I have Madame Hardy, one of the highest rated OGR's & I like her very much. Do I like green eye roses, yes; do I want all green eye roses in my garden, no. Do I like striped roses, yes; do I want all striped roses in my garden, no. Do I like HT roses, yes; do I want all HT roses in my garden, no. Do I like roses in my garden, yes; do I want all roses in my garden, no. Do you see the pattern here? I think the nicest & most interesting gardens have a wide variety of plant material so mix it up.

David Austin just introduced a green eyed pink rose for the cut flower market called Charity . (I think its a recent introduction). I think its lovely, but I prefer no green center. I had a white rose that had that often (Lion's Fairy Tale) and I didn't care for it at the time because I thought it was some sort of defect in the rose (ha!). I prefer what they call a button eye that leans towards green, but I'm not too fond of the prominent green stamen looking things like in Charity. I think its too much (personally) but I cant say its not charming in its own way.
I also used to not care for opened roses that showed yellow stamens and now some of my favorites are those that show bright yellow stamens like Bell Story and Dames De Chennonceau. I also used to only like the hybrid tea look with high centers and now I am much more fond of the OGR/David Austin look. So there you have it!
I do think the button eyes (when not too prominent) can be very romantic looking. :)

I'm not sure what a green eyed rose is exactly. Is it just a small proliferation or a true button eye. Once in a while an extra large Evelyn bloom will have this, and The Prince has this look quite regularly. I don't mind them as long as they don't turn into a large proliferation. Diane

It looks pretty on The Prince. :) Like Diane says, I don't mind it at all as long as its not a huge proliferation.

I can't seem to consistently post more than one pic at a time. Here's an Evelyn with the green center. Diane

Thanks, Soflo, for your comment. Is there a way to push a button to thank someone? Diane

Nanadoll, that is exactly what I am talking about. LOVE it! <3 I think that is one of the reasons I like my Wedding Cake rose.

Wirosarian, I love your comments as well. I will have to look up Madam Hardy.

SoFl Rose, I have seen pictures of the cut DA roses and I think he has a couple with the green eyes. There is another one (not a DA rose) that is called Ivanhoe which is burgandy with a green heart. Very different and unique. Green Valley Floral Growers is the one that carries it. They only do wholesale.

I love the Wedding Cake Rose, mustbenuts. Were you the one who posted the great photo? I'll have to go back and check. Diane

Yes!! That Evelyn picture is very, very beautiful!!! I love it!!

Carol

Thanks, Carol. The bouquet has Sarah Bernhardt peonies in it, too if I remember correctly. Diane

I like a small button eye but really hate proliferation. Adèle Prévost is my worst offender and I snap off any flower with this defect so I have no picture of it.

The pictures I see here are pretty, but if green eye, proliferation, and vegetative centers are the same, I do not like them at all. I agree with Mariannese. I do not keep a rose where I see that large center.

If anyone's interested, if you google 'a picture of roses - rosa prolifera de redoute' you'll see a beautiful Redoute painting of an extreme proliferation. For a photograph, there's a great one right at the bottom of the Wikipedia page 'List of pests and diseases in roses'. I think that one may be a gallica though - I believe gallicas are somewhat prone to this mutation (or whatever) - while the Redoute rose is a specific, named centifolia, apparently still in production. I must dig out my Redoute book and have another look - I have an idea the centifolia may also be known as 'Turban' rose or some such name; but I may be getting it mixed up with another one in the same book.... I'll go and have a look now

Comtesse :¬)

Oh, yes, the white tea, Molly Sharman Crawford, is another one that does this a lot. I'm so sorry, mustbenuts, I realise proliferation wasn't what you were really asking about, so I'm going OT here... although come to think of it, I think MSC does also get interestingly green in the middle without necessarily proliferating. She's in the Tea Rose book - Old Roses for Warm Gardens; might be worth a look.

Has anyone seen this on Lion's Fairy Tale rose? I used to get it alot on Lion's and a bit on Elegant Fairy Tale as well (I think I see a pattern here?)
My Lion's died last year so not sure how that would have worked out, but my Elegant fairy tale is THRIVING and she no longer produces roses with proliferation. I once was told that too much alfalfa meal can cause this, but I'm not sure about that. I did feed them Alfalfa that year and I normally don't coincidence?
Anyone else see this on Fairy Tale roses or heavily alfalfa fed roses? Just curious.

Also, what happened to the "say thank you" button?? I liked that!!

SoFL, One theory is that it can be triggered by excessive nitrogen, so it's possible it could be related to the alfalfa (is alfalfa high in nitrogen? - I think my brain's going to sleep - it's 1.50am here...lol!) Another theory is that a late cold snap, possibly while the buds are forming, may do it. Alternatively, it may be a genetic mutation, to which some classes and individuals may be more prone, so they may not always proliferate, possibly just when other triggers are present... It seems it isn't a disease as such, and does the plant no harm, whether left on or removed, other than using some energy that could be going elsewhere. There's an interesting discussion on the ARF from 2012, I think just titled 'Proliferation'.

