First of the year here was John Cabot who opened yesterday.

It's just a baby plant, but I know one day when it's huge and covered in these blooms it's going to be a stunner. The color is a lot bolder than what I usually go for.

Magpie, I have my eye on John Cabot also. My notes say it gets really big so I would have to put it in a place with a ton of space. I was considering replacing Robusta with it so I'm interested to hear how it does for you over time.

mmmm - your EotE is doing really well for a band! I'm impressed!! :)

Magpie - gosh!! Beautiful!!! The last picture is such a beautiful shot! You are an awesome photographer!!

I would rank John Cabot below William Baffin and John Davis. Still worth having but not until the other 2 are chosen.

@rosecanadian thank you 🙈🙈🙈

@mmmm12COzone5 I'm not sure about size yet, I planted it as a band in August last year and it did not grow at all. This year it has sent out one new basal cane that's already 3+ feet. I only photographed the few blooms that are open today but it has 20ish buds just coming from the tiny twig it had last year.

John Davis is also on my list. I don't have any negative notes about it and I like the lighter pink color.

Mmmm12, Why don't you like Robusta? That looks like a Stellar plant! BTW, there is a pink sport of William Baffin.

Vaporvac,

It isn't that I don't like Robusta. She is a fine plant, albeit really thorny. I had put her outside my bathroom windows, thinking she would be taller and easier to see from inside the bathroom. One of her biggest virtues is being cane hardy. She doesn't really flush either, kind of just plods around with continuous medium density blooms.

I'm really nitpicking if we take her out. Probably I would try John Davis in another spot first and see how he does.

I don't want to open any more holes/drip system points for new roses so it is going to only be rotating roses into existing spots from now on.

If thorniness bothers you, I'll warn you that John Cabot is very thorny.

Magpie,

I actually picked Robusta partly for it's thorniness. It is a rugosa so very thorny. I had hoped I could leave the bathroom window open and the rose would be the security. But I didn't put it close enough to the house. And we can still caulk the window when needed so that is a plus. :-)

Do you have any pictures of your whole John Cabot plant at one year? I would love to see it even if it is just the one long cane.

This is my neighbor's Austrian Copper. Hers does what I remember my old one doing, sporting some yellow blooms.

In my memory my old one was part copper and part yellow.

@mmmm12COzone5 Sure. On the left is JC at the end of year 1. On the right is a picture taken just now, and a drew a little arrow to show the approximate height it topped out at last year.

Oh Magpie, that is nice! Great amount of growth. Thanks!

Mmmmmm - Oh, that's glorious!!!! I never knew it throws yellow flowered canes! Exceptional!!

My first "real rose" to bloom was Felix LeClerc, closely followed by these three: Augusta Luise, Bolero and Yellow Brick Road. I have roses blooming about ten days earlier than in the last two years, and I'm very happy about it!

Magda - I love your Bolero and Augusta Luise!!! I'm so glad I have Bolero....still hasn't bloomed though.

FINALLY, I got some blooms from my roses from last year!! It's amazing that I have any blooms at all after my pH fiasco. So these two roses are really good to be giving me blooms!

Memorial Day and some kind of flying insect. Extra points if you can tell me what it is.

Nicole Carol Miller - below

Night Owl

Carol: gorgeous, very happy for all your blooms !!

Magda (Ontario, USDA4/5): Love those first blooms, are they grafted on multiflora or own-roots? I always want to try Augusta Luise, but not sure if it's hardy as own-root. Thanks for the info.

Straw, my Bolero and Augusta Luise are grafted on multiflora, only Yellow Brick Road is own root. I'm sorry I can't help you here.

Thanks, Straw!! I'm still discouraged about my roses...but at least some of my roses grow no matter what. LOL

First blooms from roses that overwintered here instead of being purchased this spring:

Rose de Rescht yesterday. The fragrance is heavenly and the hardiness is impressive.

Harison's Yellow has buds opening today. I couldn't resist bringing one in to go with the daisies that the kids picked for me.

