Floribunda Rose

Floribunda Rose ‘Livin’ Easy’
Wordless Wednesday  

Floribunda Rose ‘Lion’s Rose’

Floribunda Rose ‘Lion’s Rose’

Synonyms: Champagne Moment, KORvanaber, Lion's Fairy Tale

Wordless Wednesday

Julia Child Floribunda Rose

Julia Child Floribunda Rose

Wordless Wednesday

Easy Goin' Floribunda Rose

 

Yellow Floribunda Rose ‘Easy Goin’’

Rosa ‘Don Quichotte’

Synonyms: Zonta Rose 98, HARflow

This little rose seems to manage to look good most of the season. The color is awesome and the plants are disease resistant. This  is certainly a low maintenance rose and easy to grow.

There has been just the slightest hint of autumn in the mornings here. It starts off chilly and then turns into a nice day and we have been getting a lot done in the gardens. It has been a little dry but thankfully not like the rest of the country. According to this map we have a D0 drought status, which means abnormally dry. The summer had pretty good moisture and the temperatures were not that bad.

Introduction: UK introduction by Harkness & Co. Ltd., 1998

Petal Count: 26-40 Petals

Fragrance: Moderate, honey

Parentage: Sport of Livin' Easy

Floribunda Rose ‘Honey Perfume’

Floribunda Rose ‘Honey Perfume’

 Parentage: Seedling × 'Amber Queen'

Petal Count: 25-40

Introduction: 2004

Height: 42 inches

Synonyms: JACarque

This rose went from a ‘meh’ to a ‘thank goodness I have got it’ in one year. It has been in the garden ever since I took over stewardship of it five years ago. This year ‘Honey Perfume’ has been outstanding and really living up to its name. It is one of the best smelling roses in the garden.

Rose gardening always seems need a bit of luck to be blended into getting a beautiful show. The weather, insect populations, watering and spray cycles all have to combine in a wonderfully cosmic way in order for the endeavor to be successful. Choosing the right varieties is an important first step in the process but quite often we are reduced to getting what they have and not what we want. Buying roses has become a bit of a game around these parts. You have to time your purchases just right. Several changes on the wholesale rose market have further tightened supplies. The emergence of the landscape roses like ‘Knockout’ has really affected the hybrid tea and floribunda sales.

Here is a full shot of the ‘Honey Perfume’ goodness. Both of these shots were taken with the D70s back up camera and 60mm/2.8 macro lens.

Burgundy Iceberg Floribunda Rose

Floribunda Rose

Rosa 'Burgundy Iceberg'

Synonyms: PROse, Burgundy Ice

China Pinks

China Pinks

Dianthus x chinensis ‘Super Parfait Strawberry’

(dy-AN-thus)

Synonyms: Dwarf Dianthus

This seemed like such a happy flower when I saw it at the nursery. Red and white is one of my favorite color schemes in the garden and this lines up perfectly. It is an annual plant here but you can sometimes get seedlings to return. The label said this cultivar grows 6 to 12 inches and that is perfect for a nice color carpet.

Since it is Sunday here is bonus shot of another rose. The flowers actually looked a little more yellow in real life. You can see the conditions were not perfect for picture snapping.

Yellow Floribunda Rose ‘Easy Goin’’

Rosa ‘Don Quichotte’

Synonyms: Zonta Rose 98, HARflow

Introduction: UK introduction by Harkness & Co. Ltd., 1998

Petal Count: 26-40 Petals

Fragrance: Moderate, honey

Parentage: Sport of Livin' Easy

Day Breaker Floribunda Rose

Floribunda Rose

Rosa 'Day Breaker'

Synonyms: FRYcentury

More roses are going into the big rose garden today and this floribunda is ready as it is literally covered with blooms. The big wedding (300 people) is tomorrow and the existing roses just didn’t cooperate. They look okay but the aren’t a lot of flowers. Those couple of late season frosts/freezes just set them back too much. All the rain and cloudy weather hasn’t helped either.

‘Day Breaker’ has been an excellent performer when we have grown in the past and I hope that continues that tradition. It has nice sized apricot blend flowers that have a good fragrance. This rose won the AARS award in 2004 and was introduced in 2005 to the US.

I sure am happy this week is over. Happy Memorial Day weekend to the Americans out there. Hard to believe summer is starting.