Oh, so it's gone again, has it (the ty button)?... "Plus ca change..."

Comtesse :¬D

I learned you only have the option of the thank you button if you start the thread yourself. Then you can thank, but you cannot thank on other people's threads. So that's how that works. :)
Where I live definitely wasn't a cold snap (cold snap? whats that? LOL) but I tell ya, the minute I stopped using Rose Tone (where my alfalfa came from) I never saw it again. I wish I would have made a note of which roses were doing it because now that I think about it, I think I had some other roses like Olympiad producing them as well. Either way I currently don't have that problem and I think maybe it WAS the alfalfa becuase when I use nitrogen based fertilizers (liquid/miracle gro etc) I don't have that problem. Only when using Rose Tone.
In Rose Tone's defense however, these were all planted in Pots, so maybe there was too much to process in the small space.

Ok have one that does that regularly as well I think it is Freddy Kruger but marked a different rose (Archduc Joseph see that thread for photos) the funny thing is I had to buy one more rose as a box filler from RU and did not realize I had the wrong plant so I paid a premium price for an east coast Freddy The original one took off like made and is pretty big for a plant (band) about a year old on the other hand the RU plant is just starting to put on some new growth and is behind almost all of the other teas in that area

The big one routinely puts out vegetative centers I think it has to do with being planted where the old chicken coop stood for decades........

Interesting, SoFL and Kippy... those experiences do both sound as if it's possible excess or high nitrogen or some other nutrient levels might be playing a part in the phenomenon. I see RT has chook poo in it too. SoFL, just out of interest, for your pots, do you normally dilute the Rose Tone? I mean, more than for plants in the ground?

Mustbenuts, please don't go nuts - I promise you we will all start thinking very hard about green-eyed/centred NON-proliferating roses again, very, very soon...

My Freddy Krueger shows proliferations in the first flush after a feeding with Holly-Tone (she's in the ground). I think its funny and she's still one of my favorites.

I have been using Rose Tone for years now and have never had it but on one rose. That was years ago with a rose that I no longer have named Painted Moon. I think the cold snap as the bloom is developing is the reason and also that just certain roses are more prone to it, but that's just my opinion. Everyone has different experiences!

Comtesse, proliferation is EXACTLY what I am talking about when I say green centers. I am seeing DA roses now coming out with that in their cut roses. At first, I hated it and thought it was wierd. Now, I am liking it more and more because it IS wierd! Never knew it was called proliferation, so I appreciate the education very much! I would not want a whole garden of them but (as the master gardener called me) I am a plant person and tend to like all different types of plants and if I could have three plants of every variety, I would.

A rose named Freddie Krueger? Good Lord! What name will they think of next? I don't even want to go there!

I like green on white and yellow roses and it has to be only a hint. Big ol proliferation I just hate. For me it was cool snaps that did it. I sp'd many a rose that did this during the spring flush. Some of them don't repeat well here and I don't want proliferation spoiling the one time I get to enjoy them. I don't want leaves growing out of the centers of the flowers.

So when a rose proliferates, those are leaves coming through the center? Sorry, but I am getting a good education here and none of my roses have ever done this.

No, don't apologise, this is fun!.. As I think you can see in the Redoute painting and the photo I mentioned earlier (I'm sorry, I'm too techno-challenged to even know how to post a link!) whole new little flowers can come through the button eye; the phenomenon was known as 'childing' by early botanists (as in, making baby flowers...). I think from studying photos, etc. that the first bits of green that poke through may be sepals which can potentially surround/develop into buds of a new 'child'. There certainly seems to be a lot of feathery green action going on in some gallica/damask/centifolia examples - you can see this better in another Redoute painting: Rosa Agatha Prolifera in WikiGallery ... But I'm no expert; I've only seen it in the R. paintings and in a few photographs, and read up on it a bit.

Comtesse :¬)

I had a whole bud develop out of a My Girl flower once. I thought it was gross so I clipped the flower and tossed it. I've been curious since then if the bud could've opened into another flower. Does anyone know?

Rosaprima

Wow, that's an entire bouquet that looks like some of the blooms that surprised me this year on Peter's Joy.

I do think they look nicenice.

Beautiful Mme Plantie.r, Magpie. I also love the green button eye.

Mme. Hardy

I didn't used to like the green pip...but now I love it, especially on white roses. :) :)

Magpie - soooo beautiful!!

Librarian - such a modest pip...looks like a shy rose...love it!! And your Peter's Joy blooms are wonderful!!