Also, pinching just means cutting it back to promote branching. On small seedlings you just "pinch" off new soft center growth with your fingers and that promotes branching, so that's where the term comes from. On roses or other twiggy bushes you'll need to cut them as they are not soft like seedlings, but it's the same concept.

Thanks soFL Rose ! I cut Plum Perfect down to 8-9 inches like Chris advised and fertilized it , waiting now for the basals : )

Let me know how it goes. I'll let you know how mine does. What others do you grow that seem promising? If you don't already have them, heres a few that do well for me here in south Fl:

easy does it (very good)

dick clark

evelyn

heritage

dames de Chennonceau

Regatta

europeana

the faun

all the drifts, particularly sweet drift

olivia Austin

pat austin (very good)

Litchfield angel

abe d

darcey b

wedding bells (very)

cream veranda

solero vigorosa

roxy vigorosa

the dark lady

sophies rose

earth angel

william morris

spirit of freedom

collette

beverly

carefree beauty

elegant fairy tale (but performs like a climber here)

nahema

belindas dream

mrs b r cant

duchess de brabant

ebb tide

traviata

new dawn

love

electron

pink promise

grande dame

gentle hermione

and Huntington rose

just to name a few lol

SoFl and Chris I wanted to try piling the mulch over a few of mine to promote more canes so should I wait until it gets closer to spring? It's been pretty warm but fixing to get in the 40's and 50's during the day and 30's at night. Can I use reg bagged mini pine bark nuggets or need something finer like soil conditioner? Plus do the pinching. Thanks, Judy

Thanks SOFL Rose for the list ! right now my roses are mostly young . plus I got a spider mite problem this month since the weather was warm ,which I was battling .

You can use anything that will keep some humidity around the canes like sawdust, pine needles, leave mulch, compost and if the mini pebbles will stay humid they should work too. The technique works when the plant is actively growing so as soon as the buds are starting to grow put the mulch around the bush.

Thanks so much Chris. I will wait a little longer then before I do this. They are starting to grow due to the crazy warm Jan we have had but it's fixing to turn off cold. We all appreciate your help. Judy

That's so cool Chris. I've never heard of that method and will definitely be trying it out.

Prettypetals if your plant is starting to leaf out you should do it now. You want it done as soon as the plant is making new growth. It will not harm the plant. Here in Oregon my plants are waking up too even though we are still below 32 at night.

Wow, that's a beautiful plant, Chris.

Ok I sure will Chris. I will do it this week. I absolutely love the blooms on PP. They last forever on the bush and in a vase. The color is just yummy. Thanks again!!

Thank you, Chris, for all the good info. I was undecided about Plum Perfect until I saw this thread. I'm getting it for sure. That color is a little different than all the others in that category - at least of the ones I have.

You are right it is quite a different color - warm as opposed to the cool gray-lavender tones like Poseidon. It mixes well with yellows and reds. here it is mixed with Lemon Fizz Kolorscape.

Absolutely gorgeous! Thank you, Chris.

Thanks for the pictures of this rose. I will try to see if I can get one locally. It is pretty.

So Fl Rose, I can highly recommend another rose for other Fla rose growers. Cinco De Mayo. This is hands down the best cleanest rose in my garden of 20. I live in the black spot capital and she never gets it. I have her in tree form next to Julia Child and Easy Does it. Those 2 completely defoliated and she never lost a leaf. And the scent is wonderful. And OMG it never stops blooming. Most people are put off by the color in photos. Trust me this is a beautiful rose in person with a lot of scent. I just bought another one in tree form for my backyard. Will post some photos as soon as her buds open.

I don't know anything about roses for Florida, but I do know about Cinco de Mayo. I almost didn't keep mine. I bought it because of the pictures of smoky, muted colors and loved how it changed from russet to smoky lavender. But, when I saw those bright neon orange buds, I was tempted to get rid of it before it bloomed into what I thought were going to be garish fluorescent orange blooms that would spoil the look of my pinks, peaches and maroons. I ended up loving the blooms so much, I, too, bought another one. Mine also bloom non stop and the foliage is robust and healthy. It's a nicely shaped bush without any shaping from me. Surprisingly blends in with other colors, especially those in the purple/lavender family. Or, peach. Beautiful with yellow. Prettier in person than any photo I've seen of it.

I bought my Plum Perfect from Chamblee at this fall together with dark desire and Earth Angel. It was small when arrived, but now look fine, better then two others:

I'm just curious, Chris, if it always works out well for you to cut plants back hard. I am timid about doing that. I feel like a young plant needs its leaves. Seems like sometimes when I've pruned hard a plant will sulk and go downhill. Maybe if I had piled up the mulch, as you said, they would have done better. I like a well-branched plant.

Today's blooms:

The color is more lavender in reality. And even my husband like it.

That's beautiful Volha ! I have one coming this week from chamblees. Do you grow violets pride ? I wonder how they compare and if I can live without it . Of course I can , but I think I want it ;)

No I don't have violets pride. But Plum Perfect is a greate rose. It has glossy foliage and no bs. Looks really nice.

so I cut my Plum perfect like Chris said , really short 8-9 inches . After 3 months it is a little fuller .

