Eyes For You

Hi Everyone,

The very first of my 16 bare rooted roses to bloom was 'Eyes For You'. It's a new rose for 2012 and I waited 5 months to receive this rose (after ordering it back in February).

When it arrived, it was a tiny, skinny, brown stick. I was worried it wouldn't grow at all, however, it is now the first to bloom and has about 20 buds forming (Floribunda). Very vigorous growth, no black spot, very healthy.

It's currently in a pot because I wanted to be able to tend to it everyday.

I have never smelt a rose like this before, very very spicy scent. I think I am going to enjoy this one!

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Oh RosyTeesh , i'm so glad you like this rose , i had it ordered but then saw it at the Melbourne flower show in a vase and thought it looked a bit wishy washy so i cancelled the order. I think it had been in the vase too long maybe , keep us updated please , have you seen any bees on the stamens , i wonder if the pollen is bee food ? This could be a goer for next year...

I have seen a few bees around the garden, but I can't be 100% if they have landed on this one sorry

It has been the fastest growing and most healthy of all the bare rooted roses I bought this year. Including all of the roses in the garden and pots.

How bad was the one in the vase?

I am so incredibly impressed so far, I will be sure to keep you all posted though

PS. I am in Brisbane, so I am unsure if the intense heat this past week has also helped.

Teesh, this is steptoe(roseman) here, can you keep your eye on it please and let me know when/if it sets hips. You might ask why I would like the seed from the hips please pleases please.

Absolutely, no worries I am interested if it does too. Fingers crossed!

It’s always good when the first one is a real winner, isn’t it? Looks a very pretty, dainty thing; the bees would be mad to pass it, especially if it has a good fragrance.
What a nice job you’ve done with a tiny, skinny, brown stick.

How’s that mauve center holding up in the sun?
I’ve got a Hercules with a hint of mauve that turns into an essentially white rose about one day after opening and my Blue Moon and Lagerfeld were both quickly very light here in Brisbane.

I just can't believe that it didn't die. I should have taken a before and after shot!

So far it's a dark pink/purple. Nothing like the photo on the suppliers website, but I love it so much! The photo I put up is the true colour that it is on the plant.

My Blue Moon does the same in summer.

The ones i saw in the vase at the flower show didn't have much scent or colour , and i thought , this could be a dud , but so glad it isn't cause i really like it . Finbaar did post on here that it likes plenty of sun from memory , so maybe it loves your Queensland heat , wonder how it will go in Melb ...

Let me know if you get it Maree. Would be a great experiment to see which state it did better in

Apparently the big problem with these is the blotch colour stability, they tend to wash out quickly and fade

The flower has been out for 2 days so I'll keep you all updated on how quickly/if it fades

I would still be happy with just a lighter center or only white, if the fragrance holds.
There’s not going to be just one flower at a time, and new flowers will come out and add more colour and provide highlights all the time, making the whole bush more interesting to look at. 20 buds developing in one go is not bad at all.

I was besotted when I saw the first pics before it was released and it's still on my must-have list. I am delighted you shared her with us; now she is THE must-get rose! Thank you!

Ahhh Ozroz, yes thats what i thought when i saw it at the flower show , faded and not much colour , mmmnnn , this could be interesting RosyTeesh .. Anyone in Victoria or Tasmania got one ?

Here is a chance for our rose guru to produce one that last in the Aussie sun

With built-in Poss repellent?

I have honestly never smelt a rose like this one. I was pleasantly surprised. I will be keeping you all updated over the next few days re: colour. Here's hoping it holds up!

It didn't do much for me so won't be getting one unless for breeding.

Regarding the bees, they are attracted to flowers based on protein level of the pollen. Salvation Jane is usually 35% however some flora can go down to 10% When more higher percentage protein blooms are available they won't find the roses attractive. Does anyone know the protein level % of most rose blooms? I'l try looking it up.

Ozeboy , i had a inkling that all pollens arn't attractive to bees , same as for birds too i think , i have Camellias with bright yellow stamens but the bees don't go near them , the hummingbirds have a look but don't stay , roses don't seem to attract bees much either , i'd be interested to find a rose variety that did ...

We have leaf cutter bees and normal bees in the garden all the time. I see them mostly around our roses out the front which tend to have less petals (Paris 2000). Not sure if this matters or not.

I have some good and bad news on Eyes For you. Yes, they do fade in colour after 3-4 days, but the good news is that there's 50 buds at least that I counted today. I am of course disappointed in the flowers fading in colour so quickly. But for me, if there are this many flowers at the same time I am not bothered. And the scent will be beautiful once they all open at once.

First photo is another flower that opened today, second photo is a flower that is 3-4 days old (I can't be 100% sure because I didn't see when it opened, and didn't realise it was even there until I turned the pot around). And third photo is the same flower from yesterday (picture up the top of this post).

Baring in mind that it is scorching hot in Brisbane at the moment. Hopefully we get a storm soon. I do not remember Winter EVER being this hot.

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From memory last year was warm at the end of August also. Parks Yellow Not was flowering in the second week of September and our poppies were flowering then also. They usually flower at the end of September.

Not sign of the poppies flowering yet though PYN has got some buds on it.

It got back down to 4 degrees at our place this morning. Unfortunately it feels like mildew weather to me.

It was 24 degrees here today and still 19 degrees now at almost 7:30pm. The roses are going crazy! My Camellias don't like it though

Yeah it was warm today. I spent the day cleaning up and pruning our large salvias and trimming some of the Teas.

What type of Camellias do you have. We have sasanquas mainly but have reticulata and japonicas also.

I noticed our 'Scentuous' hedge has almost finished flowering which is a bit early.

We have 1 called 'Grape Soda', one with tiny white flowers, 2 with pink and white stripes. Unsure of the types though, they're fairly new to our garden

Planted a Fairy Magnolia today, I am in love with it!

Ozeboy, I watched a great ABC doco, How To Grow a Plane, recently that used a special ultraviolet light camera to pick up the colour of flower petals the way insects see them. The flowers looked quite different to how they appear to us, e.g., very plain ones were exciting with UV vision, like ‘land here’ neon signs. It was suggested insects were attracted by petal fluorescence, and different insects evolved with different flowers. The yellow stamens didn’t actually do anything under UV light.
But the pollen protein level theory sounds intriguing, too.

Maree, I watched a bee trying frantically to squeeze itself into a just opening bud of Gertrude Jekyll. I kept watching that bee trying for the longest time, because it was so funny: That bee bud bobbing up and down and wiggling madly, and getting in seemed quite impossible. But the bee finally made it; and when it came out, it cleaned itself up and went straight back in. Whatever it is, fluorescent petals or fragrance, GJ oozes sweet rose fragrance at the slightest opening, bees sure like the roses in my garden; but they also really like other flowers, including weeds, unfortunately.

Nice photos, Teesh. That was so clever to put them all together in a row, so that we can just scroll over them quickly and really see the difference. That doesn’t look like sun bleaching to me, but old age. I can see how the petals and stamens of the other two are nice and firm, but the middle one’s are dehydrated and hang limb, as they do when the flower is about to fall off. It’s amazing that mauve colour is still there right at the end; and yes, it’s stinking hot here already. I like EfY a bit more every time I see it and even start to imagine its fragrance now. Hmm, reminds me a bit of a Passion Fruit flower, would it be like that?

Garry, I put some poppies out, together with other seeds and though I pulled them all out again, because the other flowers are already seedlings. But where are the poppies? Glad you mentioned they come out later, maybe there will still be some here, too.