The first roses (pics)
By now most of my Teas have at least a few blooms open, so I thought I'd seize the moment and take a few pictures, giving thanks, for once, for dull gray weather, as it makes photography easier. The contrast between the chill modesty of temperate zone plant growth and flowers on the one hand, and the rollicking Teas on the other, is quite striking (our soil doesn't allow acidophiles like azaleas and camelias). This year they're starting extensive flowering at least a month earlier than they used to before climate change. Clearly they like the abundant rainfall this month, and the subsequent mild temperatures and growing sunlight.
'Odorata' in the front yard. I've never thought of this as a hefty rose, but after a couple of decades this one is up to about 6'x8'. Nice scent.
'Général Schablikine', growing in hostile conditions and, apparently, loving it. You can call it a "pink Tea", and not come close to conveying how beautiful it is, and what a sturdy variety. This plant is also about twenty years old, if I remember correctly, and I think own root, as is 'Odorata'. It's roughly 6'x8' or more.
A hopeless attempt at capturing most of this specimen of 'Général Schablikine'; actually, the photo came out better than I expected. I'm beginning to understand why so many photos are of individual roses rather than of plants: they're much easier.
'Safrano', growing next to GS. What a beautiful rose this is. The plant has been rather puny lately, suffering from the prolonged drought in its unfavorable position; but it seems to have picked up with the rain.
Time to post.
Comments (14)
Melissa Northern Italy zone 8
last monthPart 2.
A closer look at 'Sanguinea', which has been flowering well for some weeks now; it was always one of the first to bloom. A big, beautiful plant, sprawling down the escarpment: about twenty years old, own root.
'Mme. Antoine Mari'. With the current cool weather, she is still rather pale: this is one of the more richly colored blooms. There are fuller flowers on the plant, but they're having trouble opening. Plant is, again, about twenty years old and own root, gawky and awkward, but it keeps on putting out new growth. One of the most beautiful Teas, in my opinion, but then, they're all lovely. Perhaps 7'x7'.
A particularly fine bloom of 'Mrs. B.R. Cant' for this early in the season. The Mrs. has been flowering for a while. After I rebuilt the pergola a while back I retrained her on it and helped start her up the flowering ash growing out of the terrace wall. Now about 14' high and, oh, perhaps 10' wide? Big, anyway. A beautiful rose and good climber.
'Isabella Sprunt'. The lemon-ice-colored sport of 'Safrano'. I adore this rose, and only have the one plant, growing hopelessly large for moving in one of the propagating beds. I need to take cuttings of it and start some new, small, riskable plants to try out in the garden.
These are most of my Teas. There are a few that haven't reported in yet, though they have buds.
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First bloom on Flight 93 rose pic
Comments (2)It looks lovely. Nice rich color and the petals look like they have a good substance to them. Let us know how it continues to progress for you....See Morefirst bloom on roses this year!!!!! pics.
Comments (11)I knew there was a reason I love this forum! I am reminded of it often when reading these posts from all of you. What sweet gardening friends you are! Thank-you for your anniv. wishes. I agree it was a most perfect gift on our special day. I can relate SO well to those of you that are growing roses for the first time. I was in EXACTLY those shoes last year. I bought four bare-root David Austins from Wayside and only ONE of them took! sniff! You wouldn't believe what my dh and I went through to create the bed for them if I told you so suffice it to say that I had four roses, three of them dead and he declared we MUST have something to fill those empty holes so we went to the local garden center and splurged on two KO blush bushes. Already established and blooming. That was one of the best purchases ever in my opinion. They are double the size and covered with buds this year. I got another one for Mom's day! hehe The rose in question in the picture is a New Dawn climber. I bought two of those last year in POTS. They were tiny but they were already alive and growing. They have gone bonkers this year and are already nearly up to the roof of my patio. They are also covered with buds. I am SO impatient to see them all in full bloom!! Of all the plants in my garden, nothing ever thrills me as much as my roses when they are blooming....See Morepics of first seedling's first bloom
Comments (7)That one, and a pink but otherwise similar one, were from some random rose hips my mom found and sent to me. I have others from trades, those didn't bloom yet because they are rugosas and I don't think they'll bloom until they go through a winter phase. I also currently have freshly gathered rose seeds from my don juan and golden showers roses available to trade. Those are hybrid teas, a deep red and a pale yellow. I also have a new double delight and a rescued old pink noid tea rose, but neither have made hips yet....See MoreSpring 2016 in New Brunswick, NJ
