Roses in Bloom

Our first freeze of the season was two days ago. Just before the freeze, I took snapshots of some of the roses in bloom.

After the first freeze, the number, size and overall quality of rose blooms declines. Some of the roses will not bloom again until Spring, while others will add blooms for a few more weeks.

Nacogdoches Yellow, November 15, 2013

I have finally found a yellow rose that I believe is hardy enough to produce abundant blooms and thrive in my garden. “Nacogdoches Yellow” —also called Grandma’s Yellow” is a found rose; it was located near a hotel in Nacogdoches, Texas.

So far, I haven’t seen any kind of disease on the leaves or stems.

This rose was planted two weeks ago, on the S corner of my house where it also has access to the Morning sun. We had about 5 inches of rain since it was planted, and it seems to have adapted very nicely by sending out new bronze-colored foliage, plus a few buds.

Belinda’s Dream, November 15, 2013

The second rose is Belinda’s Dream. A pink shrub rose with large pink double blooms that appear throughout the growing season (from about late March through early December in my gardens).

It’s pretty compact — about 3 feet in any direction. When conditions for fungal black spot are good (high humidity, heat), this rose will drop leaves pretty quickly. I’ve seen it drop enough in the past that I wasn’t sure it would survive—but it always comes back (no chemicals used, but it does need  fertilizer in the Spring).

During the height of the drought, about 3 years ago, Belinda’s Dream dropped so many leaves from heat stress that I did not believe she would return to the garden. This year, this rose has finally made it “back” to full health. Moral of the story:  don’t remove an old garden right away as they often return from the roots (unlike grafted roses where the rose above the graft will not return).

Little Pinkie, Nov. 15, 2013

The third rose is “Little Pinky”, climbing. This repeat bloomer pushes out flushes of blooms about 3 times a year, it is highly resistant to fungal blackspot and it is nearly (not completely) thorn-less.

With the cool temperatures and high rainfall amounts of the last six weeks, Little Pinky has decided to push out another flush of blooms. Just before the rains started (September) we had reached a dry point whereby cracks were appearing in the ground. Little Pinky does not appear to appreciate the heat, with very few blooms produced from late Spring through summer.

This climber will send out canes that are up to 8 feet, so it needs a trellis to show off the many many clusters of roses.

I’ve got a few more roses farther away from the house, so I’ll post updates on them later.

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