Saturday, June 30, 2012

More Rose Portraits

Here are some more of my new roses that have started to bloom. 

L'Aimant


This is a Harkness floribunda, also sold as Victorian Spice. So far a really great rose, with big clusters of medium size well shaped blooms with a good consistent color and fragrance. Completely clean foliage and good vigor own root.


Sir Henry Segrave



An old hybrid tea from Vintage Gardens. Not unexpectedly, a fairly weak plant, but the blooms are pretty and fragrant. They fade well too. My plant had some mildew in the spring, but is now healthy.


I was really impressed with it at the San Jose Heritage Gardens, where a grafted plant produces really lovely blooms (below).


Miss Rowena Thom


This is another classic hybrid tea I admire at the Heritage. Mine has fairly good vigor own root and blooms in small clusters. Not much fragrance so far. I think it will want to be a fairly large rose when it grows up.

Intermezzo


This hybrid tea is a child of Grey Pearl, one of the weakest roses ever bred. I thought it would be interesting to see how it does own root. I have been pleasantly surprised. Intermezzo is a short plant so far, but fairly well branched and very willing to bloom. Best of all, I have yet to see a sick leaf on it. The color is good, the bloom shape is old fashioned, and it fades to grey (below). I need to move it to a different pot that would set off the blooms' color a little better :).


Discovery


This shrub was bred at Heirloom roses in Oregon. I bought it out of curiosity, because I couldn't find any information about it and don't know anybody who grows it. This rose has much to recommend it. It has a very pleasing growth habit with lots of branching. Foliage is clean and plentiful. Blooms are very double and had a lot of trouble opening in cooler weather but are finally beginning to look good. Not much fragrance to my nose, and the color is a bit boring, but on the other hand, despite many petals, the bloom has been virtually perpetual with new buds appearing all the time.

Tower Bridge


Another Harkness hybrid tea from Heirloom. The plant has just been potted up from a one-gallon, so there is not much to say. Harkness has a "medium-hard" growing rating on this one, I am guessing because of a lack of vigor, but I am not sure. The foliage has been clean so far.

17 comments:

  1. All of your roses are beautiful. I couldn't even choose a favorite, but I am partial to the pinks. It looks like your roses are faring well though the summer!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very beautiful roses in your garden!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Masha, I loved your new rose Sir Henry, an elegant form and color. Nice to know more about roses!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lovely pictures !!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Piękne róże kwitną w Twoim ogrodzie. Bardzo lubię żółte róże, a Twoje są śliczne. Pozdrawiam.
    Beautiful roses bloom in your garden. I like yellow roses, and your are beautiful. Yours.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your rosepost are always so gorgeous. Do you always cut your roses back to 10 cm above the soil in spring? Thats what is advised overhere. But I think you never get such beautiful bushes of roses as you do when you cut the roses so deep.
    Lovely picture's and a lot of succes with your new roses Masha.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you!

    Marijke, it depends on climate and type of rose. Here roses don't have winter dieback, so the only reasons for cutting them back would be to stimulate flowering growth or to make them smaller. Hybrid teas and hybrid perpetuals seem to be two rose classes that bloom better if pruned, but still I never prune anything as severely as you describe. In climates with colder winters many tender roses (such as most hybrid teas) need to be cut back hard. However, I can never understand putting a rigid number (such as 10cm or whatever) on pruning height. It is not right to assume that each one of genetically complex rose plants will behave exactly the same regardless of climate and gardening practices. Honestly, the best way is to observe the way your particular rose grows and prune (or not prune) accordingly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks a lot Marsha. I am just going to see how my roses are reacting.
      Have a great evening.

      Delete
  8. Breathtaking roses you have! I enjoy your rose posts tremendously since i am a fellow rose lover...

    ReplyDelete
  9. All are gorgeous, but i am most intrigued by Intermezzo!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I can almost smell these beautiful flowers!
    Elaine

    ReplyDelete
  11. Ahhhh, I think I need to make it a regular practice to gaze on your blog posts before I retire each night. Such beautiful, calming photos that will help me to have sweet dreams. Thanks so much for sharing, Masha!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Beautiful, beautiful, as usual. 'L'aimant' in particular very nice. I have had no success with Heirloom plants, unfortunately.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I grow roses in Japan and was looking for things about Carding Mill. Carding Mill is only sold in the US but I was able to get one of my own. Unfortunately last year during the giant earthquake and tsunami I lost many roses, one being Carding Mill. Its very nice to see such a wonderful bloom on your page. I love English roses and your roses are beautiful. I wish I had space to free plant my roses too. (written by an English speaker for me)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thank you for your wonderful comments.

    Hoov, I am sorry about your experience. I have only ordered a few from them, mainly their own roses out of curiosity, and Harkness ones because I like them, and they have all done well.

    Miho, thank you for taking all the trouble to let me know about your love of roses. I am very sorry about the earthquake and your loss. If I could, I would share all my roses with you.

    ReplyDelete

I am so glad you have stopped by!