Paul is right on target.

And for Hybrid Tea roses, it can take even longer. Rose Exhibitors know to cut back 50 or so days before a show to have blooms for that day. It's really the same for your garden.

Moreover, if it's getting hot where you are, you'll find that many prolific bloomers slip into a "summer dormancy" as protection against the heat.

Thank you! At least I know I'm not doing anything wrong. It definitely is misleading for novice growers to read that label.

As Jeri mentioned, the weather is the single largest limiting factor to flowering. If it's too cold, the flowers won't appear, no matter how much water or fertilizer you've provided. Nature doesn't waste resources. Only WE do. If the temperatures aren't in the range for the pollinators to be active, the plants won't make flowers to be pollinated. If it's too hot, they will hunker down use the water and food to remain alive, waiting until the appropriate temperature range to flower.

I have gotten behind on deadheading. I have 2 Madame Lambard Teas (one was supposed to be Georgetown Tea) adjacent to each other. I am considering leaving one alone to see if the rebloom is diminished, and deadheading the other one. This "experiment " would still not really be ideally done because hips have already formed on both, although not ripened. I realize deadheading right after bloom would have been ideal. I am not sure I'll be able to dead head all the roses going forward, because I got too many. This might be interesting to see what impact my behavior will have on the roses.

Roseseek makes an excellent point that I'd never considered about the pollinators and cold weather. It's been well illustrated in my garden this spring, especially by my two heat seekers, Evelyn and Angel Face. Our spring was cold, and AF put out a pitiful show, then promptly shut down (I'd never seen this before and was unhappy about it). We had a small heat wave, and there was AF putting out lots of new growth and buds. I was just tickled, and Evelyn poured it on as well. Diane

Thank you, Diane. It may help to consider the flowering plant as the natural organism it is. We buy, plant and cultivate it for the pretty flowers. Those flowers are ovulation with the only "intention" being pregnancy and reproduction. Everything in Nature is programmed to reproduce to perpetuate the species. As I indicated, Nature is obsessively efficient. Fertilization in Nature only occurs by the specific pollinators which have evolved to pollinate that particularly flower. Bees aren't very active when it's too cold, too hot, too wet, too windy, etc. The flowers have evolved, through natural selection, to the point where they don't waste flowers when there isn't at least the minimum potential for pollination. That pertains to "blind shoots", too. The plant is going to produce the growth it requires to accomplish the functions it is genetically programmed for. If it needs foliage to feed or "clothe" itself, that's what it produces. If it needs flowers to produce seeds, that's what it produces. If it is sufficiently stressed to the point of "thinking" it might die, it flowers furiously in an effort to reproduce before dying. Think of ancient apricot trees which appear to literally fruit themselves to death. They are usually on their last legs and that final crop of fruit is often impressively massive. Then, the tree dies.

Sheila, I will be following your experiment. I've tried this a couple of times with New Dawn and concluded that this rose needs dead-heading to get any sort of repeat flush as opposed to a flower here and there. I agree dead-heading is a big chore especially for climbers. I hope when I have things semi orderly it will be easier to devote the time. The rest of my roses are easy to keep trimmed as I walk them most days with a pair of snippers in hand.

MSLINDEN makes another good point -- Novices can easily be mis-led by catch-phrases like "continuous-blooming." MsLinden, you should also know that prompt removal of "old" blooms will hasten repeat.

There are any number of "basic" rose-care books which can be a real help with things like this.

But even those don't make the point that WHERE you are gardening makes a huge difference.

Vapor, I like "when I have things semi-orderly" that deadheading will be easier. I hope so. As my roses get older and larger they seem to be surpassing my capabilities. They bloom so much now that I will probably have to prioritize. Obviously, I can drop the once bloomers first. I like your attitude. I wish I were 5 people. One could plant. Second could monitor watering. Third could fertilize and manure. Fourth could put woodchips all around. Fifth could deadhead. Easy.

I regard ''continuous blooming'' as a legitimate term if it defines a rose that will always have a bloom, or a cluster of blooms, open at any time during the season, that is from when it first opens in Spring to late Autumn...

I have, or have had, quite a few like that in my garden...

...there are lots I could name that always have some blooms on them, or clusters ready to open when the main flush was finished.. I regard that as good enough continuous..

Wow thank you for the many replies! I'm trying my best to deadhead. Caring for roses is a much bigger job than I expected; but I quite enjoy it!

