, Cinco de Mayo, Easy Does it, and Pumpkin Patch. I have not seen the blooms on them yet. But I also like color on most of Austins, too bad I cannot grow many of them. The one that I love and have is Jubilee Celebration.

FJ
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I'm with Seil and Ben - nothing makes my heart go pitter patter or my wallet go "poof" faster than a picotee, mutable or striped rose, the more high contrast the better. After that I'm drawn to the "oddball" colors of russet, parchment or lavender (or best all three together, like Distant Drums or Koko Loko). Dark dark burgundy flowers also zing something in my soul. As for wafting, even without my poor nose nothing really wafts very far in my dry climate. We don't get wafting of hyacinths and lilacs in the spring even though I have 100's of the former and 3 well established bushes of the latter. Peonies you have to get up close to smell, and the same for lilies. I'll get a vague "pleasant smell" from an area with over 10 Stargazer lilies blooming, but even my son with the hypersensitive nose doesn't gag at the smell. It just dissipates too fast. I never knew Darlow's Enigma or Marie Pavie were supposed to have any scent at all, and even my daughter with a good nose shrugs when presented with a bouquet of those. I like fragrance when I can get it, but I look far more often than I smell, as far as roses go. Cynthia
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Bright A$$ orange! Also don't like the orange reds either. Also yellow. Now don't get me wrong. Yellow is my favorite color, however, on roses in my garden, it fades to white in two seconds with the heat I get. Then it blends into the white fencing I have and you can't see the flowers. That being said, I see some awfully pretty yellow roses here on this site. I almost got rid of my Lady of Shalott because she produced exactly two blooms her first year and they were both bright A$$ orange! Moved her into a pot and more in the shade and she was much prettier her second year. Placed her in the ground where she is again pretty much shaded and I love the color that she is. Lots and lots of blooms on her. All beautiful. With Austins you have to give them at least three to five years to come into their own. She is also own root so it takes a bit longer for her.
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Kate, you don't need to kick anything off your list; we'll call this gorgeous beauty your bonus rose. I can never see much difference between this one and SdlM - perhaps slightly darker / It's a lovely photo. Marianne, that second shot made me swoon. You have the soul of a true gardener. Melissa, you are a natural and gifted writer. You've convinced me to put Etoile de Lyon in my garden as soon as I can pretend that one of the roses I have is not nearly as good. Sometimes I wish the tea roses were smaller so I can fit more of them in, but their size is a large part of their beauty. Lisa, I've had the middle-sized Cecile (also knows as Bloomfield Abundance I believe) and it bloomed most of the time. The flowers were identical to the other two Ceciles. Mine looked like a short but fairly upright climber and I imagine could easily be grown as a large bush.
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diane_nj 6b/7a
13 years ago
Depends on what you consider "wild". Most people would Stephen Rulo, a tan/mauve combo, and I have its near match, an unnamed seedling from my late mentor.

I had, for a hot minute, the lavender and cream striped florist rose Stranger, and I wish I could get it again.
kstrong
13 years ago
Diane -- go put yourself on Burling's wait list for Stranger. I gave her more budwood for it last week, so she should have it eventually.
diane_nj 6b/7a
13 years ago
I will, thanks!!!
petaloid
13 years ago
I like Honey Dijon, a grandiflora that's kind of a tan/mustard color.

Here is a link that might be useful: photos of Honey Dijon
bethnorcal9
13 years ago
Well, any of you who know me, know my favorite color class is the "oddballs." Anything tan, brown, green, grey, mauve and yellow, or any other weird combo.

Harmonyp, I bet the purple and gold reverse one might've been either TWILIGHT ZONE or DOUBLE FEATURE. Those two are gorgeous. I didn't get any good pics last yr, but there are a lot of good ones on HMF.

I'm dying to get my DARK NIGHT from Edmunds. That's my last order to come. Don't know when they'll be shipping.

If you want a great, wild colored, vivid rose in the same veins as DARK NIGHT, there's another Meilland one, ESTELLE, that's really beautiful. Rusty-orange with a yellow reverse.

Here is a link that might be useful: My oddball thread in the Gallery
mike_in_new_orleans
13 years ago
Definitely my favorite wild colored rose is Red Intuition, a stunning red-on-red striped florist rose I bought from Wisconsin Roses. You have to get on a waiting list for this one, but its worth it. Medium sized blooms but of great form, very long-lasting, and prolific. Healthy and easy to care for, too. So its not fragrant, but Hell, you can't have everything. It surely would not last as long cut if it was very fragrant, too. I love putting in in a vase in my office at work. I get so many people commenting on how it looks too specatuclar to be real. But it is.

Others I like that come to mind: the pale yellow strips on black-cherry red of Abra Cadabra and Memphis Music. Unfortunately, my Memphis Music started out producing striped roses then reverted to solid black-red with a little bit of yellow on the petal backs. Still beautiful but not "wild" like the stripes. Also like the big buxom flamIing red/orange/yellow fiery blend of Cary Grant. Just not a very prolific bloomer. I've never tried to grow Purple Tiger; believing the rumors that it lacks vigor and is tempermental, but the intense purple stripes are awesome. I guess I like stripes. I'd love to see that Purple on Gold, though. Wonder if Helpmefind has any photos of it.
Kathy
13 years ago
Kathy, Burling's? The name is unfamiliar -- can you give more info (though, with my luck, she doesn't graft to Fortuniana). Thanks.
professorroush
13 years ago
Got to be Basye's Purple for me. Or Austrian Copper.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Musings blog on Austrian Copper
diane_nj 6b/7a
13 years ago
Kathya11, "Burling" is Burling Leong at Burlington Roses. She's in CA, own root.

Here is a link that might be useful: Burlington Roses
kstrong
13 years ago
On many striped roses, the stripes are unstable. If you get a branch with solid colors, you have to cut it off, all the way down to the junction where you believe the solid color rose came from. You have to stay on top of this, or your whole plant will soon be all solid color roses. This is especially true of the very unstable stripes, like Memphis Music/Abracadabra.

Kathya11 -- Burling does not graft anything on fortuniana, but she does graft on Pink Clouds, when someone requests it (which I do regularly). I don't believe anyone has tested that rootstock in Fla. My guess is that it would be useful there, as it is a VERY vigorous rootstock and might well be able to keep ahead of the nematodes.
canadian_rose
13 years ago
My wildest roses are:

Paradise
Paradise Found
Julio Iglesias

I love all three of these roses!!

Carol
mike_in_new_orleans
13 years ago
kstrong, thanks for the imput on stipes instability. I haven't had a steller track record with some. With Memphis Music, I bought it as a rooted start, and the first 3 or so blooms were striped, then a solid 1 or 2, and from then on I've only noticed a couple random individual blooms that have had a tiny yellow fleck or two, but basically never got stripes again. The bush is quite healthy and prolific.
I had previously ordered a striped Careless Love from the Radiance family of roses. Never even saw one stripe.
My stripers that remained so include Scentimental, Rock & Roll (despite poor striping in hot weather), Red Intuition, Pink Intuition, and minis Jolly Cupido, Pinstripe, and Fall Festival.

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