This was one of the top performers in my garden for almost 25 years. It was large for a floribunda, about 5 feet tall and 3-4 feet wide, and it was generous with its blooms, producing clusters of perfectly shaped blooms of a coral-pink hue in large numbers for most of the year. It originally was growing in the dappled shade of a small oak tree. As the oak tree grew, so did the shade, and I moved the rose to a sunnier spot. That's where the gophers found it last year. Apparently, it's delicious in addition to having those other positive features. I will buy it again.
Queen Nefertiti's dark red buds are deceptive. They open into many-petaled, often quartered blooms that are pale apricot with a golden center, gradually fading to a peach and pink blend. It's one of the smaller Austin roses in my garden. It's such a pretty rose that I'm growing two of them because it deserves to be on display in more than one part of my garden. Both of mine are only 2 feet tall and 2 feet wide. The foliage is marred by rose slug damage for a couple of months each year, but it looks fine the rest of the year.
This is one of Dr. Buck's prettiest roses, producing blooms that are golden yellow with a red edge in full sun or pale yellow with a pink edge in dappled shade. I've bought the rose twice, from two different own-root nurseries. The first died quickly, after only a few months. The second is still alive, but it's only about 8 inches tall after 10 years in a good flower bed where every other plant is doing well. The shrub is supposed to be 3-5 feet tall, but I think that description might date back to the days when all Buck roses were grafted. If I ever find it grafted, I certainly will buy it.
When Pure Poetry first appeared in the Jackson & Perkins catalog about 20 years ago, everyone wanted it. It remained wildly popular for the next two or three years and then disappeared. It's now offered by a few own-root nurseries, but the photos of it on some of their websites bear little resemblance to the original Pure Poetry.
I bought mine the year it was introduced and it's been one of the top performers in my garden ever since. It is large for a floribunda, 5-6 feet tall and 4-5 feet wide, and it's extraordinarily generous with blooms. Carried in large clusters, the blooms open in a blend of pink and light orange and gradually fade to a light apricot blend, best described as peaches and cream. It is remarkably tolerant of a variety of conditions. It grew large and bloomed almost nonstop in the shade of a persimmon tree for its first 10 years in my garden, and it's still blooming almost nonstop in full sun now that the tree is gone.
Even with the most diligent pruning, Yves Piaget usually has an ungainly and asymmetrical habit. The thick branches persist in jutting out horizontally, so the bush is almost always wider than it is tall. In addition, it has a cloying anise scent, which is a fragrance I don't particularly like. In spite of these negative features, however, I'm happy to grow it just for the blooms. They are extra-large cupped blooms with about 80 beautifully ruffled petals.
This hybrid tea dates back to 1925, almost a century ago, and it's still popular with rose gardeners today. I think I'm growing it because of its historical importance in rose gardening and not because of any great affection for the rose. The blooms are pretty, starting out in a shade of pale lavender-pink and gradually aging to cream, with prominent stamens, but the bush itself does not have an attractive habit. Tall and narrow, it has perhaps the worst case of "bare-legs syndrome" in my garden. The blooms and foliage are located in the top third of the plant, so I have to grow the rose in the middle of a flower bed, hiding the bottom two-thirds behind other plants.
Tawny Tiger is a rose of the "curiosity" or "oddball" category, appealing to people who are drawn to uncommon rose colors. The bloom is light orange with dark russet-brown stripes. This striking color combination might be the rose's only strong point. The buds are a pretty shape, but the open blooms rarely hold any shape for long and are somewhat formless. The rose shrub is not particularly vigorous or bushy. In my garden it's a narrow shrub about 3 feet tall. In addition to these faults, the rose has no apparent resistance to pests and disease. The foliage of my rose is disfigured by black spot, rose slugs, and curculio weevils for several months each year.
