Saying Hi! & A couple of questions

Hi everyone! I have only just started growing roses this year and I am completely in love with my rose garden.
I just had a few questions if anyone could help .. I bought an Abracadabra, however, there is no yellow. I read once that sometimes they can lose their second colour, is this true? Also .. What is the best way to fertalize and is sugar cane the best mulch?
Thank you

'Abracadabra' is a mutation of a rose called 'Hocus Pocus' which is a mutation of a rose called 'Black Beauty' which is a mutation of a rose called 'Frisco'. 'Frisco' is yellow, 'Black Beauty' is dark red, 'Hocus Pocus' is yellow and red striped and 'Abracadabra' is similarly striped. These mutations are called sports. This line is very unstable and is very prone to reverting to either full red or full yellow sometimes all on the one bush. You'll likely get striped ones later

Welcome aboard... for my money, lucerne mulch is best But I use whatever I can find I find manures are the best fertilisers and tend to avoid the inorganic ones.

I bought 2 Abracadbras, one is just the one colour (black beauty - which i sort of don't mind because it is such a gorgeous cut flower. Hopefully, like you say the stripes will come later). The second one only has buds and I am waiting for them to open. So fingers crossed one of them is stripey eventually. Thank you so much for all the info! I think I may become addicted to this site

Hi Tish,welcome to the site. I've only been here a couple of days myself but i must say the site is great! Simon,fascinating info about how the Abracadabra rose came bout,have one myself and must admit have been a bit dissapointed with it. I have gotten some blooms more Black Boy like but plenty of yellow and red striped ones to.I've found the yellow faids very rapidly to a greyish colour.Hopefully it will improve

Hi Rose_lover1971 !
I have only had 2 blooms so far on my first Abracadabra, I have my fingers crossed for some striped ones from either of my 2 plants, I think the flowers just look gorgeous.
My favourite rose so far is blue moon. If you can recommend any that you like it would be appreciated! I have almost 30 plants now, I have gone rose mad

Hey Tish
I have a blue moon to but find it very suceptible to botrytis,not giving up on it though! We sound very similar,lol,bit rose batty myself
My favourites are Fourth of July (climber),absolutely spectacular when it's in full bloom,posted a pic of mine in the rose gallery. Queen of Hearts would be my fav HT rose and Daybreaker definately my fav floribunda.
You'll have to post some pics of your roses later,i'm sure everyone would love to see

Hi Tish
I live on the Darling Downs outside Toowoomba and have used both lucerne an sugar cane mulch. On one occasion my garden of 70 roses (now 300) was mulched 50/50. I found that the aphids loved the roses mulched with lucerne and there were virtually no aphids where I had used sugar cane mulch. Lucerne provides nitrogen but does not last like the sugar cane mulch does.
I prefer cutting grown plants here but do have grafted plants as well.
My favourite floribundas are: Blue for You and Brindabella Bouquet, Betty Boop. Hybrid Teas are Gold Medal, Rose of Wagga Wagga, Mr Lincoln and Brisbane Blush and Parole just to name a few. My new seedling from Ruby Treasure (mini) crosswed with Radio Times a David Austin is bringing me great pleasure at present. I grow lots of teas, noisettes, ramblers, hybrid musks etc.
Welcome to the wonderful world of roses and rose friends.

Hi Tish and welcome to the site....I too have a nice accradabra and yes it does throw up beautiful form roses, even though they are not a large bloom. Like yours mine throws up every now and then a non stripey bloom and sometimes not a fully colored bloom like the one below which is only 3/4s colored...

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Hey Roselover_1971
My blue moon is one of the ones on the long stem, about a metre high. It's slow growing but one of my healthier ones. The flowers are very strong scented and huge! Fourth Of July rose looks stunning, I wish we had more room for climbers Queen Of Hearts looks amazing! I've added it to my list

Hi Bonita18 !
We have been discussing what to put down (wood chips or sugar cane). As our pool is right next to our roses we are worried about a lot of it being carried into the pool. But we might purchase a pool cover and see how the sugar cane mulch goes Oh Blue For You looks lovely. I have added it to my list thank you!

