Patty,

What you have to go through to find a rose that works in your garden is a testimony to your perseverance and love of roses.

All rose lovers experience challenges that vary considerably from locale to locale. There are few places in the USA where rose growing is a, 'Walk through the Park.'.

The determination exhibited by rosarans who are confronted with multiple obstacles, yet push on, is what inspires me to face my roses' multiple cultural dilemmas.

Thanks for inspiring me and I am sure, many others, Patty!

Moses

Thanks for the update Patty!

Hi Patty,

Thanks for this post...I have the same problem. I'm still on the fence with First Crush...have two of them and will give them one more season to see if they improve.

Could you please tell us the names of the large flowered beauties that open for you?

Thanks so much,

B.

Hi Bk,

It is surprisingly difficult to answer this. I had pretty much given up on growing certain types of flowers. They are just so prone to balling and rotting in my climate. We have had a bit of a drought this year with no rain for 3 months and we still have nightly dew on everything. My grass has learned to be quite satisfied drinking dew and seems not to notice that there has been no rain.

So back to your question, I still don't have many large flowers but Fiji takes the honors for starting this craziness. It's the first large sized flower that I've had in many moons. My next one that opens well is the Lady Gardener. She always looks as if she's going to ball but has not done so yet. However it is slow to self clean and not the prettiest bush. Bolero is a great opener thou not the largest flower it is a good sized one. Princess Ann is an absolute beauty but she is new and the weather has been much drier than normal. I'm thinking there won't be a problem with it.

Others that I can think of are like South Africa, Mother of Pearl and roses like those. Really I have learn to be happy with roses that bloom up a storm and that way I'm not feeling left out.

Thank you so much Patty.

I'm going to check into Lady Gardener and Princess Ann. South Africa is on my list for the spring, and I will probably add Fiji.

Thank you for being so generous with your rose-growing experience!

B.

Patty,

That Fiji rose I transplanted back in August in new garden soil has 2 buds...Yep it was the rose midge holding it back from growing & blooming for sure....

I'm so happy to hear this Jim. You know back when Chris showed a photo of Plum Perfect. My first thought was, well thats just great how sad to know that mine will never look that good. Nope no way not in northern Illinois, Roses just don't do that here.

Boy am I happy to report that some of those Kordes roses are absolutely beautiful. Gorgeous bushes with lots of flowers (when midge is taking a break that is). Obviously not all the roses have worked out. Some are more like many Austins that have a wonderful first bloom then scattered until fall. If there was a longer season here that would be nice also.

I'm so lucky to have some beautiful Ping Lim roses. Extremely happy to have a few of the newest Canadian roses. One spectacular Austin rose Princess Anne and a few other real gems for where I live.

Bk

I forgot to add a few things about The Lady Gardener. It is not the prettiest bush and will not be a wonderful apricot color. Mine will open that color but fade very quickly to an off white. In fall it opens with a pink tone at least it does for me.

Oh and I'm always spelling PA wrong I believe that should be Princess Anne.