2011's New Roses Update (2-3 months after planting)

My last post on St. Swithun received a few comments about how big it was in just its second season.  That got me thinking that I should update this year's new roses a couple of times over the growing season.  I will start you out with a flower because there aren't very many in this entry.  You may wonder why I use the tomato cages.  It is simple, we have two Siberian Huskies who would unintentionally crush them before they got a good start.  Last year I had to cut a couple of cages up in order to remove them because the rose had grown up so much that I couldn't remove the cage without damaging the rose.

This is Siren's Keep, a shrub rose from Paul Barden.  As you can see, the color is a bit faded by our long 100+ degree days.  Still the flower has held up better than Tradescant, its grandparent's flowers which burn in the extreme heat.  So many of the Austin roses can't stand up to our summer sun and heat, so this is a hopeful sign to me. 

This is Linda Campbell a last minute addition to my Spring orders after reading Professor Roush's blog entry about the Ralph Moore Hybrid Rugosa.  If he was that excited about it I had to give it a try.  She was added to my order of Moore's Striped Rugosa which was still a couple of weeks from being ready to ship.  She looks happy and has sent out two new canes. 

Here is Moore's Striped Rugosa.  I am enjoying the crinkly rugosa leaves which are new to my gardening.  I have enjoyed seeing these leaves on plants but have never grown any rugosas until this Spring.

This young plant is from a cutting of Dublin Bay I took last year from my mother's plant.  I have always had high hopes for Dublin Bay but her plant never really turned into what I thought it would.  Maybe this one will do better.

This sprawling young plant is DayDream.  It has such a spreading habit which is one of the reasons I think of it as a Hybrid Musk.  It has sent out the longest growth of this year's new roses.

Here is another picture of Siren's Keep.  I am looking forward to seeing this one in the Fall when the sunlight is not quite so intense. 

I'm calling this one Lena's Gift.  Lena is a member of the church and she saw this rose while checking out at K Mart and just had to buy one for me and one for her.  Like so many miniature roses set up for impulse buys, it bore no name and had three very young plants in a small pot.  I separated the three plants, planted one at home and the other two at the Prague Rose Garden.  It has small pink/magenta flowers with 10-15 petals.  If you know what this rose might be, please, do tell.

This is Winsome, also a pink/magenta miniature rose but with larger fuller flowers.  I grew Winsome 20 years ago and it was a tall vigorous plant and was always in bloom.  We moved and I didn't replace it until this spring.

Here is Jude the Obscure.  I have always been drawn to pictures of this rose but have not grown it until now.  It is really taking off and I think this time next year will have built up to a good size. 

Last is the English Rose Charles Rennie Mackintosh and maybe the one I am most looking forward to.  It has the reverse breeding of St. Swithun so I am curious to figure out what similarities and differences the two have with each other.

Look for an update on all of these roses in another three months. 

DayDreaming

I decided it was unfair of me to post my picture of one bloom on my tiny plant of DayDream and you to have that as your primary impression of the rose.  I think of DayDream being more like Ballerina but much healthier.  So while in OKC, I took my camera to the Oklahoma City Rose Garden to get a better picture of the plant's growth habit for you.  It looks like I was a week or two too late for the show but it will be putting on its second flush before too long.  Still, I think this will give you an idea just how dense growing this rose is.

In the planting above I simple could not tell for certain but it appears to be a single row of four or five plants but the growth is so dense and spreading that you just can not tell.  

DayDream blooms in large clusters of small 1 1/2 inch blooms with maybe 50-100 blooms in a cluster.  Each bloom is single with 5-10 petals in the magenta range of colors.  Each flower is open for about 5 or 6 days.  In this picture I was able to find a nice cluster still in bloom.

I hope this gives you a better picture of what the mature rose is like.  Can you imagine if I had been able to get a picture a week or two earlier?

DayDream's First Bloom

I love very double roses such as St. Swithun but I do enjoy the occasional single rose.  When this  enjoyment of a single rose is combined with something in the lavender tone I will be hooked.  Add to these features a vigorous healthy shrub rose and you have something that I find irresistible - the 2004 introduction rose DayDream by Ping Lim.

DayDream is a cross of Lavender Dream x Henry Kelsey and grows as a dense healthy plant spreading wider that tall and a good four fet tall.  I fell in love with this rose at the Oklahoma City Rose Garden at Will Rogers park were it is planted and grown into a dense hedge and has always been in bloom.  A healthy dense hedged rose in a public garden is a rare thing.  I suspect it will be very winter hardy from the presence of Henry Kelsey but I don't know this for sure. 