Orange Floribunda Rose

Rainy Floribunda Rose

Floribunda Rose ‘Livin’ Easy’

Synonyms: Fellowship, HARwelcome, Easy-To-Love

Rainbow Sorbet Rose

Floribunda Rose

Rosa 'Rainbow Sorbet'

Lime Sublime Floribunda Rose

Floribunda Rose
Rosa 'Lime Sublime'
Synonyms: DICappeal
Dickson, 2005

Julia Child Floribunda Rose

Julia Child Floribunda Rose
Synonyms: WEKvossutono, ‘Absolutely Fabulous’

This rose was featured here in 2009 and was added to the big rose garden in 2010. I have been happy with it in the garden. Its bright sunny yellow flowers are always nice to se especially on cloudy days. It seems to have good disease resistance and a lot of flowers during the season. It would be on my recommended list in general but it gets really high marks for a yellow rose.

It is fitting that I am posting a rose today as the hunt continues for 10 replacement roses. I have been to several nurseries so far and only found disease ridden, bug eaten roses. It seems harder and harder to find good roses that are not knockout types. Don’t get me wrong Knockouts are fine but they wouldn’t fit into the rose garden very well. There is no way I am buying a rose loaded with disease from the “factory”. It is just asking for problems.

Julia Child was obviously a colorful person. Here are a couple of my favorite quotes by her:

"Learn to cook--try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun!"

"Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.”

Both of those can be applied to gardening.

Two Roses

Two Roses
Grandiflora Rose
Rosa 'White Lightnin'’
Synonym: AROwhif

At first I was not enamored with either of the roses in this post. 'White Lightnin'’ (not a spelling error) really struggled for the first few years of my taking over the big rose garden. It didn’t grow much and threw off a few flowers here and there. After sticking by it this year it has grown almost like a regular rose. It has been covered with flowers and the foliage seems strong and healthy. Listed as white, near white and a white blend on a lot of sites that pretty much covers it. This flower has a bit more cream yellow than most but that isn't really apparent when viewed from a couple steps back. When viewed from a reasonable distance these roses have an all white appearance. 'White Lightnin'’ has surpassed ‘Moondance’ as the number one white in the garden. I have to add 10 roses this year and am trying to get ‘White Iceberg’, which will give it a run for the money.

This next rose has already been featured here before . This rose has also risen in my little rating scale. It is a constant disease resistant bloomer. With parents like ‘Playboy’ and ‘Peppermint Twist’ what did you expect?


Floribunda Rose ‘Scentimental’
Synonyms: Scentimental Sunflor, WEKplapep

As a side note both of these shots are from my Sigma 24mm/1.8 lens (mine is the Nikon mount version). I decided to throw it on the camera as a fun challenge. It is a real nice lens and I love the way it handles the light and shadows. The Nikon 60 and 105mm are sharper but the Sigma isn’t bad in that department. It was a $100 less when I bought from B&H. It needs to be a big flower to get full coverage at the wide angle.

Bonica Floribunda Rose

Floribunda Rose
Rosa 'Bonica'
(RO-zuh)
Synonyms: Bonica '82, Demon, MEIdomonac

The first rose of the season was blooming yesterday and I was happy to have my camera to record it. The other roses are loaded with buds and it will be great when they bloom. The weather has not been cooperating for rose culture (too humid and rainy) but that is not going to stop the initial wave of flowers. In the garden this rose is from they have a separate company that manages pests and diseases so they came and sprayed yesterday. It is nice not to have to worry about that. If I notice anything going on in the garden I just have to call it in.

'Bonica' isn’t my favorite rose but gets four out of five stars for ease of cultivation, hardiness and it is a heavy bloomer. I have always thought of it as a shrub rose and was surprised to see it listed as a floribunda. The stems are really too short for cut flowers. Karen has been the one taking care of this group of Bonicas and has had great success with early season hard pruning and then monitoring the disease problems.

Everything here is gearing up for the big holiday weekend. It will be nice to have an extra day off this weekend although I am going to spend some time looking for the 35 dozen Impatiens I need for planting next week.

Caramel Fairy Tale Floribunda Rose

Caramel Fairy Tale Floribunda Rose
Synonyms: Caramella, Reminiscence, Korkinteral

This rose has been a pleasure to have in the garden. The bush gets quite large (6 to 7 feet tall) and seems to have a good number of blooms throughout the season. One thing I particularly like about it is the high degree of disease resistance. The only thing missing is a heavy scent. The color is officially yellow but the flowers have quite bit of pink in them. They do fade to mostly yellow but the colors before that are beautiful. This rose is on my recommend list.

Bred by: W. Kordes & Sons in Germany, 2001
Introduced by: Palatine Roses, 2007
Petal Count: 40+

This second picture is an unknown rose that I saw in Southern California. It was in the big rose garden at South Coast Botanical Gardens but didn’t have a sign that was visible. A hybrid tea by the looks of it and by the size of the flower with an unusual dusky yellow color. I would really be hard pressed to describe the color to someone and it is only partially represented here.

Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale Floribunda Rose

Floribunda Rose ‘Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale’
Synonyms: KORassenet, Gebrüder Grimm

Certainly a bit of a novelty with its multi-colored blooms this rose did look intriguing. Orange roses are always an attraction to me and having the little bit of pink in there just enhanced that. The lack of a strong fragrance was a bit of a bummer but the foliage and flowers looked free of disease.

‘Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale’ was bred by W. Kordes & Sons of Germany and introduced to the United States by Ashdown Roses in 2007.

Ruby Red Grapefruit

Ruby Red Grapefruit
Citrus x paradisi 'Ruby Red'
(SIT-rus) (par-ih-DEE-see)

This a partial shot of my crop of Ruby Red. We picked and ate one yesterday and it was delicious. It had way more juice than the store bought type. This tree is about 15 years old and is not much to look at. Lets just say it has undergone substantial pruning several times. We have had fruit before but never 8 or ten at the same time. I am beginning to worry about the branches being able to support the weight of all of the fruit. Behind the fruit in this photo is a Mandarin orange (Citrus reticulata), which also has a bumper crop this season.

Grapefruit is considered a hybrid between the sweet orange and the pummelo fruits. It was discovered in Barbados in the 1700’s and was first brought to Florida in the 1820’s. After the introduction of the first patented cultivar (‘Ruby Red’) in 1929 the Grapefruit became an agricultural success. The United States leads the world in production with over 1.5 millions tons produced in 2007, primarily grown in Florida, Texas, California and Arizona. The name Grapefruit was given to the fruit because of the way it grows in clusters similar to grapes.

It is possible to grow Citrus in Connecticut and other than watching out for insects and having to have the trees under glass in the winter it is fairly painless. Our Myers Lemon tree has been producing for years, although it doesn’t have anything this year. I am going to try and buy a few ‘regular’ orange trees for the conservatory at work and see what happens. It will probably take a bit of research to figure out what varieties are best.

Just to add a flower picture for today here is the Floribunda Rose ‘Black Cherry’. Introduced by Jackson & Perkins in 2006 this is our first year with this rose. This flower has faded a bit but the bush itself has been producing fairly well all season. The color is a real nice red and the foliage has remained clean. It does look like it needs a little fertilizer in this photo. It has a nice but light fragrance and the flowers are on what I would call the smaller side.

Purple Tiger Floribunda Rose

Floribunda Rose
Rosa 'Purple Tiger'
Synonyms: Impressionist, JACpurr
Year of Introduction: 1991
Parentage: Intrigue X Pinstripe

Wordless Wednesday

Deep Yellow Rose

'Anthony Meilland' Floribunda Rose
Synonyms: MEIbaltaz

This rose had one of the deepest yellow colors I have seen. The full on flower didn’t fade at all it was still deep yellow. The bush itself was a little small but the foliage was clean. My only complaint was the lack of fragrance. A rose that looks this good should have a nice smell but I didn’t smell anything even though I was pretty close to the flowers.

Breeder: Meilland International
Introduction: Star Roses, 1994
Petal Count: 26-40
Fragrance: Mild to none
Parentage: Seed: Sunblest × MEIlenangal
Pollen: Spek's Yellow


There seems to be a preponderance of yellow flowers posted on this site lately. It just has been a happy accident. I have been enjoying the yellow flowers more than usual.

Floribunda Rose ‘Cinco de Mayo’

Floribunda Rose ‘Cinco de Mayo’
Synonyms: Celebration Time, Wekcobeju

Breeder: Tom Carruth, US, 2006
Introduced: Weeks Wholesale Rose Growers, 2009
Petal Count: 17-25 petals
Parentage: Topsy Turvy × Julia Child

I know I am a day late with this rose picture. This is one of the new roses for the big rose garden we tend to. The color is unusual and not quite perfectly rendered here. What is missing is the almost translucent effect the flowers have which kind of sheds an interesting orangey light on the rest off the plant also some of the dustiness of the flower didn’t come through. This rose slightly reminds me a bit of ‘Hot Cocoa’, which is one rose I given up trying to grow for more than one year (it never seems to winter over). The owner liked this rose, which in the end is all that counts. It looked a little funny as every rose we added had a lot of buds or flowers and glossy foliage while the original roses were still shaking off the winter with only a few buds. It was quite a contrast. I am under strict orders to have the garden looking good on July 11th for a celebrity Garden Party.

‘Cinco de Mayo’ won the AARS Award in 2009. See this post as to what makes a winner. One of ‘Cinco de Mayo’ parents ‘Julia Child’ won the award in 2006. We also got the only winner for 2010, ‘Easy Does It’ and I am sure there will be some photos of that one this summer. It is unusual, especially in this day and age to only have one winner for the year.