Roses

[rogerzilla]

This one's "Savoy Hotel", a perfect-shaped 40 petal hybrid tea, but with almost no scent at all.



Does anyone else grow bush roses (as apart from climbers and ramblers, which don't produce specimen blooms)?

[little miss mac]

We inherited one from the previous occupants which, whilst tall and leggy, is not a climber or rambler. The blooms are cream coloured with the most glorious scent that wafts across the garden. In spite of our cack-handed 'gardening', along with having to fight with a stupidly vigorous wisteria for sunlight and moisture, it blooms pretty much all summer if you remember to deadhead. Wish I knew what it was called.

Based on the above, I have a vague hankering for more, but am sure they would limp along like much of the rest of the garden.

[interzen]

I'd never call myself a rose grower by any stretch of the imagination, but I've got a couple of rose bushes in the back garden which produce the most gorgeous, deep red flowers (think of the stereotypical red rose and you're close) and a really strong 'rosy' scent - I prune them every now and again, but otherwise they're left to their own devices. In fact, the colour of the flowers, which contrasts nicely with the flowers on the lilac tree, is the only reason they've not been given a terminal pruning.

I sent my mother a copy of the photo and, as a former rose grower (in the proper sense), she very definitely approved. I, on the other hand, think a rose without any scent is a bit pointless, no matter how good the actual bloom looks.

[rogerzilla]

I also have Alec's Red, which is strongly scented but has blooms which quickly become open and rounded, and Polar Star, a white rose with a good shape but a slightly cabbagey scent.

There is a huge red climber on the corner of the house which has the best scent and nicely-shaped blooms, but they're not readily reached for cutting and don't have long enough stems anyway.  There's also a fluo pink climber up the deceased plum tree trunk which smells nice but has small blooms which "blow" in a day.

Our clay soil makes hybrid teas grow 6-7 feet tall, despite being hacked back to 18" off the ground every spring 

[rogerzilla]

Here's the film version.  This is the closest you can get with a rangefinder (Leica with Summicron dual range 50mm with "goggles").  I thought I did pretty well with the colour matching.



And Alec's Red, which smells nice but doesn't hold its shape for long enough.  Second-flush roses are never quite as big as you tend to get more side buds, which I don't normally remove as I'm not exhibiting them.