Roses for Pots.

During the past year there has been extra demand amoungst Sydney gardeners for roses suitable for pots. They are looking for large minatures or small bush roses that repeat well, look like florist roses or DA's and have fragrance. Wait there is more, they are to be carefree without the need for sprays to keep them looking alive and well. Bear in mind that Sydney weather has just reduced my Perfume Delight to all black leaves (No not spots) and within another week it will be completely leafless. This has happened when the real humid weather hasn't quite arrived yet, wait until mid December through till end of March. Humidity now 90 to 95 %

The contenders to date are Delicious and Brindabella Bouquet. Devonensis bush nominated but may have to be removed due to being a little too large.

Visitors to my nursery are from the Sydney area but are typical of our greater population living on the East Coast from Bega right up to very Northern Queensland. Roses considered healthy in other area's such as west of the Blue Mountains in NSW, Western Queensland ,South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania need to be trialled in Sydney to assertain health in this climate.

Have you any suggestions?

I forgot Victorian suggestions would also need to be trialled in Sydney.

I haven't grown roses in pots for any length of time, but you might like to try Sweet Chariot (scented) and Borderer.
The Tea Rose book suggests for large pots: Comtesse de Labarthe (Duchesse de Brabant), Mme Antoine Mari, Papa Gontier, Marie Lambert. C de L gets mildew in my garden, but so do a lot of roses.
Another thought, if they want shapely roses; has anyone grown Mlle Cecile Brunner in a pot?

Not the inbetween-sized patio roses, but there are very small minis around at the moment that are very healthy for me here such as 'Little Wonder', and 'Snow Carpet'. 'Snow Carpet' is a wonderful little rose that can spread to quite a large area but which would look good as a weeping specimen in a tall pot. Mine is quite a restrained grower down here but I have heard it can go a little crazy in warmer climates. It's very disease free down here. 'Little Wonder' is one of the newer crop of miniature wichurana-type plants coming out. It does not, that I can see, have a current PBR, however, the tag from Treloars says it does. A quick search of IPAustralia's PBR database reveals no such PBR (it must be illegal to falsely advertise a rose as being protected by a PBR when in actual fact it isn't). This is a link to a scan of the label I put up on HMF: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] . It's a wonderful little rose that would also be wonderful in pots. Have you ever seen 'Nozomi'? It's quite a lovely ground cover mini that gets quite large but which can be contained to a pot as a weeping specimen as well. Again, I'm thinking those tall feature pots that people love to use as an accent to a thoroughfare. It's also very healthy. I would not limit myself to the Tea family personally. There are many wichurana-based roses that perform very nicely as potted plants. This is why roses such as 'The Fairy' have always been perennially popular. 'Sweet Chariot' spots quite badly for me down here but then most things do to some extent. My own little 'Baby Love' seedling will , I think, fit this niche quite nicely in time too.

Roses in pots are unknown territory for me, so I'm speaking out of ignorance.
A pot might be the right place for those damnprickly "groundcovers" that root down, as many wichurana-derived roses will. For that reason, I've recently transferred Snow Carpet from the rockery to a tall pot, and am waiting to see how it goes. Nozomi is unfortunately a once-flowerer.
I don't pick up much scent from the Chinas, but they flower like crazy; Cramoisi Superieur would be worth trying. How do rugosas go in your area? Ann Endt flowers well and has decorative hips, if your customers will look at singles.

Roses in pots is as good as giving them a death sentence for me... I'm terrible at growing roses in pots because I am just so busy I never have time to give them the attention they need. They always get too hot, too dry, to hungry, too pot-bound, too big, too wet, too much trouble... I reckon you should be trying to sway them to put them in the ground Bruce Disease resistance is as much about the overall health of the plant as it is due to it's genes and I just think that even the most bullet proof rose is more likely to show disease in pots if it gets stressed. In the garden I find them far more self-reliant.

I have a Bonica standard growing in a pot that has done very well for me, it's been in this pot for close on 11 years.[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
I can't vouch for health in the E.S though . I missed getting a pic of it in full flower but you couldn't see hardly any green leaves , just all flowers .
I also have Red Cascade in a pot [since '94] and China Doll [3&1/2 years]

cheers. Rosalie

What wonderful replies, thank you all for your suggestions. The minium size pot I would recomend to customers would be 450 mm diam by 450 mm deep. Would also give a handout covering feeding.