Bright & Shiny has better fragrance this year than last, and the blooms are lovely and big. The lack of winterkill on this rose is impressive.

Beautful Joey!!! i would love to Bright and Shiny in person. it looks like one of the roses that has an inner glow.

I saw it listed in the 'new for 2021' collection at HCR so Matt may be able to show it to you. YMMV but for me it has been one of the hardiest and most impressive roses in my garden.

Joey,

When it gets going post some full bush pictures. I had Playboy which had the inner glow and I loved it. We lost it but would love a rose with an inner glow.

Joey: love all your pics, esp. bright & shiny .. I like bright roses which look good both in the sun and in the shade. Austin roses fade so badly that I need glowing colors.

The Harrison's Yellow with daisies is a beautiful color combo!

Joey - I love your RdR!! What do you think of it as a rebloomer?

Carol I can't say for certain because I only got it last fall (it was a birthday gift from my mother in law) but it had a really good flush then so I am expecting it to do well this year. It required minimal removal of dead cane after winter (I thought it had more dead on it but it was tangled through Henry Kelsey who accounted for most of the dead stuff) and has a very pretty rounded shape to the shrub so it is fast becoming a favorite.

The colors are off because it was taken with a flip phone but here's Bright & Shiny this morning

Thanks Joey,

I didn't realize it was in a pot. How old it it and is it own root?

It survived your zone in a pot?

Yep and it was on the outside edge of the pot collection furtherest from the house, so those upright canes caught all the wind. That's why I have been so impressed with the hardiness. It's a year old, grafted. It was a brand new release to the market in 2020 so I was one of the first people to grow it (that's why it is mostly my pictures on HMF lol!)

Morden Blush on June 23. pathetic! At least two full weeks late. That’s how gosh darn cold it was this spring.

Snow Pavement, Winnipegs Parks, Hope for Humanity, All My Loving close behind. John Cabot is about a week away. June 23 lmao

L Clark,

Are you just now getting your first bloom?

Is it a young plant or one that wasn't cane hardy?

@L Clark (zone 4 WY) wow I can't believe your John Cabot hasn't bloomed yet!! I hope you have a great show soon.

@mmmm12COzone5 I brought 2 new babies home from HCR today so I'll so sure to update on how they do as time goes on. Hopefully they're good for us here 🤞

Magpie,

What did you get? I need to live vicariously since we aren't doing any more rose holes, only replace what dies or what we don't think we want long term.

Did they let you wander the greenhouse and look at all the pretty blooms? That is always my downfall. After Covid they stopped letting you wander on your own but may have started it back up again.

Yup, very first rose of the year of any kind. Morden Blush was a band from High Country I planted last summer. It’s growing pretty well this summer.

So this is John Cabot’s fourth summer. Also a band from High Country. This will be its first time blooming. Weird, right? Is that normal for John Cabot? Does it only bloom off old wood? It has died back hard each year so I don't know if that has delayed its blooming. I had a frank discussion with it that if it didn’t show me something it would have to go and it immediately started making flower buds. lol

@mmmm12COzone5 I bought "Indigo" and "High Country Banshee". No I didn't go inside, I had my 3 and 6 year old with me and that would have been a bad idea to say the least lol. I don't want to be paying a few hundred in damages when my kids run through and knock over a shelf of roses 🤪

L Clark

If you remember please report if Morden Blush is cane hardy for you next year.

Sorry to hear John Cabot has been a non-performer. I wouldn't have your patience and would have yanked it by now.

Magpie,

Thanks for posting those. Love the helpmefind pictures of Indigo. Please report on how that one fares for you also, especially the cane hardiness and bloom cycle.

Mmm12, how many roses do you have? You have such great conditions for roses, i could never have that much self control Especially with that beautiful fence that's just crying out for climbers! LOL!

Vaporvac,

I have 24 varieties and 28 total plants.

So far no success with climbers at all. However we can't put them along the fence as there are sprinklers that spray through it so we would get black spot on them. The roses do much better in rock beds with drip.