So I just went outside and cut back a new rose that was planted last fall. It had 2 slender canes that were about 20 inches tall. No branches or buds. I was wondering what to do with them. Thanks!

Chris- can this be done anytime or just in the spring? My Kosmos Fairytale has just one cane. It was bought last year or 2015 as own root and had quite a bit of winter dieback but still just grew one cane this spring. I am copying your info for future reference as it seems to work wonders. I hope I'm as successful as you :-)

Thanks for any info.

Sharon

It can be done in spring and summer, but in colder climates it should not be done in late summer or fall as it encourages growth which will keep it from going dormant as it should before a hard frost. I think doing it in your zone in mid-July should be OK.

Thanks so much for the response Chris. I'll do this in the next couple of days.

Chris- what kind of fertilizer? Something like Rosetone or liquid?

Chris

Since Newflora website is no longer available , where can I look up information on US Kordes roses ?

pink rose, I've found it on the Kordes site including the wonderful fragrance map for the Parfuma series. The only problem is cross-referencing the names which are often different in different countries. For example, Grafin Diana is Dark Desire and Rosengrafin Marie Henriette is Summer Romance. Then it's a matter of seeing if it's available here; HMF helps. Hopefully, Star Roses will pick up the ball at some point.

I recently won best floribunda single bloom at the rose show with Plum Perfect :)

That's geat Pink rose! It really filled out! I'm going to try this on some of my roses.

SoFL, congrats on your win!! :)

Congrats on the win!!! Any pics of the bloom?

@chris2486 Thank you for the shaping tips! It's something I plan to try with all of my grandiflora/floribunda/shrub roses this year. What about subsequent years after they've been established? Do you still prune back to 8in?

The advice was for the very young plants that need to be encouraged to create new basal breaks. Once the rose has enough breaks to be well branched I usually prune to 2.5’ To3 3” feet tall and clean out the oldest canes in center to increase air circulation Once the rose bush is well shaped there is no right answer to how low to prunne tall you want the shrub to be when it is blooming.

!!

Back when Chris posted the closeup photo of PP on her patio, she received many likes.

But no one commented on the background palatial setting, with hints of other spectacular roses. And a ring of mountains off in the distance.

@rifis (zone 6b-7a NJ) Right? I totally caught that, and it really is amazing. I'm used to seeing spectacular, envy-worthy gardens on the internet that aren't mine though, lol

I'm happy if I get a single one of my rose bushes to look as good as that one Plum Perfect.

@chris2486, I'm glad to see you on the forum still. Your PP has me drooling! That is probably the best whole-bush photo I've seen of it.

Feel free to share *more* images of your plants! LOL.

I've become a *huge* fan of the Kordes' roses, own-root, which you introduced over here, and Plum Perfect has shown incredible promise in my no-spray garden its first year. (DLEverette, in a few years, your Kordes roses might well look that nice. Imagine what Pink Rose's will probably look like this spring.)

I do hope that Ball/Star follows through with the same sort of selection criteria. If Carmen Würth lives up to the claims of Kordes-rosen.de and is selected for introduction this fall, I'll be first in line!

@chris2486 One last question. Will this also work with hybrid teas? I know they're supposed to be one to a stem, and that's what I'm going for, but will doing this when they're young allow for more basal stems to grow? I guess a better question is will this work for all roses (except for probably climbers)?

Houzz popped this up in my email. Nice to be reminded of roses in my retirement. We have moved to the Olympic Peninsula and I have a new garden to work on in a very different climate. It has been fun. I did find a Plum Perfect to plant here. this summer.

As to the question of pruning own root HTs yes do the same type of pruning when young. It may be even more important with HTs than with floribunda plants as they do not form new breaks as rapidly. I also would do this to climbers when very young but just once so that I had 2-3 breaks growing and I would prune out any subsequent breaks. It might just be me but I like foliage from the ground up and I am not fond of bare stems showing.

Thanks for the memory.

Welcome back! Glad to see you are enjoying your retirement and still gardening. And still have a few roses! :-) regarding mounding up around the climbers, do you suggest cutting them down also to 8 inches when they are small?

@chris2486 Thanks for the reply! I had no idea you retired - congratulations!

I never knew foliage from the ground up was possible, especially with hybrid teas. The season is almost over now, but I'm definitely gonna try this next season. Thank you for your advice, and I hope you continue to enjoy retirement! :-)

@chris2486 thank you so much for the valuable advice for novice gardeners like me.

I have a summer romance going on 2 years in my garden. It grows beautiful foliage and is a very tall plant but no blooms since I planted it. I would really appreciate if you could help me with this plant. I wanted to ask if I could still try this pinching method on this older plant? Or something else can be done to promote blooms on it.

@chris2486

Pictures of Summer Romance, it was bought in a nursery pot last year and looks like it maybe grafted. I’m not sure because the canes are woody at the bottom. I can take a picture of it tomorrow and post.

Most likely it is not grafted as most of the newer Kordes roses come on their own roots

@SoFL Rose z10 That's what it seems like to me as well. Thank you.