I picked up two Smooth Touch "Smooth Queen" at Home Depot It is a soft yellow peachy color. I was drawn to it because of the fragrance. It is a different type of rose fragrance sort of a soft lemony smell.

Wondering if anyone has grown this rose. Your experience growing this rose. I purchased 2 and plan to put them on either side of a bench.

I am particularly interested if anyone is growing it in a cold climate and if it is hardy. I will chose another spot if it is not very hardy.

Smooth Queen is a hybrid tea, so I'd be worried about it below zone 7. You'll have to take special measures to protect it in winter, I'm sure.

I have Smooth Angel and I used to have Smooth Talk. It's a neat line of roses bred to be thornless by Harley Davidson. Smooth Angel grows well here, but I'm in zone 9.

Thank you. I sort of thought that was going to be a problem. Maybe I will do them in pots and winter them in the garage.

They are sold in zone 5 even. My mother bought a few at HD in Kansas City. We'll see how they do this winter! She grows other hybrid teas without protection. They die back somewhat, but she's had them for years. Actually, for my whole life. That's a lot of years.

Just cover 'em heavily with mulch ("mulch the snot outta them") and they should be fine. And I'm much colder than you are here in CO, but Cindi has far worse winds than I do.

Yes that is where I found them at HD. I thought for the price if they did not survive at least I was not out of a lot of money.

I have had a hard time keeping hybrid tea roses alive in my climate. I have some in pots that I drag into the garage or a unheated lower level of my home that I have been able to keep alive for a couple of years. Even mulched they seem to die here. Last winter was horrible I lost all the ones in the ground.

Home Depot often sells things that are not appropriate for the location. They are national and I think all the stores get much the same plants.

My mother grew hybrid teas in Massachusetts very successfully. She just dumped the autumn leaves onto them for winter.

Cinta - How deep do you plant your roses? My article here: http://garden.org/ideas/view/S... explains on burying them superdeep (the bud union at least 2-3" below the surface) and then piling a ton of mulch (2-6") on top of that so that only the tips are sticking out.

I will try it again Toni but everyntime I buried them that deep all I got was huey coming back every year. I thought WOW they survived until they bloomed red.

We have strange weather. A normal Fall is lots of rain, and more rain until the ground is soaked like a river and before you know it we have freezing temps. So followed by a little snow then more rain and more freezing blocks of ice. We do not get winter until late Dec early Jan which may be a big snow storm on top of the ice.

I probably have the worst winter for roses than someplace that would get cold snow and dry. It is the freezing water that is not good.

That's true, Cinta, and there's nothing you can do about that. I have to water my roses in the winter, and we get quite a few warm spells where the ground is totally thawed. Sometimes, it never freezes below ground at all.
Others will have to chime in, but I think soggy mulch would add to disease problems.
I'm not kidding you, though, I know of several nice rose gardens with HTs in the Topeka/Kansas City area, which is zone 5, and they do not go to any extreme measures to cover roses with anything in the winter. They just protect the roots and the bud union. They don't get much snow cover, either. When it does snow, it doesn't stick around long.
They don't have the winds I have down here, so I actually think their conditions are better than mine.

I prefer to cover the roses with peat moss. I read that it is best to add the peat moss a bit at a time once the ground freezes. Sometimes I put a bit of mulch on top of the peat moss to keep it from blowing around, but keep the mulch away from the canes.

Did they have a lot of new roses at Home Depot? I haven't been there in a while, but only saw sad knockouts during my last visit. My neighbor would get a kick out of a rose developed by Harley Davidson - maybe Smooth Buttercup, the yellow floribunda, if they have that one. (checked out the smooth series on hmf and the atf rose database). How cheap were they at HD?

They had 3 different ones. The other two were a light pink and a peach color. I do not remember the names.

They were 12.00 and they are in large 5 gallon pots. Home Depot every year seem to get in a lot of Fall plants that you can put in for some late color that may not live through our winters. They had a lot of Dahalia Bishop children that will look good with the roses this time of the year for 4.00.

Soggy mulch would be horrible for roses. What about straw? Straw wouldn't mildew as much I think. That's one thing I never have a worry about is soggy mulch. Even with the floods we had last year where it destroyed towns up in the mountains (literally) did I have that much of a problem. Sure, my mulch was a soupy soggy nasty mess, but after about 2 weeks of drying winds it was like I hadn't gotten any rain at all.

I'll have to plan a trip to Home Depot. I would like to get a Harley Davidson rose for my neighbor, Barefoot Joe. He also gardens. We have been sharing plants with each other. He is also teaching me the fine art of rock wall making. I don't drive, but he asks me to ride with him for groceries, to the library, etc. I walk his dog when he works. I would like to get him a garden surprise gift. He keeps joking that I am going to have him growing roses. I was thinking of getting him a Double Red Knockout, but if I find Smooth Buttercup I may get that instead. I think a knockout or a floribunda would be a good first rose.

I like peat moss for winter protection. In the spring, I can spread it out and work it into the soil. Hopefully, I will gradually raise the rose garden beds and improve the soil. This method worked on a smaller scale in my Sanity Gap townhouse garden.

Cinta wrote "I probably have the worst winter for roses than someplace that would get cold snow and dry. It is the freezing water that is not good."

Same problem here in PA 6A. I think the late winter freeze/thaw causes stress on grafted roses. At the same time, the rocky terrain makes it difficult to plant the bud union deep enough to be below the frost line. At 3-6" the bud union would still be vulnerable to freeze/thaw cycles. Zuzu mentioned trying to plant the bud union at the ground level and protecting the plant in the winter. That may work for a rose in a protected position. I haven't tired that. The Canadian roses grafted on multiflora may do better than the typical roses grafted on Dr. Huey. Multiflora does great here! Anyone want some? I am relocating multiflora and wild raspberries from my yard to the woods behind my yard. Maybe the deer will be happy eating those instead of wandering in my yard. With my luck, Brier Rabbit may move in.

I have had the most success with hardy, own root roses. I research varieties to select varieties that do well a zone colder than mine. Nurseries are selling more own root varieties, but some don't do well on their own roots - arghh - another thing to research. An example are some of the Kordes Fairy Tale floribundas which are sold both grafted and on their own roots.

I really want some hybrid teas for cutting, so I am experimenting on a quartet hybrid teas - 3 grafted from Home Depot, one own root relocated from my old garden. I am growing them to encourage root growth and protecting them over winter. If the first group does well, I would like to have a total of three small islands of hybrid tea roses with a clematis climbing on a structure in the center of each group.

Andi I think these are miss marked. At least they are in bloom and you can choose which one you would like. The ones I picked up are marked Smooth Touch "Smooth Queen" This is a pic.

How beautiful, I would have been tempted to bring that rose home also! I love soft pastel roses. The edges tinged with pink are beautiful. I was going to do some shopping today, but life didn't cooperate.

Aww Andi I hope life start to cooperate. Shopping for plants is my therapy these days. I love this time of year because of the deep markdowns. I am setting up perennial pots for the patio because I am tired of buying all those annuals to fill these hug patio pots and I found 5 gal pots of knockout roses for 3.00 that I am going to use with some other perennials.