Monday, April 27, 2009

Educate Me Please

I had a great weekend working in the yard and planting flowers to add some color to my patio and front porch. I even bought my vegetable plants for the garden. I can't wait to get them in the ground and growing.
As I was pondering what to do with some of my rose bushes I looked at one in amazement. See, I planted 3 different roses about 4 years ago and the one that has done the best is my Silver Bell rose. It looks like a light lavender color and is the stem rose that you see in arrangements. Well, to my surprise there is also a red rose growing with my Silver Bell that I did not plant. ????? When I say it is growing with my Silver Bell, I mean that it is literally growing from the same root system. See the pictures!It really had me scratching my head. I am not an avid rose grower and I do not know much about gardening so this really had my mind going nuts.
So, I thought I would ask my Bloggy friends what caused this. Can someone out there educate me on this please?
The roses are really pretty so I am not complaining that they are there. I will just enjoy them. I just want to know what happened. :)

6 comments:

  1. I dont profess to be an educated botanist...but it looks as though the plants have been mingled/ie grafted...

    Rare in nature...!

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  2. All tea roses are grafted onto a different root stock, so I bet at least one stem has gone back to the original stock plant. Lot of times they are "wild roses" which are mostly hardier plant stock.

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  3. Never been good with roses. But I love the sounds of your weekend!

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  4. They look stunning together. I can't answer that question, but love to grow roses myself...very hardy plant. I have about 10 different plants and LOVE them all!

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  5. Most rose bushes are grown & reproduced as grafted...meaning that one variety is grafted to another plant then sold as the plant that you see blooming at the time of purchase. Like your lavender was apparently grafted to the red variety.

    I have found that a lot of times what you think you have purchased (your lavender one) will soon die & you will have the remaining base plant ie your red one.

    If you want to avoid this look for heirloom roses that are reproduced by root or cuttings...they are a much more hardy variety & tend to have the most fragrance.

    Old English, David Austin or Heirloom....you won't be disappointed. Worth the extra bucks you pay up front! Ask your greenhouse experts, they are filled with valuable information!
    They do look lovely, Carrie...cut some & bring them in to your kitchen window sill...enjoy them!

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  6. I was amazed at this until I read the comment by White Iris Designs, and now it seems much less extraordinary, huh? Oh, well... they are all beautiful. Now I know what kind of roses to buy. :) I love the purple ones - do they smell different than the red ones?

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