I live in No Cal, so I don't know if it would act the same way where you live, but I have a Peach Drift that is so far perfect. I bought it on a 36" standard from Garden Valley Ranch about 6 weeks ago. It is completely healthy (and I never spray), and has never stopped blooming for an instant, even right after being planted. It immediately started putting out new canes on the side that had less than the other sides, so now it is balanced all over. Non-stop bloom machine - right now it is covered in bloom, with dozens of new buds also. I love the color - comes out peach and fades to a light peachy-pink. The flowers glow.

I've never tried the other colors - are they sports of the same rose, or just put out by the same breeder? Anyway, I would highly recommend Peach Drift.

Jackie

Pink Drift is a great bloomer with a good ground cover habit. But it did succumb to powdery mildew for me.

OOooh, Jackie!
Just the sort of ringing endorsement I was hoping for!
Thanks,
Kay

Hey, I think I have all the drift roses because I bought the Peach one and fell in love so I had to have all the others. My next most favorite is the Sweet Drift. Its a light pink and gets soooooo wide and is gorgeous and stayed disease free alllll summer. Luv that baby. I love the blooms on the Peach the most and the Sweet one is my second favorite. My Peach one doesn't get as big as the Sweet but its not planted in as good as spot as the Sweet one. My Icy Drift is staying kinda short and scragily and droopy but the blooms are really pretty. Good luck with whichever one you choose. Judy

I was at a local nursery a week or so ago looking through their roses and because of our terrible heat and drought they looked pretty pitiful......except for the drift roses! They looked great and I was very tempted to get one. Because I have no space anywhere to add a rose at this time, I am considering purchasing one to grow in a large container.

I just bought 2 each of the Coral and Pink Drift. Blooms were really eye catching - the coral is a deep hue that you can see across the yard. Pink has a white eye and it is also an eyecatcher. I bought one Peach Drift and am glad to hear the recommendations on it. I have a Red Drift but it is overwhelmed by a yellow knockout and I need to move it where it can shine. It is a deep clear red with tiny blooms. I cant speak for the growth habit of these roses but they are very beautiful in a group.
Judith

Thanks, everyone! Sounds like I have lots of great choices. In the immortal words of the old Pogo cartoon, I am confronted by insurmountable opportunities.

Kay

I just bought two Red Drifts on Sunday to put in big patio pots. I'm kind of hoping they'll cascade down the outside of the pots. Does anyone think they'll do that since they can't spread along the ground?

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

FYI: Chamblees has some drift this year, own root.

I'm in the minority, but am not impressed by Red Drift.

Here is a link that might be useful: Red Drift blog on Garden Musings.

I just saw ICY DRIFT for the first time, just now. YOWZA! Not a bloom in sight, yet, but who cares! The foliage is GORGEOUS!!!!! A bright, happy yellow-green, and so packed with tiny leaves you couldn't see the canes. Icy Drift was in the same section with all the other groundcover roses at Madison (Mississippi) Garden Center, and there was no comparison. If the foliage stays anywhere near that nice, Icy Drift is up there with Mermaid and New Dawn as one of the greatest of the greats. I'd love to know how it looks after a year or two.

I HAVE grown Peach Drift, when we lived in Madison before, and it seemed happier in the pots than once I (finally, after years of procrastination) got it into the ground. Still, they persist after seven years, being given sporadic care by the busy young surgeons who bought the house. We stopped by last week, before closing on our new Mississippi home, and the Peach Drifts I planted were looking happy - already leafed-out, with bronzy/maroon new growth: still small, though. Their new owners like them pretty well. Peach Drift continually sends up short blooming canes with showy clusters, in a delectable color range: basically, all the colors you'd see on ripening peaches. Once they start blooming, they continue up to the first frost. The ones I planted never attained the 'three-high/four-wide mound' size/shape I'd hoped for. But that may be my lack of soil amendment, or shortcomings in subsequent care.

In Mississippi at least, Peach Drift tolerates a good bit of shade, and keeps right on blooming. Does not defoliate in the dead of Summer, and is semi-evergreen in Winter. I'm hoping Icy Drift will do the same. Has anyone down South grown Icy Drift for a few years? I'm tempted to send the truck by, to pick up every one the Garden Center has. But I'd like to know how the plant evolves over time.

I'm thinking of planting a drift of Icy Drift beneath the sunny side of a clump of 'Shoal Creek' Vitex Agnus Castus (thank heavens the estate's last owners compiled a comprehensive set of books on the plantings... and the soil amendments... and the locations of the French drains: so I know exactly which cultivars I have of EVERYTHING, down to the Green Mountain Boxwoods). Anyway, I find blue to be cold and disturbing as a flower color, and white blossoms would be too cold, without the yellow-green foliage I saw today on Icy Drift. Can anyone tell me if the foliage continues to lean toward 'Lime', rather than maturing to a straight-up standard green?

I have had Icy Drift for two years now.
It is very much a ground cover rose being much shorter and sprawling than the other Drifts.

I also have Peach and Apricot Drift and they are more like small shrubs.

With Icy Drift, the leaves stay more of a lime green.

I am not a big fan of it but I have had bad luck with mine.

It is extremely thorny. For me in SC, it is a BS magnet. It roots
wherever it touches the ground.

Last year, it developed RRD. I pulled the plant up and it had a massive root system. I destroyed the plant but baby plants grew
from roots left behind. I did pot up and isolate the babies to see if the RRD had spread to them.

This year the offspring look fine so I am going to try to grow them in a decorative pot in order to control its massive spread of roots.

If you decide to buy an Icy Drift, do plant it at the very front of the planting bed as it barely grows over a foot tall.

Peach Drift is a winner here in Texas. It's always covered in fragrant blooms from April to late October. The fragrance on the Peach Drift is fruity and wafts on a warm day. The peach drift is the only fragrant drift rose. It's often confused with the apricot drift which like the other drift roses has no fragrance.

Just another suggestion here to give you even more choices to choose from. The oso easy roses do very well here for me. I don't spray thou so disease resistance is important to me. I did unfortunately get powdery mildew on my drift roses. They are good roses just not healthy enough here. Oso easy roses do bloom up a storm just like drift roses do. They have healthier foliage at least here anyway. Oso easy does however have a little smaller overall growth habit.

Ok! I live in N TX, I thought I had an apricot drift but someone said peach is the only fragrant drift and my has fragrance!! I've been looking for an Icy drift for years but they are no longer available in the open market(Idk why) so im thinking of buying some sweet drifts,I love that shabby chic soft pink. Does anyone know if they do well in the TX heat,humidity and drought prone summers!! My apricot/peach has performed outstandingly!!

I have a friend with Sweet Drift and it blooms as well as my Apricot Drift. I also have Pink Drift which is also an excellent bloomer. Would think you would be able to order Icy Drift.....HMF says Angel Gardens has it. Maybe try Gourmet Popcorn along with Sweet Drift.

Judith

Peach Drift is supposed to be one of the best performers of the Drift series. It is certainly true for me. But I love all the drift roses and they all do very well. I think you should just choose the color you like best. They are all bound to do exceedingly well. I have grown Red, Pink, Sweet, Coral, Peach and Apricot Drift and my favorite is Peach Drift (with Apricot drift as a close second, they are very similar).