Roses

It's November and crisp, and the roses are in deep color like they are in the early spring.  The colors aren't the best in the photos because of the morning sun direction, but I wanted to share.
Don Juan on trellis, heat hardy, no smell but great red (not orange!) color.

Yves Paiget, great pink color, very fragrant, normally with many petals:

Unknown mauve pink that I just liked when I bought it and then lost the tag.  Great mauve pink color, very fragrant:

All roses have thorns but all of mine are on the low end of thorniness so they are easy to cut for vases and easy on the pruning.

I must, must get outside.  But first, some photos of April roses.  This climbing Iceberg exploded, due to all the rain this winter, I think. Note the Oxyclean bucket for the Japanese beetles.

Beautiful roses and also a very distinguished PVC greenhouse frame.  Did you make that yourself?  

My wife wanted roses one year for 2/14 day, but I am a frugal old so and so.  I refused to buy a dozen roses that would last a couple days.  So, I bought her a dozen rose bushes.

There was no room the next year to repeat it, so I bought her a dozen glass roses and a large vase.

After that, she stopped asking for roses.  Now, I have to take her somewhere in a zip code that does not resemble our mailing address.  I wish I had just bought those roses.

That's what you get for trying to give her an unusual gift. It's hard to top it.

Yes, I make the PCV frames. It's something I can physically do my self. Every box has one and they are convertible as they aren't glued.

Sanderson ... Thanks for sharing those beautiful roses.

I love roses and have been promised once we stop moving every few year and settle down in our own house that I will get a beautiful rose garden to go around my square foot garden boxes to help with the pollinators. Thank you so much for sharing I love them all!!!!

Thanks for the pictures, sanderson.  They make me nostalgic.

About 28 years ago my husband and I and our toddler took the train from SanDeigo to Fresno for Easter with the great grandparents in Madera.  It had been a wet winter and all the hills were in bloom with sheets of lupins and poppies.  In the Valley the rose fields were in bloom, and every old farmhouse and shed was half buried under cascades of blooming roses.  It was a gorgeous trip.

Thank you, Turan.

I know most ppl use sfg for food sources but I have always wanted a rose garden. Has anyone ever planted roses in a sfq? If so, did you use Mel's Mix for the soil?
Thanks

I bought the Mrs. some rose bushes in lieu of flowers for a couple of Valentine's Days, and we planted them on one border of our raised beds but not in the raised beds.  I would tend to think that you need deeper roots for roses, but that is just my off the cuff beliefs.  Our roses have deep roots, and I dug out an 18-inch deep hole before conditioning the soil and planting the 4 bushes.

Good luck.  Our roses attract bees and hummingbirds.

Yes, bees do love roses, and I've always read that the planting hole should be 18" deep.

Here are some of mine from last year:

Hey guys and gals!

I've got a question related to roses but I don't want to needlessly start a new topic, so here it is. It's kind of a doozy, lol!

My sister wants 5 roses bushes for her front yard, and since I love a challenge, I offered to see if i could start them for her (presumably in containers on my terrace) and transplant them at her place when they are established.

I have been reading some stuff because I don't know much about roses, but my goal is to grow 5 rose bushes on the cheap without spending $30-$40 per plant. I'm good at growing things from seed but I understand roses are a very different beast from seed. So I'm wondering what the next step up is. 

Am I crazy to think I can pull this off? Can I grow 5 rose bushes in containers, spending a only a few bucks, and transplant them in my sister's garden once they are too big for the containers?

We live in Toronto so winters get quite cold up here. Not even sure if they would survive to the following spring. She doesn't care about the color, she just wants rose bushes, lol.

You can give propagation a try. Google Rose Propagation for information and videos. The only thing different from purchases rose plants is that they won't be grafted on a hardy root stock. My guess, and only a guess, is that they may stay container roses???

sanderson wrote:You can give propagation a try.  Google Rose Propagation for information and videos.  The only thing different from purchases rose plants is that they won't be grafted on a hardy root stock.  My guess, and only a guess, is that they may stay container roses???

I agree especially about the hardy root stock.

Fiz, from where are you going to get the seeds?  If you take them from an a rose plant that is grafted onto a hardy root stock you may end up growing the root stock variety rather than the grafted on variety.

TheThanks for the tips guys! I did a bit of reading on propagation and will loook into it further. I definitely want to make sure they can grow into shrub sized plants so my sister can line her driveway with them.

TD, my sister told me she doesn't care what the variety is so I'm not too concerned about the hybrid issue.

I'll likely pop into the nursery down the street from me this week and pick their brain as well. Thanks, will keep you all posted!

I read something online once about how the original settlers came to North America and brought with them cuttings from their fave heirloom roses. When they got here they planted them under jars for the cold winter ahead. So I after reading this I looked at a cutting of rose hips that I had in a jar of water in the window. I stuck it in the ground outside the window, put the jar over it and by the following spring I had a plant. It's now about 4 yrs old and is our healthiest rose bush.

Beginners luck as I've never been able to duplicate it.
CC

This wasn't the exact article but it captures the jist:
http://scvrs.homestead.com/cuttings1.html

All of the roses have been absolutely beautiful this year.

Mine, also. April and May were such perfect months with mild weather.