Now to the hard part of the post after seeing DayDream a couple of times at the OKC Rose Garden last year I tried to obtain this rose for my garden.  I tried all the nurseries I know of to find it, the HelpMeFind list of those who sold it, and put out a plea on the Old Garden Rose Forum on GardenWeb and could not find a nursery who had it available.  Finding it irresistible (and it is), I took a couple of cuttings to start one for my own garden and it was the easiest start I have every made from a rose. It grew roots immediately. It took a long time to bloom this Spring (almost to June) but here is its first flower.  I would gladly send a few dollars in Ping Lim's direction, but I am so glad to have this rose in my garden.  If you would like to obtain one legally I saw that Roses Unlimited is now carrying it.  I feel better now that I have that off my chest.

2011's New Roses



       This Spring I am adding 5 new roses to our garden.  This brings our total number of varieties to 45 with us having multiple plants of several varieties.  For those of you who have not yet gone crazy with roses, this probably sounds like a lot.  For those of you who are rosarians you are probably wondering, "When is he going to really get started?"  The truth is that I am really trying to hit a happy medium.  I know my propensity to take a good thing too far, so this is me operating with restraint.  Oh, I am on a wait list for one other rose, Moore's Striped Rugosa, but my focus in the garden this year is to master the art of rooting rose cuttings and to bring the garden to maturity ( this will only be our third Summer in Prague).

L-R: DayDream, Siren's Keep, Jude the Obscure, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and Winsome

         Let me tell you a little about these roses.  First, I order my roses from small owner operated Nurseries such as Burlington Roses, Heirloom Garden Roses, Rogue Valley Roses, Roses Unlimited, & Hartwood Roses.  The last of these, Hartwood, I have yet to use but feel certain that I will soon.  Theses nurseries specialize in producing roses that grow on their own root systems (which is different than most roses you will run across at Home Depot or even most local nurseries).  You will notice that they come much smaller but I am convinced will outpace and out live roses that are grafted onto a different rootstock.  So with a little help from my favorite rose website (helpmefind.com) let me introduce you to my 5 new roses.

DayDream  I first saw DayDream at the Oklahoma City Rose Gardens.  It is a beautiful disease free bush that I would describe as a lavender version of Ballerina.  Blooms are lavender to magenta.  Mild, sweet fragrance.  Small to medium, single blooms with 10 to 12 petals, in large cluster bloom form.  Continuous (perpetual) bloom throughout the season.   Habit:  Bushy, compact, rounded, spreading.  Semi-glossy, medium green foliage.  It is listed with a height of 2' and 3' wide but it was at least 5' x 5' in the OKC garden.  I personally think this rose most natuarally fits in the Hybrid Musk class even if it is a bit stiffer than most in the class.

Siren's Keep is a rose bred by Paul Barden and I have been on the wait list for this one for almost a year.  This will be the fifth of his roses for me to grow.  It is a shrub rose with both English and miniature roses in its background.  Here is how it is described on hmf.  Deep pink, fuchsia / magenta center.  Strong, old rose, tea fragrance.  30 to 45 petals.  Average diameter 4".  Medium-large, full (30-45 petals), cluster-flowered, in small clusters, cupped, old-fashioned bloom form.  Prolific, blooms in flushes throughout the season.  Medium, pointed buds.

Jude the Obscure is an English Rose whose unique color and form have brought it much attention.  I once hear the color described as "parchment" and to me this seems accurate.  Additional information includes apricot, cream shading, lighter reverse.  Strong fragrance.  Full (55 to 70 petals) borne mostly solitary but sometimes in small clusters, globular bloom form.  Blooms in flushes throughout the season.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh  is another English Rose with pink lilac blend color.  Mild fragrance.  Average diameter 3".  Very double ( 60-100 petals), cupped, old-fashioned bloom form.  Occasional repeat later in the season.  Charles has the reverse breeding of one of my favorite roses, St. Swithun and a similar bloom form but with more of a lilac color.  I have often wanted to grow this rose but have not until this year.

 Winsome is described as a miniature mauve or purple blend.  Little to no fragrance.  30 to 36 petals.  Average diameter 1.75".  Large, full (26-40 petals), classic hybrid tea, exhibition, reflexed bloom form.  Blooms in flushes throughout the season.  Medium, long sepals buds.  I grew this rose years ago and in my experience it was 2 1/2 feet tall with very beautiful blooms.

They are all going in the ground this evening.