Is there really any true blue roses? One of the roses that has come close is the modern floribunda rose: Rhapsody In Blue. Bred in United Kingdom in 1999 by Frank R. Cowlishaw, this rose quickly became extremely popular because of the interesting colour and also the name - piggybacking on George Gershwin's musical composition: Rhapsody In Blue. (See and listen to video below). Are the flowers really blue? No - they are in shades of mauve, violet and purple. In some light conditions - dusk and dawn the flowers sometime appear almost blue!
I planted 3 in a group in 2004 - enabled by the fact that it was voted "Rose of the Year 2003" in England. I must say that it was not as blue as I had expected, and it had a strange growth habit the first years, sending up a few 4-5 feet tall canes with huge clusters of flowers above the otherwise spindly canes. Like many other roses it took some years to get established, but it became better over the years. Now that they have matured they are about 3 feet tall and wide. Here is one plant - as you can see it produces its flowers in big clusters, which makes the rose less suitable for cutting:
The flowers are semi-double and have a moderate sweet rose fragrance with aniseed and violet notes. They may not be blue but visitors in my gardens really like them for their unusual colour and are drawn to them always making them a subject of conversation:
Disease resistance was poor the first years - it seemed rather prone to Blackspot, but it also seemed to get better over the years - the last 2 years I have not been spraying them with fungicides and they are doing fine, I just remove the leaves that do get Blackspot and can control it this way.
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16 comments:
I have this rose Niels, planted 18 months ago and I am really pleased with it. The blackspot isn't as bad as on some of my other roses. I like the colour and also the shape,
I would like more double roses in the garden. Do you have any white/cream double roses? I rather like the look of David Austin's Windrush. I know it says Windrush is yellow but when I saw it at Waddesdon Manor it was white with a yellow centre.
Best wishes Sylvia (England)
I have many double white/cream roses - the best one is Austins Crocus Rose - that is one amazing rose! I also like my new Claire Austin - but not sure it will produce as many flowers as the Crocus Rose! I highly recommend that rose - it has been very healthy here - but gets a little Blackspot at the end of the season. I have never grown or even seen Windrush. Take care Sylvia.
Hello Niels;
We just moved our nursery here in Vermont and although it's only 4 miles from its original location, there is a different assortment of customers who haven't been by before. A noticeable number of people have requested roses and don't seem to know where to buy them. It makes me wonder if there is a resurging interest in roses here in New England. It's too early for me to make a decision on adding a new line but I wanted to say that the interest is there.
Two years back I visited the rose gardens in Portland Oregon and I visited at peak bloom time. There were thousands of people visiting and the fragrance was obvious from the time I got out of the car. The site is http://www.rosegardenstore.org
I will refer people to your blog.
George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
http://thevermontgardener.blogspot.com
Vermont Gardens
http://vermontgardens.blogspot.com
Vermont Flower Farm
http://vermontflowerfarm.com
Even though the "blue" roses aren't strictly a blue color, they are still scrumptious!
After growing up in New England I became accustomed to the strong fragrance of roses. However, now that I live here in Florida, the aroma just isn't as strong. (Frown)
Thanks for stopping by George -
from what I know Vermont is very different from Oregon! Much, much colder! Hardiness is a must for the roses to be grown there, if people are going to have any succes growing roses. So choose very hardy roses or your customers will give up on roses. It will also be helpful if you made a copy of the best tips about how to winterize roses, so more of the canes make it through the winter, to give to your customers. Roses that will do well in Vermont are probably old garden roses like Gallicas and Albas and some Damasks. Do not sell roses that will not do well in your cold climate - I have seen that way too often and these roses have to be treated like Annuals.
This was the second "blue" rose that I planted. Mine has the same characteristics/problems that yours do, but disease is really not such an issue this year. The smell is wonderful and I frequently go past them just to get a whiff. I never spray anything; I´m a firm believer in "survival of the fittest". Maybe that´s why I have plenty of bees..... and bumble bees in my shed. Lucky my cats haven´t gotten stuck yet. My first blue rose was "Blue Parfum" and it was put out of its misery after 3 years. Beautiful, large flowers with a great scent, but just not cooperative at all.
I have never, ever seen a rose like this! Amazing.
I've never seen this particular rose before. It is beautiful and unusual at the same time. Thanks for sharing this with us.
Ahhhhh! I've never seen this rose until now. I am always entranced by blue flowers so now, of course, I want this one for my growing rose collection. Now if I can just figure out where to put it. ;)
Cindy at Rosehaven Cottage
P.S. So wonderful that you'll be in SLC in a couple of months! I'm envious.
Kate - that is a sad fact about roses - In hot areas the fragrant substance from the petals simply evaporate so fast - best time to smell roses in hot areas are early mornings, just when the sun hits the roses - then they will be fragrant.
Amy K. S.: Most blue - whatever hybrid teas have very bad disease resistance - blue moon, blue perfum whatever - they are really awful and impossible to grow - at least here in Denmark. I do not think RIB has a strong fragrance, but I do like the fragrance it has - I grow other roses for fragrance. I do choose to spray some of my roses with fungicides - as you know we have an ultra restrictive better safe than sorry policy about pesticides here in Denmark. Only one fungicide is available here - not like in the US where you can buy at least 6-8 different fungicides and soooo many insecticides! I have only sprayed 2 times so far this year and only the roses with poor disease resistance - I simply do not want to look like plaque victims.
I haven't bought this one yet - I can't make up my mind about it, really... It's a beautiful rose, no doubt, but 'blue' roses? (Knowing me, though, I'll probably buy it one of those days...)
/Katarina
I don't grow Rhapsody In Blue either but I think I would like the colour of the flower. I really do love purple roses. :) I read above about Crocus rose. That's another rose I would like to grow...and your comments about it make me even more interested!
Tack för välkomnandet på Blotanical! Du är välkommen att besöka min blogg...
Karin
Hello Niels,
Thanks again for pointing me to your review of RiB. I think your blog is terrific! Yesterday I left a message for you on the European Rose Forum. It's a suggestion for a source of Meilland (and lots of other) roses. It just occurred to me that, unless you have requested notification, you may never see my comments, so I wanted to alert you to that.
As you probably already know, I tend to hang out at the Antique forum.
All the best!
MayBee
I have this rose too and it is doing exactly what yours did in the first few years. It has just a few lanky canes. How did you get yours to bush out? Should I hard prune it? Any advice would be great. Thanks
I just bought my first "Rhapsody In Blue",and googled to find out more.That was how I found your blog, a very nice and interesting one.The roses smell so nice, and looks so pretty, so I hope I will get it to live for longe!
Hi Niels,
I have Rhapsody in Blue for about 18 months now and it is always in flower, is this normal....its mid Novemeber now and I have 10 new buds, and it gets no sunshine but is well looked after...no pesticides either...I just pluck off the dead leaves.
Fiona
North Cork, Ireland.
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