Here is what I believe is Prairie Joy. This is at a property I recently became part owner of. So I guess this is partly my rose. A very attractive bush in terms of foliage. I don’t think it does much after the first flush, thiugh

Thanks for posting Prairie Joy L. Clark.

We have Lady in red starting her appearance.

Should be a good first flush.

The colors on Above All, a 1 yr old puny climber, are pretty. Good to finally see what these blooms look like.

To me the flowers don't look like the listing. They aren't large and they have more yellow in the center. Some of my other roses have different coloring for first blooms of the season so will have to see how this one progresses.

Full plant

Above All was transplanted from a bad location so is just getting established this year. Band originally planted 6/20.

That prairie joy is a beauty! You are lucky to have it once bloomer or not. MMM12, All those roses look fabulous! Lady in red seems to finally be taking hold. Do you have Florentina? That is another fabulous and healthy red that loves to bloom. Seems to do well in the heat and cold. Not a speck a black spot and even in a terrible place in my yd I couldn't induce it in her. However she didn't bloom much until I moved her this year. Don't worry, I'm just landscaping your fence in my mind! Smiley face LOL!

Thanks vaporvac,

Lady in Red is beautiful. I just wish she and Sally Holmes would hold onto some cane over the winter. This is them today. I'm tired of them only getting to one season's size.

Do you think Florentina would be cane hardy and a good replacement for lady in Red?

Compared with Robusta today...

Robusta a continuous bloomer so looks pretty much like this all season long.

Finally some true color shots of Fred Loads. This (one year old band) is supposed to be cane hardy but was not last year.

I love the brilliant orange color.

Candy Land is finally blooming. Also 1 yr old and not cane hardy last year. Do they get better at being cane hardy as they age?

This is what the rose bed looks like today.

I have 3 Pretty Lady Roses. The one above (in the lower left) and the two below in another area.

I love your garden !! Love the bush-shots and the amazing colors and so many blooms.

Strawchicago

Do you find that some develop to be more cane hardy as they age?

Yes, Dee-lish died to the crown in 1st winter. Now as 7th-year own-root, it's 2 feet green cane last winter. Enough potassium and calcium helps with thicker cane. When I first grew Yves Seedling in a pot, I doused it with sulfate of potash and gypsum and the cane is so thick that I could not cut off with a scissor, I had to use a hedge clipper.

Saw my lawn fertilizer bag has potassium for winter-hardiness. Potassium helps with thick cane, same with calcium. Biggest root-growth in hydroponics You-tube of lettuce is with high calcium & high potassium fertilizer.

I have 2 Kordes FlowerCarpet. One got invaded by tree-roots, I put cement blocks dug down to 1 foot to stop the tree-roots, but I forgot to put calcium & potassium in the soil. Tree-roots stole lots of nutrients. That shrub got eaten by rabbits to 1/4 its size. But the same shrub (without tree-root invasion) IS NOT EATEN by rabbits since the canes and leaves are thicker. I fertilized both shrubs the same in the spring (1 cup of Lilly Miller), but I forgot to re-stock the calcium & potassium stole by tree-roots.

Absolutely gorgeous! Here is a post I found very useful. Glad it came up in my google searches somehow it got lost in the shuffle to my new kindle fire.

https://theminnesotarosegardener.blogspot.com/2014/09/potassium-feast-for-your-roses.html

Thanks strawchicago and Vaporvac! Very helpful info.

L.Clark - that's a fabulous rosebush!! Lovely!!

mmmmm - your LiR is gorgeous!! I love the bold red!! And your sign is perfection with it! Your PLR rose bushes are amazing!!! Those are exactly what you're wanting for that big area...lots of size and flowers! I really do love your LiR though...I would keep it if I were you. :)

Vaporvac: thank you for posting that link -- what a wealth of information! Besides the potassium feast for increased hardiness, I was interested in his use of castor oil in the fall as a vole deterrent.