This is a rose I acquired by chance. Ashdown sent it to me for free, as a consolation prize when the nursery was unable to send me some of the roses in an order. I probably never would have ordered it on my own because it's just another red hybrid tea, but I'm so glad it's in my garden. It grows large in my zone, climbing to about 6 feet and spreading 4-5 feet. It never stops blooming, even on the hottest days of summer, and the bright red blooms, unaffected by heat or rain, are set off by shiny dark-green foliage.
I've grown Edith Holden for about 30 years, but each Edith Holden I've bought has not lasted long. The one currently growing in my garden is the fourth. It has been here for about 8 years, but it's failing now. I suspect this is a rose that needs to be grafted. Unfortunately, I've only been able to buy it in the own-root variety. It's a weak rose, with thin canes rising no more than 3 feet from the ground, and it's fairly stingy with its blooms.
Why do I persist in trying to grow it? Because the few blooms the rose produces have an irresistible color from start to finish, starting out in a russet-brick shade, almost brown, and gradually turning smoky-violet. These colors complement the large golden center of the bloom.
Unfortunately, this monster plant was brought over to North America from Japan, and it is native also to Korea. This Japanese Multiflora Rose was brought over to be a root stock for cultivated rose scions. It was also spread around in parts of the USA by the old Soil Conservation Service, with the mistaken idea it would be good for soil stabilization. They should have chosen some native species as Gray Dogwood to do a better job and not allow such an invasive species to go crazy in becoming one of the major shrub species in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and some of the northern South, growing wild along forest edges and in fields. It even likes to invade residential yards. When it is leafed out and blooming it can look good sometimes. It has the habit of partially climbing up into trees with long, vine-like branches. As a Rose can be, it is nasty to touch with all of the thorns. I do enjoy cutting this species down with loppers and shears and then axing the base area into the ground when I work in winter time at removing or lessening invasive woody plants, as volunteer work. I do the same with its common companions of Amur honeysuckle, Autumn-Olive, Winged Euonymus, Privets, Common Buckthorn, Oriental Bittersweet vine, and Japanese Honeysuckle vine. I'm glad the new Rose Rosette Disease is attacking it, (I wish the deer would eat it), and where this Japanese Rose is common, the disease is also more common to attack cultivated roses. I believe native species roses as Virginia Rose, Carolina Rose, Swamp Rose, etc. are resistant.
This rose is one of the stars of my garden in May and June. It can climb as high as 20 feet, and its canes stay pliable for a long time, so it can be wound around pillars or trained on tellises and arbors quite easily -- extremely easily, in fact, because it is not a thorny rose. The large clusters of small cupped blooms start out a bluish-purple and gradually fade to lavender and silver. It is a once-bloomer, but many once-bloomers occasionally rebloom in my zone if they are pruned soon after the blooming stage has been completed. Veilchenblau has a second bloom cycle about once every three years in my garden. The rebloom is sparse but nevertheless quite welcome.
By zuzu (Northern California - Zone 9a) on Dec 15, 2019 1:31 AM concerning plant: Rose (Rosa 'Paprika')
There are several roses named Paprika. This is the oldest of them -- a Tantau floribunda bred in the 1950s. It is a small rose, usually not much more than 2 feet tall, with an exceptionally attractive habit. It is bushy from top to bottom, forming a pretty ball of color. The clustered blooms are semi-double, showing off their prominent stamens. They have a unique color blend -- bright brick-red with a purple center.
By zuzu (Northern California - Zone 9a) on Dec 15, 2019 1:18 AM concerning plant: Rose (Rosa 'Faberge')
This pretty floribunda was introduced in the United States 50 years ago and is still popular today. It's a small rose bush, usually less than 3 feet tall, and has only a slight fragrance, but its high-centered blooms are a lovely blend of pink petals with a golden-yellow reverse.
