"Denver Roses" here in Tampa

My Water Wise Container Gardens are allowing me to grow an increasingly eclectic mix of own root roses organically, including cold hardy ones that thrived in my Denver rose gardens and those of my clients there. John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoFpHh3rHqY

Florida's Indestructible "Pink Cracker Rose"

Way back in the mid 70s when I was an art major at the Ybor campus of HCC and I was not into roses at all (though nuts about other plants) I noticed stunning specimens of this beauty here and there in Seminole Heights where I lived and elsewhere. I used a bike vs. car for seven years and so really got to know yards well .While I am overwhelmingly an own root man when it comes to OGR in most climates, here in Florida it seems that most moderns DO languish then fail own root. But Fortuniana is a VERY thirsty rootstock and this has become a very dry state since the 1970s. So I will root some Pink Cracker Roses and try budding moderns to them as this enigmatic China I have been looking into since 1982 utterly thrives for many decades even in conditions of total neglect. It can become a pillar rose or made into a dense hedge. It VERY rarely sets hips, has been a VERY poor parent for me (dammit!), is very remontant and disease-free, seems to FEED on nematodes (lol!) and I learned years ago was introduced to the area by Holmes Nursery for Mother's Day of 1933. Investigating it is what, literally, turned me into a rosarian. I have bought MANY pink Chinas over the years to compare, and after MUCH research I feel it is very likely either 'Burbank' or its sister seedling 'Santa Rosa'. Here is a link to my page about it at HMF. John


http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.40071&tab=1

Thanks!

Over the years my bi-climate studies of own root roses, both Old and Modern, have been aided greatly by Mike Shoup of The Antique Rose Emporium, Heather Campbell at High Country Roses, Mark Chamblee at Chamblee's Roses, Tom Carruth of Weeks Roses, and Michael Marriot of David Austin Roses, all  generously donating plants to aid specific points of inquiry I was pursuing. This has helped me to confirm then share with retailers and my readers that in many if not most climates, own root roses can offer truly perennial performance. THANK YOU!

As I expand my Water Wise Container Rose Gardening experiments here in dry south Tampa, I'd be delighted to receive donated plants (I pay shipping of course!) of the following:

Sydonie
Old Blush
Champney's Pink
Secret Garden Musk
Mme. Berkeley
Mlle. Franziska Kruger
"Mr. Nash"
Belle of Portugal
Rosa moschata
"Portland from Glendora"
Devoniensis
"Not Park's Yellow"
E. Veyrat Hermanos
Thor
Blush Noisette
Radiance
Mme. Gregoire Stachelin
Mme. Isaac Perierre
Aloha
Maman Cochet
Paul Neyron
Rose de Rescht
Chrysler Imperial
Hansa

I hope to demonstrate that roses can be grown organically in this manner in central Florida without wasting increasingly scarce water. In the 1990s I planted a vast number of own root roses in my Bay Area clients' garden that thrived and gave them, and me, joy year after year. BUT....back then there were NO watering restrictions vs. the very severe ones that have become the norm since 2001. The super-busy hurricane seasons of 2004-2005 made Tampa wet indeed, and did much to delay the demise of roses all over Tampa, both own root and Fortuniana. My profound hope is that by easily modifying discarded 5-7 gallon buckets with a 3/4 inch paddle bit we can again grow roses both own root and on Fortuniana while using no pesticides and very little of the water that Florida is now perennially short of.

John

Florida Rose Growing Myths

An e-mail I got today reminded me of several widespread myths that even a few rosarians embrace and repeat that do a great disservice to growing Old Roses in my beloved state, the biggest being "It is a proven fact that roses need to be budded onto Fortuniana to grow in Florida". From 1989 through the late 1990s I created many gardens for clients  here using own root OGRs and they thrived right up until the drought settled in 6 years ago when the hurricanes ceased to arrive here and when harsh watering restrictions were imposed (current penalty structure is $100 first time, $500 second time, $500 and court appearance third time, with liens against one's home if you blow off the court appearance). Tampa's high-sodium/high chlorine reclaimed water quickly killed surviving collections. But folks I know with rural wells they can run in secret have THRIVING collections of own root OGRs. I note that those who insist that Fortuniana is a must are not concerned by its famous thirst and use amounts of water that blow my mind as an environmentalist that has watched Florida dry up dramatically since the 1970s.

 A Florida rosarian  I once knew who subscribes to and proclaims as fact that baseless Fortuniana myth also "informed" me in the 90s that Bourbons, Albas,Wichuraianas and Multiflora Ramblers won't grow here.....good thing that my very long lived (in the ground) 'Jersey Beauty' and 'Leontine Gervais' and 'Francois Juranville' and 'Seagull' don't know that! A friend grows own root without sprays the 'Mme. Isaac Pereire' and 'Mme. Alfred Carriere' I gave him three years ago,  and my own root specimens of 'Coquette des Blanches' and 'Louise Odier' thrive in their Water Wise Container Gardens long term, again without sprays. 'Zepherine Drouhin' and 'Albertine' and 'Mme. Plantier' and 'Climbing American Beauty' thrived in the soil here for years until the drought settled in....they finally died 3-4 years ago. A 'Pink Clouds' Multiflora Rambler I gave a highschool era acquaintance thrived for many years beside their hot driveway for many years before they dug it out. I WOULD agree from many trials that the majority of Modern Roses DO best on, or even require, the Fortuniana rootstock.

  Another myth that harms the  Florida environment BIG time is "You HAVE to spray for pests and diseases in Florida". Again....good thing the all-organic rose gardens I created for clients that I maintained using pro-biotic methods did not know that! The sickliest rose gardens I've seen here ARE the ones that are routinely sprayed and thus are absent entire communities of macro and micro organisms that combat bugs and disease FOR organically grown rose gardens.

 La Reine

 Seagull

 Louise Odier

 Coquettes des Blanches

Albertine

 Leontine Gervais

 Great Western

Mermaid

 "Fairmount Red"

 Francois Juranville

 Aviateur Bleriot in a client's yard

Jersey Beauty

  Enjoy the pictures from my yard of roses that some Florida rose "experts" years ago told me can't grow here.  John

Keeping My Eyes on the Prize as I Re-invent My Rose Garden

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvuR_6akedk

Progress of the "re-rosifying" of my front yard

Buried 5-7 gallon Water Wise Container Gardens are the fulcrum upon this effort to grow roses in Tampa's sandy soil after 6 years of drought and severe watering restrictions balances. I feel it will work....I hope so as I miss my roses. A video soon. John

Graig and Shanti and their roses in Denver

                                                     Graig and Shanti with 'De La Grifferie'

Their back patio in June

Them with 'Cornelia' on a pillar

It looks like I forgot to attach the pics of them to that older post about OGRs in Denver. Hard to believe that when I created this garden behind their home, and the ones out front and on the south side of their lot, most of the roses were in 1 gallon pots! Here you go. Enjoy!  John