What's wrong with this rose?

Discussion in 'Trees, Shrubs and Roses' started by Ronni, May 8, 2018.

  1. Ronni

    Ronni Hardy Maple

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    I'm asking for my niece who just had a new baby, and we dropped in to visit with them on our way to Atlanta to go Kayaking. She knows I mess around in the garden, so she asked me. I have no clue, but I said I'd ask you all. Several of the roses on the bush are perfect, one or two have this weird center.
    Lauren's rose.JPG

    Oh, the other thing that we thought was weird is that the bush has two different colored roses on it! It's not the greatest picture, but you can see the bush, that dusty pink rose in the forefront at the top, and red lower down in the background. Same bush! Is that normal?
    laurens rose 2.JPG
     
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  3. toni

    toni Mistress of Garden Junque Staff Member Moderator Plants Contributor

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    I don't have the answer to your first problem. But two different colors on one bush is because that is a grafted rose bush. The grower used the roots of a basic rose and grafted another rose to it. Quite common and not usually a problem until the rose is hit by a hard freeze which kills the grafted rose but since the roots were in the ground they survived to live another season.
    I have a Blaze climbing rose that way, the white grafted rose was killed off in a freeze in 1983...the next Spring both colors were in bloom on the same plant and the year after that the grafted part couldn't survive and hasn't shown up since then. But the red roots are hardy and I still have a red blaze.
    I also have a Blue Girl rose that did the same way just a few years ago, the Blue Girl was grafted onto a basic root stock died off in a freeze and now I have just another red rose.
    Edited to add: On a side note that rootstock is mostly likely a rose developed in 1914 and named Dr. Huey. It has become the rootstock used by breeders for grafting over the years.
     
    Last edited: May 8, 2018
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  4. Ronni

    Ronni Hardy Maple

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    Thanks toni! I'll pass all that on to my niece.

    Does anyone else know what might have caused the petals in the rose to do that? None of the other blooms on the bush look like that.
     
  5. toni

    toni Mistress of Garden Junque Staff Member Moderator Plants Contributor

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    Do you know what rose that is? I just remembered that my Blue Girl had blooms with that same deformity, never could find out what caused it but it only bloomed 2 years before the graft died.
     



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  6. Ronni

    Ronni Hardy Maple

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    I have no idea. She has no idea. She moved into the house just a year or so ago...they relocated and are living in this rental while they get a feel for the area before they buy. She's not a gardener at all...yet ;) But really wants to get into it when they move to their forever home.
     
  7. eileen

    eileen Resident Taxonomist Staff Member Moderator Plants Contributor

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