By zuzu (Northern California - Zone 9a) on Dec 14, 2019 2:57 AM concerning plant: Rose (Rosa 'Aprikola')
This rose has been a disappointment. The apricot blend of colors in the blooms looked so appealing in photos that I ordered two from a mail-order nursery. Aprikola is a floribunda, but I had read the descriptions stating that it was a groundcover rose of only 1-2 feet in height, so I didn't expect them to get very tall. I did expect them to spread, however. Both failed to thrive. The location was not the problem because they were planted in different parts of my garden, in beds with other roses exhibiting no problems. The nursery was not the problem because other plants from the same order grew well. One of the Aprikola bushes languished for years and finally died. The other is still alive, but it's still the same size it was when I bought it --- about 5" x 5". Ironically, the rose is also sold as Apricot Vigorosa, but in my garden it has been the antithesis of a vigorous rose.
By zuzu (Northern California - Zone 9a) on Dec 14, 2019 2:37 AM concerning plant: Rose (Rosa 'Neptune')
This is one of the best mauve roses in my garden. The perfect blooms have a dark lavender center and lighter lavender outer petals. As they age, they turn silver. The fragrance is sublime and the rose bush has a more attractive habit than many other hybrid teas. In my garden, Neptune is no more than 4 feet tall, so it isn't marred by the "bare-legs" syndrome exhibited by most of the taller hybrid teas.
I rarely buy yellow or white roses because I have so many volunteer poppies and feverfew plants springing up in my garden that I usually have no need to add those colors to a flower bed. When I saw Mike's photos of Paloma Blanca's blooms looking like the swirly ice cream cups of my childhood, however, I immediately ordered the rose. Unfortunately, it's impossible to find grafted, so I had to buy the own-root version. This probably is the reason that my Paloma Blanca, which has been growing in my garden for about 10 years now, is never going to be more than 2-3 feet tall, although the descriptions of this grandiflora always state a height of 4-7 feet.
Despite its smaller size, however, even the own-root version is healthy, produces new basal shoots regularly, and never suffers from dieback in my garden. In addition, the blooms are distinguished by superior rain resistance, retaining their pretty shape even after a downpour.
Opening Night has been growing in my garden for 20 years and it's my favorite red rose. The exhibition-quality buds open to reveal blooms of a bright true-red color, which never fades to a bluish-red. The fragrant high-centered blooms on exceptionally long stems are perfect for bouquets.
Ballerina, a rose dating back to the 1930s, might be the most popular hybrid musk rose grown today. Its single blooms, white with pink edges, are carried in large clusters. In my garden the rose is highly susceptible to black spot in spring following our rainy season, leading to unsightly foliage and defoliation. The blooms are not affected by this, however, and the higher temperatures in summer produce new clean foliage without a trace of black spot.
By zuzu (Northern California - Zone 9a) on Dec 13, 2019 12:23 AM concerning plant: Rose (Rosa 'Nahema')
Nahema, a rose named after a recently discontinued Guerlain perfume with a fruity rose scent, has had a peculiar history in my garden. I bought it as a tiny rooted cutting in 2008. It grew slowly for years, but it never bloomed and it remained a "one-cane wonder." In 2018 its one and only cane died. I cut the dead black cane off at ground level, feeling a bit annoyed by the futility of all the care I'd given it for 10 years, but I didn't bother digging up the roots. This year those roots suddenly sent up two strong canes, thick and sturdy in comparison with the one wispy cane that had died. Then, wonder of wonders, both of those canes produced lovely blooms within a few months -- lovely old-fashioned cupped blooms with a fragrance reminiscent of peaches and plums.
The roses of Dominique Massad's Generosa line are similar to David Austin's shrub roses, but they have a few advantages. Both have large blooms, but the Generosa blooms are not as heavy as some of the Austin blooms. Their lighter weight and the stronger canes of the Generosas eliminate the "nodding" habit that's so frustrating in some Austin roses.
Eliane Gillet is a Generosa rose with clusters of quartered blooms in a blend of white and pink, occasionally with dark red petal edges. The blooms usually fade to a solid white, which can look enigmatic when the solid white bloom is surrounded by the rose's dark red buds.
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