I don know if anyones reading this, but I personally think continual blooming is a thing. My blue parfum rose and my cherry brandy 85 have had blooms on them since I bought them in early spring, and I mean seriously, non stop. Desdemona is also pretty quick but not non-stop, definetely up there though

This is a very active forum so we are definitely reading. Thank you for mentioning you wonderfully reblooming rose, that is always great to know. Some roses are definitely able to rebloom very fast in the right conditions. There are many threads here where people post theirs fastest reblooming varieties because we all want those blooms, but in general that is not true of most roses. The rose industry I am sure focuses a lot of effort in trying to produce true constantly blooming varieties and some like the knockout do a wonderful job , but it is good to know that this not the case with most roses or we end up with confused disappointed rose gardeners.

There is much to be said for "anticipation".

Isn't that the truth. It's ridiculous how often I'm outside monitoring my baby roses as though constant scrutiny could encourage them to grow faster. I went into a blue funk when the squirrels ate one of the minuscule buds on Grandmother's Hat and now I'm constantly monitoring the remaining bud. There are surely more pressing problems in the world, and this sounds obsessive now that I'm writing about this, but I really don't care. It's that "anticipation" thing.

Continual blooming is 100% a thing but, as others have pointed out, most repeat flowering roses take a significant break between flushes. For my established roses Gertrude J is the longest (6-7 weeks). I still keep it because I love it. There are so many traits in a rose and when you buy a rose you want to look for the ones that are most important to you.

For me personally these are scent, quick repeat and health. However, some roses are just so beautiful you just want them purely for the flower and those traits go out the window. Some you will just love so much for one of your traits, you won’t care about the others. I just adore the open stamens and colour on Hamilton Princess which fits in so well with my cottage garden scheme. The scent is also unreal. For these reasons I don’t care too much that the repeat is slow.

Roses that are pretty much continuous in my garden are Bonica, Lady of Shallot, Desdemona, Champagne Moment, Scarborough Fair and Silas Marner.

I think sometimes we expect so much from roses (myself included). I realised this when my peonies (which I love) have no scent, do not repeat and if it rains the once flowering flush you get can be over in a few weeks.

I do have a few that are close to continuous bloomers - the Brindabellas are amazingly prolific (I have Purple Prince and First Lady, really beautiful), Carefree Beauty and Delight, the Drifts, Frontenac, and beloved Mel's Heritage is rarely without at least a few blooms. And Sven, a lesser known but absolutely fantastic rose. Climbers Parade and Cape Diamond are pretty tireless. But much as I appreciate these roses, there are others, much less prolific, including once-bloomers, that are among my absolute favorites (Hippolyte, Complicata, and all the gallicas come to mind, and the big gorgeous ramblers - I have a weakness for purple ones like Blue Magenta, beautiful Bourbons like Mme Isaac Periere, etc et), and I can't imagine my springtime without these beauties. I agree with Alfie, I think we often tend to ask too much of our roses. Also, of our gardens in general. It's a tall order to ask a garden, particularly one, like mine, that's pretty much cared for by one person (me, though DH does the mowing and weed-whacking) to be beautiful all the time. Even if I could devote 100% of my time to the garden, which is not possible since I have my work (which I love, btw) and of course keeping up with the necessities of cooking and cleaning the house (fortunately DH and I have relatively low standards here, lol!), and all the other general life responsibilities, July and August would always be a tough time, and though there are currently beauties like lilies and dahlias going strong, it's certainly not the fairy land it is in April, May, and June, or the more muted but still astounding glory of the fall garden. So I think it's important to cut our roses, our gardens, and ourselves a little slack!

Actually, I'm editing this comment to add - when I refer to the different months, this is of course in my climate of central NJ. In 2021 I was lucky enough to be in Alaska in July, and the gardens - not to mention the incredible wilderness - were at their most glorious peak. Flowers just bursting out everywhere with the endless light! The wildflowers of the tundra are just indescribable. And of course there, April and May are still pretty wintry, and I think June can be, too!

Would lovw.sven. ill have to.fry to find tat one!

@Vaporvac Z6-OhioRiverValley, I got Sven from Northland Rosarium (I have 3 Sven's actually). I just glanced at their site - they don't currently list him, but they may have him back in the spring. If not, I'd suggest asking them if they'd bring him back, he is so beautiful and just a great, great rose (healthy, beautiful shaped, big bush, prolific flowering, hardy as can be, and oh those gorgeous purple flowers!! My first Sven is in a rather shady spot, too, under a Kwanzan cherry, and it doesn't faze him at all.) The pictures on HMF don't do him justice. Actually, I see on HMF that he dates from 1997, so doesn't that mean he's out of patent? If so, I could try to start a cutting for you. But I'd appreciate somebody verifying for me about the patent - I get so confused about it, between horticulture, texts, music, fair use, etc etc that I just want to be sure I got the dates right.

