I undertook a rose bloom study over a period of 3 years, after having a spinal injury which kept me at home. I still hoped to do SOMETHING good for the world, and as I could not move much, I kept to a couple of gardens to keep my state of mind off of my predicament. Roses brought me great joy at a time when I was in physical discomfort.
This bloom study was done in the San Franciscan Bay area, and so includes roses from the China, Old Garden Tea, and Noisette classes. The China and Old Garden Tea roses can produce nearly twice as many weeks of bloom per year as any Hybrid Tea or Austin rosebush can in this area because roses from the Evergreen Trinity Classes, are only leafless and bloomless for a few weeks to c. 2 and 1/2 months per year, and Hybrid Teas and Austin roses do drop their leaves earlier in the year and remain leafless until early spring, and bloom-less until late April on average as a group.
I appraised, and documented 218 rosebushes from a total of 14 rose classes and chose only those that were grown in a
-no spray garden
-were healthy and bloomed normally for that particular cultivar.
The next two years I counted every bloom on every bush, carefully dividing each bush with green garden tape so the count would be true. If I could have moved more I would have found this to be a most tedious function.
However I did this because I thought this was important to document after I had read a rose catalog that listed many dozens of Hybrid Teas and the catalog had rated the Hybrid Teas as blooming as often as Old Garden Tea roses, and I suspected this was not true.
After the 3 year period I found that one rose stood above all others:
'Lady Hillingdon' an evergreen rose of the Old Garden Tea class.
It bloomed with never less than 30% of the number of blossoms that it had produced during its' peak bloom period and maintained this remarkable bloom production for 180 days straight. Then in mid-July it stopped bloom and bud production for nearly a month and in September bloomed again, continuously until the middle of December.
This is without ever being deadheaded or fertilized for that matter.
Because the China, and Old Garden Teas have the most constant bloom habit a I list their bloom in the number of months per year they bloom, in the East San Francisco Bay area, California. which includes Oakland, Richmond, and Emeryville.
The number of months listed , is typical for each rose class.
China M/M/M/-M/M/M/-M.M/M.+1/2 for blooming on average 8 to 9 1/2 months out of the year in our Mediterranean
climate. M.A.C. is the most constant bloomer of the Tea-Noisettes in the study, it begins bloom as early as late February in some years, but more often in March when most of the Old Garden Teas begin to bloom.
The Noisettes are the next to begin bloom, and they do not produce their first flush of the year here until the Florabundas start to bloom in late April, and on average the bush Noisettes produce bloom M-M-M to M-M-M-M months (3 to 4) months out of the year with 'Nastarana' being a remarkable exception, and blooming nearly constantly, like a China rose on very slender pedicles, after its first flush through December.
Florbunda =M-M-M- to M-M-M-M- and 1/2 months each year. The shorter the pedicles in a cultivar the more re-bloom.
Hybrid Musk roses average = M-M-M- to M-M-M-M-.
Hybrid Teas and Austin roses only produce moderate bloom, 3 to 4 months on average each year, because none of these are evergreen roses, and have longer pecicles than China, Tea, and Noisettes, and H.T.s and Austin roses have a rather long dormancy in winter, even here.
Among the Austins Mary Rose blooms most often at c. 4 and 1/2 months of the year.
This is why I'd like to write a pamphlet for the Old Rose Celebration about how Old Garden Teas, produce by far the most large rose blossoms each year of any rose class, by far because of their;
- short pedicles
- evergreen nature
-twiggy growth habit which allows for a high percent of blossoms per square foot of canopy.
I have the complete list of the 218 rose cultivars and the number of days of bloom per year in field notebooks, someday I will type the whole thing up.
Love to you all,
Lux.
Q
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