Baronne Edmond de Rothschild "runt"

When acquiring bareroot rose varieties for the first time, I usually buy them in pairs on the assumption that a truer picture will emerge of that variety, given that a sole plant that does poorly might just be the plant itself.

This Spring I received one enormous Baronne EdR and one little scrap of a thing in my order. Big Edmond one got all the attention and some great real estate; Little Eddie got a slummy temp home in a 12" plastic pot and shoved out on the back deck ghetto off the laundry room.

Look at Little Eddie now.
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Besty the Baronne has always grown well for me , has very good vigour.

I believe you, Ozroz, boy do I so believe you . The pic above is quite poor in many respects- there are in fact 7 orchestrated full blooms and two opening buds on this little thing, and the shape of the plant is as nearly perfectly rounded as a bouquet.

The big booming Edmond is not so prolific, nor as shapely

Betsy, the union between the rootstock is critical, the under stock is also critical. The union of any rose depends on it, transfer of food is both ways. It could be the rootstock(which) I think it is. If given 2 buds from the same stem there should no eregularity IMO. Which indicates to me the rootstock(could) be the problem.

Don't misunderstand me, both BEdRs are doing very very well, no problems at all. I just thought it was interesting that the little tiny bareoot has come on like gangbusters, and is outperforming his bigger and stronger brother, I have no complaints about the Big Ed plant at all, just that the Little Eddie plant is such a surprise show pony

The ugly duckling rose grows into a swan , i certainly love my Baron , its coming along very nicely too !!!

Betsy, I found the same with my 'Eyes For You'. Out of 16 bare rooted roses it looked dead. I was devastated thinking my $25 bare rooted rose was not going to do too well. It is now one of the most healthiest of the lot!

Whatever the rose some variation in initial growth is due to less than perfect joining of the growth tissues in the rind, specially the cambium layer. Since the rind is made up of several layers it takes time for the grafted Sion and rootstock to repair perfectly. You will notice variation in all grafted roses during the initial growth period.

Yes I know. I am just agreeing with Betsy that some less than desirable looking roses can turn into beauties

Yeah, that was my point, Teesh. I tend to dismiss the little bareroot scraps that come my way, either as a freebie or a bottom-of-the-barrel end of year order, In the case of the Baronnes, the two plants were as disparate as Tarzan and Tinkerbell. I never thought that the twinkie would grow in a mere three months to match the Lord of the Apes.

It's amazing what they can do Betsy