Hi Neptune!
Your Abracadbra rose looks gorgeous! I do hope mine has at least a couple of striped ones very soon!

Thanks everyone for being so welcoming

Hi Tish

I have been growing roses for a short time as well, and I have found it very easy to carried away I bought Abracadra and it has been growing very well except all of the flowers are red and I managed to spot one lonely stripe of one of the flowers so far ...Hoping the next flush will be better.

I tried blue moon, beautiful blooms but very sparse, Charles de Gualle does grow really well for me and am also trying Vol De Nuit, will see how that goes, love the lilacs...
Another one that does well for me is Pope John Paul II, not usually into white but I liked it so much I bought another one and it's hasn't been it the ground very long before it started growing madly, buds everywhere My favorite is Firefighter which I have to blame Ozeboy for recommending, it's a very beautiful scented red rose, thanks Ozeboy, glad I listened...

Hi Happy Roses !
Agreed on the Blue Moon they don't grow as well as some
of my other roses. Black velvet is another favourite of mine.
I've added firefighter to my list to buy. I'm going to have
to start a new rose garden soon because I'm running
out of room haha

Hmmmm....might have to fill in the pool hehe

Noooo! Haha. Shopping for a pool cover tomorrow

Hi Tish Welcome. I have only been on the forum and love checking in with everyone daily, I am totally addicted to my new rose garden as well. I have had the same problems with aphids and lucerne mulch but not with the sugarcane mulch. I give my roses a little seaweed drink every couple of weeks and they seem to like it and that is the only fertiliser I have used so far. (I have allergy's to sulphur etc. so like to go as natural as possible. I have Blue Moon that I am waiting to flower, but I also have Angel Face which has a lovely scent and mauve blooms. Fmy favourite so far is my Just Joey the blooms are huge and smell lovely (I think a little like bubblegum). I have been disappointed with my Black velvet, but I think it may have been mislabelled, it seems more like Black Beauty. Anyway I am sure you will learn lots and again Welcome

Hi tambralyngar !
Thanks for the info on the seaweed drink, can I get that from normal nurseries?
Blue Moon was slow for me to flower, and I have only had about 4 flowers at a time so far (but the plant isn't that old yet). Oh Angel Face looks lovely, I have added so many more roses to my list, I don't know where I will put them all but I am sure I will find space somewhere My black velvet is my picture, does yours look like that? Or different? I have had about 3 mislabeled roses so far, it's so disappointing when they flower and they're not what you were expecting

Tish, at some stage have a look at the Tea roses (not hybrid teas). They LOVE QLD, are pretty much evergreen up there, flower all year round, don't like ot be pruned hard, don't need a lot/any spraying, are gorgeous and like to grow as nice bug shrubs. Check out Gary's posts (aka Balinbear), to see examples of QLD Teas. You won't regret it! We are also fortunate enough to have Bruce (aka Ozeboy) here who propagates and sells a lot of Teas as well. His roses are of exceptional quality.

Thanks Simon! I think I mostly have HT's. They are doing OK but not as well as some of the established roses that were already at the house we bought. I'll check them out thanks so much

Hi Tish , The seaweed drink is just seasol you can get it from BigW or any nursery. My rose is in the post my red rose and it is also in the background of my avatar pic. still love the rose but was hoping for a better fragrance, that is the biggest disapoint ment. I planted my first rose this year and with all the bushes and minis I have about 30 as well very addictive flower

Thank you I'll try and get some tomorrow. I'm going to have to make another garden for all my roses

I might need a bigger yard, try to convince hubby we need 5acres

As it appears you 2 girls(Tamara and Tish), when you get a chance look up 'Jacaranda', fantastic "pong", regards David.

Oh they're both lovely. I bought one today which is very similar to Jacaranda!

Jacaranda is a great cut flower Tish.
When you say you bought one today that is ver similar -----what did you buy?

It's called the 'Thank you rose', however I'm sure it has another name but they don't list it. I'll post a photo tonight

Ok by the Treloar photo Jacaranda is heaps lighter than the one I bought today