I tink its 20 years. Ill pm you!

Patents on roses run 20 years. This is different than a copyright, which can be renewed. A patent approved in 1997 would be expired now. Diane

I have a slightly less academic approach to these labels than a lot of folks:

Once Blooming: yup--just once, but for several weeks. If you get a random bloom later it's fun.

Blooms in flushes: might get 2 nice flushes of flowers a season, maybe more. But at least two.

Continual blooming: one nice flush in late spring/early summer, and a smattering of flowers on and off until the end of season. Never a huge show like the first two types, but almost always ONE bloom happening, or at the very least, a short window between blooms.

I have to admit I’m happy my roses take a midsummer break during the hottest weather. I don’t want to be out in that weather either, and having fewer blooms to dig japanese beetles out of is also appealing.

Alfie is right that we expect more from roses than we do from any other ornamental.

@PDXRobertZ8 - good categorising there. I would say though that some fit the last category but have more than just a smattering of blooms. Julia Child, Lady of Shallot, Silas Marner and Scarborough Fair to name a few. These always seem to constantly have flowers, buds about to

open, new green buds and new purple growth.

Well into the season and Scarborough F is still relentless:

This is Julia C at its quietist so far transitioning between ‘flushes‘. No break at all though.

Compare this to my worst;

Julia C puts on new purple growth for the second flush half way through the first flush.

Gertrude J - new purple growth for second flush 6.5 weeks after last flower on first flush!

Agreed @Alfie. At least one bloom (but maybe more). My Julia Child, Princess Anne, George Burns, and Desdemona all fall into this category.

There is such a thing as " Continuous " blooming I had a climbing rose bush years ago that bloomed in the spring until fall and never lost a rose. It stayed beautiful from April till the end of Oct. Never lost a rose. So No deadheading..

What does it mean to never lose a rose?

Good question. I have never lost a rose plant to disease, insect infestation, or cold. I have lost rose plants to gophers and voles. To lose an entire plant through its death by some means, not lose just a bloom, is my definition, I guess. Diane

from my perspective, naturr is meant to be cyclical and when there are no lulls in blooming, things start to feel artificial and static. I stop taking notice and enjoying as much. As Paul said, there is much to be said for anticipation. It is part of the joy and wonder.

I have a couple roses that are nearly continuous and while I appreciate them, I seldom pause to admire them. They are like background noise.

Cherry Parfait is a non stopping bloomer for me. Literally always in flowers, it's a first year rose.

To me a reasonably-sized garden that had roses that never stopped blooming would be something of a nightmare. Markey says it well, it would be "artificial and static". That's even more true of modern roses which seem to be bred to be two to four feet tall and as wide so as to fit well into the average suburban garden. That's probably why I love antique roses so much - those things have personality! With so many different classes there is a wealth of size and variety of leaves and flowers and even thorns, not to speak of their scent. The most continuous flowering rose I ever had must be Mutabilis and it never palled because of its changeable color and the thing never stopped growing! I finally had to remove it because it threatened to crowd out every other rose around it, but it was still a great experience.

That's Mutabilis in the back in its early stage of growth, before it began to throw its weight around.

Here it is a little later, but already with thoughts of what it could swallow up next

Why is it a rose that never stopped blooming would be a nightmare ? There was nothing artificial or static about it. It was BEAUTIFUL . It did only bloom once but stayed in bloom for the summer into fall. You must have misunderstood..This climber also would get a rose that would grow inside of another rose. I took clippings to all the nursery's around me they all said they never saw anything like it, one comment I got was that it must be a very old rose bush. It was one that came in a bag. I bought at K Mart at the end of the season for 2 bucks. I wish I had saved the bag. It was very Unique and Beautiful...It bloomed once and stayed in bloom...

I meant not one rose but a garden full of roses that were constantly in bloom. Your climber sounds beautiful and intriguing. Also, in my climate the rose season is 9-10 months long, which makes quite a difference. One would appreciate roses cycling in and out of bloom during such a long period.

Landscaping roses normally repeat faster than other roses. I have 8 rose beds in the front of the house, most of them are DAs, in order to fill the colors, I had to plant some landscaping roses in between this season.