I can understand the demand for these as the new homes are very large, 5 beds, rumpus , study, 3 to 4 bathrooms, 3 car garage and to accomodate the extra size the blocks have been reduced considerably.
The residents are $200,000 to $400,000 a year professionals and work 60 to 70 hours a week so little time to look after gardens. This is why a lot of plants are bought regularly and replaced when they look worn out .

The Flower Carpet roses are PBR so I can't use any of these.

Thanks once again.

Another of my hobbyhorses; advise the customers not to use black pots!
Margaret

Bruce:

1. Flower Carpet Pink (the original one): [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] .... current status = expired. The name flower carpet is trade marked

(see: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

and here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] )

and so cannot be used. The plant, however, can be sold and if you look here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] it goes by a number of different registered names, one of which is trademarked but not in Australia.

2. Flower Carpet Red (single red): [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] , current PBR status = withdrawn. Again, Flower Carpet is trademarked but it too goes by a number of different registered names. I'm not a huge fan of this one except for the black-shot silk flowers.

3. According to the PBR search engine Flower Carpet Scarlet (NOA83100B) never had a PBR attached to it here in Australia. Flower Carpet Scarlet is, IMO, one of teh best, next to the white one. It also goes by a few different registered names. See: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

EDIT 1: Personal opinion: This is important information and I feel it is not so much a way of getting around things but a chance to get production of some of the most useful roses out of the hands of the chain stores and into the hands of people who care about roses. I would love to see rose nurseries sell these. I have a few struck cuttings of Flower Carpet Scarlet you are welcome to, Bruce.

EDIT 2: Bruce, I have a few Flower Carpet seedlings and you are welcome to promote these if you like. One is ready to go down here but hasn't been tested up there and the other is still in testing down here. The more of these roses we can get out there the better IMO. I haven't registered them or named them yet so it will be a little while before they are truly ready to go but it won't be long. I am also in the process of trying to breed a purple one and a striped one. This is a long term project I feel. There are many colour and health hurdles to get over first.

The recommendation of China Doll is a great one... the cutting you sent me Rosalie is doing great

Margaret, I would recommend earthern or concrete. I am very aware of heat in black pots and on black weedmat as I have done the rounds of most root areas with a thermometer. Thanks for the reminder.

Simon, thanks for your offer to let me have some of your Flower Carpet seedlings to test and promote here. I have not paid a great amount of attention to these until recently and have Red and Scarlet which are looking very healthy, completely clean with very glossy leaves. Actually I cut 3 blooms off the scarlet this afternoon for pollen and still don't know what to put the pollen on considering Brindabella Bouquet has just finished a flush. Just missed Safrano and Devonensis blooms which would have been my choices. Will place it in the freezer for use later. Haven't gone into chromosome counts for these just thought give it a go.

Your work with these plants could well be the future as smaller bushes for today's uncluttered formal gardens seem to be in demand. The small minatures are no longer in big demand. Remember when the supermarkets had a whole Gondola allocated to these.
Gardenias have replaced a lot of HT roses that proved too much trouble to maintain. I keep an eye on visitors who are firstly attracted to colour, shape of blooms, tidy bushes and fragrance is still high on their priority list.
One of my commercial rose growing friends grows nothing but white Iceberg standards on 30" sticks and hasn't grown bush roses for years because he can sell all the standards he can grow. Those Flower Carpet roses would also be in big demand on a 30" stick because of the health and stronger colours.

There will always be demand for the larger roses for acres though the big movers will be for what you are working with at the moment.

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions.

Simon would be very happy to get more Flower Carpet Scarlet cuttings as the one I have is very inmature. Thanks.

Glad it's coming along Simon , I was only sorry i couldn't get you a bigger piece but I had just pruned the bush when I saw it on your wish list.

Interesting about the Flower Carpet roses , I haven't had much to do with them till I bought a yellow one this year . It had such a bright cheery flower and one would be perfect for the spot where I want it to grow if I could keep it alive .
The first one burnt off around the stems [I'm thinking tomcats -don't have one , dog -no he still squats mostly , little boy -distinct possibility even though he says not ] and then died slowly.
I replaced it in November the day before my car caught fire , and wouldn't you know it , it was among several things that have been scorched by the radiant heat and now looks like it may go the way of it's fellow.

What about Royal Bassino ? that's been around for a while , dunno whether it's whatsits have expired yet or not though . Another pretty one that I had at my old place was Roseromantic . That would look nice tumbling down the sides of one of those tall cylindrical glazed pots - a royal blue one would really show it off.

cheers. Rosalie