Comments (104)ingrid_vc -- I, too, noticed that 'Honorine de Brabant' seems focused more on growing than blooming if left to itself. Last year, I pruned it in late Winter, and it was glorious for its first flush in late Spring. Then it grew and grew, since I let it "go wild", and I got only the occasional bloom here and there, the last sometime around Halloween. This year, I'm trying an experiment of sorts -- the roses which are "stingy" with rebloom were just lightly tidied up in Spring, but otherwise left rather big. After the first flush, I'm going to prune them as "the books" say to do in late Winter, and see if that gets a better rebloom. It worked with 'Rose du Roi -- original' which I cut back hard on half its canes after the first flush because it wasn't self-supporting. The result was a bit scary for a couple of weeks, since that one leafs out only in the top few inches, which made it top-heavy and caused it to flop. After cutting it back hard, I was left with leafless canes maxing at about 24" tall. But they soon branched lower down and leafed out again, and had a second flush soon after. Once I saw that what I did didn't kill the canes on which I did it, I went back and did it to the others I left untouched. They did the same thing, but behind the first set by a few weeks. What I'm going to do with 'Honorine de Brabant' is first look to see if there are canes or laterals which had few or no blooms, and remove them entirely -- I figure they're "spent". Then I'll cut back canes which did bloom well by about a third. I've noticed that reblooming OGRs like Bourbons and Hybrid Perpetuals don't "rebloom" the way Chinas and Teas and Polyanthas do. The former groups bloom after new growth has reached a certain size, their first flush being on what grew the previous year. The latter groups just leaf out what remained after Winter, then send out bloom sprays on that, which later become new growth. In other words, my Bourbons and Hybrid Perpetuals want to leaf out, grow, then bloom. My Chinas, Teas, and Polyanthas want to leaf out, bloom, then grow. So I'm thinking that to get the Bourbons and Hybrid Perpetuals to rebloom better, they need a kick in the pants to send forth new growth, rather than just extending what they already put out before the first flush. haku84 -- 'Mme de Sevigne' does not disappoint in the fragrance department. Everyone talks about 'Mme Isaac Pereire' as being the most fragrant Bourbon, but I've smelled quite a few, and I think that generally this "family" of long-caned Bourbons with kinda similar blooms are mostly very fragrant. This would include 'Mme de Sevigne', as well as the rose sold as 'Souvenir du President Lincoln', 'Deuil de Dr. Reynaud', 'Mme d'Enfert', etc. If you have an old Vintage Gardens catalog, they'd be the Bourbons of growth habit #3, or in some cases #4 -- as is my 'Souvenir de Victor Landeau', which is also quite fragrant. :-) ~Christopher...See MoreK S 7b Little Rock (formerly of Seattle)
last monthMelissa Northern Italy zone 8 thanked K S 7b Little Rock (formerly of Seattle)
Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR
last monthMelissa Northern Italy zone 8 thanked Sheila z8a Rogue Valley ORMelissa Northern Italy zone 8
last monthlast modified: last monthA couple more roses, pics taken this morning:
'Mrs. B.R. Cant' growing onto the pergola and up the flowering ash. It would look tidier if I could reach high enough to deadhead old blooms. The pergola is the usual "This exists solely to keep the roses off our heads". I like them, though.
'Clementina Carbonieri' (of commerce), sprawling over a decent amount of the escarpment. This most beautiful rose burns instantly in the sun, while growing in our garden with a south-facing exposure and no shade (she is surrounded by many hefty shrubs, though); so thank goodness for the current coolish, cloudy-hazy conditions.
'Etoile de Lyon'. The rose chafers adore this rose, my greatest problem with it, but thank heaven it's still a little early for them, so this bloom was untouched. A very lovely (I know I keep saying that) rose and tough, as are Teas in general. EdL has a somewhat shrubbier and stouter habit than a twiggy Tea like 'Général Schablikine', for example. My plant is perhaps 6'x10'. Another twenty-year-er, as is CC above.I cut a rose bouquet today for our overworked and super-diligent doc, and as I was carrying it over to her office I ran into a group of toddlers and their two carers. One little boy looked like he was interested in the roses--he stared--so I stopped and offered to let him look, and touch "with one finger". And I showed the flowers to the other children and let them touch and, on the suggestion of the carers, smell. I don't know how many of them were moved by a bouquet of Tea roses, but if even one was, it was worth it.
There's not enough beauty in the world.
Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR
last monthMelissa Northern Italy zone 8 thanked Sheila z8a Rogue Valley ORMelissa Northern Italy zone 8
last monthAnd a couple more.
'Noella Nabonnand' on top of the balcony, just coming into bloom. HMF gives this variety a height of 10', but given support it will travel considerably further in its lanky, open way. This is the correct variety. Very satisfactory rose.
And one last kind, 'Archduke Joseph', the flower a little older and opening past the rounded swirl of petals, flat across its face, that is its commonest form when in its prime. This color looks a little light; more often it's a rose pink/red with coppery tints; occasionally paler. The Archduke is just starting its flush. My rose, about twenty years old, like most of the ones I've shown on this thread, is a behemoth, climbing up into the persimmon, and beyond it onto the eastern end of the wisteria pergola: my largest Tea rose. It obviously loves its growing conditions. AJ has particularly clean and beautiful foliage.
bart bart
last monthMelissa Northern Italy zone 8
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Melissa Northern Italy zone 8Original Author