Another rose I need help identifying. The camera has a hard time picking up it's true color, but I'd say it's a few shades more purple than it appears in the photo. Any ideas? Thank you!

I'm no good at identifying roses, but I'm sure it would help if you could describe the rose more thoroughly. Size of plant, when you acquired it, thorns, fragrance, and anything else you can notice.

I recently purchased it from Home Depot and wasn't labeled. It's still young (was in a bucket). It has very few thorns, a very slight fragrance (barely). I think it's more a purple color than a dark red.

It looks closest to Rosa Oklahoma so far. Same color (though you can't tell based on my pictures as it made it appear more reddish in hue).

http://leeanntorrans.com/le-ro...

So far, the closest color matches I can find are the Black Baccara & Burgundy Ice Rose.

http://www.photomazza.com/?Ros...

Look at my picture of Voluptuous on the data base.......

Hey Paul! That may very well be it! It's interesting how my camera doesn't capture it's true color range. It appears more red on camera than in person (has differing shades or red and purple). I took a few more pics but so far, Voluptous may definitely be it! Thank you! :D

It's unlikely that it is 'Voluptuous'. V is still under patent protection. It is a Keith Zary rose introduced by J & P. It was patented in 2007.

Smiles,
Lyn

Home Depot sells lots of patented roses. They just cost a little more than the others.

I agree that your rose looks like Voluptuous, but your link to Oklahoma is misleading, Matt. Oklahoma is a red rose -- dark red, but still primarily red.

Rose (Rosa 'Oklahoma')

Thanks, Zuzu. By the time I get down the mountain, things are pretty well picked over.

I am just about out of room for more roses, so at least I won't be so tempted.

Smiles,
Lyn

I know just what you mean. I was out of room about 200 roses ago, but now that I've decided to get rid of the disappointing ones, I'll have more real estate to play with. I want to move some nice roses out of the shade and into the sun, and I can't resist ordering some new ones from Palatine. Their selection for the coming season is irresistible.

Yes, it is. However, gardening in glacier slurry means it takes me hours to prep a rose hole. I have to really, really want the rose ....

Smiles,
Lyn

If I had to garden in glacier slurry, I probably would have a large Sempervivum plantation and plant nothing else.

zuzu said:I know just what you mean. I was out of room about 200 roses ago.

Actually, I experimented with semps this year. I don't have enough shade for them during the hot summer months. However, I am looking at a lot of sub-alpine plants for the garden.

According to rose literature, I should not be able to grow healthy roses in this stuff, but actually, other than adding nutrients and making sure I plant with a decent sized root mass, the roses love it. I have perfect drainage and because the soil between the rocks is clay, it hold moisture much better than sandy soils. The roses are surprisingly healthy. Go figure.

Smiles,
Lyn

Edited to correct typo

The gardens at my former home had a lot in common with your conditions, Lyn. The house was built on a steep slope, with a raised, two-tiered retaining wall in the back yard. The void created by the retaining wall was filled with 3/4 crushed stone, topped off with about 6 inches of top soil. So every time I planted a rose, I had to remove at least 5 gallons of gravel. I eventually built a giant sieve on wheels that looked something like a gurney. I would dump shovelfuls of gravely soil on top of the screen, then rake it back and forth with a garden hoe. There was a catchment below for the soil to fall into, and then I would put the crushed stone into buckets. For a while I had to have landscapers take the gravel away, because I would dig up so much of it year after year. But then one year a neighbor who was installing a dry well asked me if he could have the pile of gravel I had accumulated behind the garden shed. I welcomed him to it!

Mike ...

At first I did screened the rock out, too. This was my first in-ground garden and I didn't know what I was doing, so I made the novice error of digging rose holes instead of preparing a whole bed. Ooops.

Then when I planted the roses, because I knew there was no nutrients in the soil, I used plenty of compost. Another Ooops ! The compost decomposed and the roses sank. I mean really, really sank. That was the end of putting compost in the planting hole ... Now, I use the native soil with larger rocks removed and mound it up so that when the soil around the root mass of the rose I am planting decomposes, the plant sinks to the level that I want it.

Over the years I've only put compost and mulch on top of the soil and now it is alive, but it is still not fertile. It takes time to build fertile soil, but I love the drainage and the fact that it holds moisture. When I planted bulbs last year, I just needed a trowel. I had no idea how effective just putting things on top of the soil would be to improve the friability of the soil.

This is the garden the proves Ralph Moore's comment that roses don't know the rules to be correct. I am totally amazed at how healthy the plants are and how well they do for me.

I still have a lot to learn and since I am not gardening in ideal conditions I am forced to keep on learning

Smiles,
Lyn

Hello all!
So do you guys think it's 'Voluptuous'? I got this one from Home Depot (I don't know if that matters). haha

When I know I'll never be sure of a rose's name, I make up my own. When my sweet elderly neighbor Ms. Alterio passed away a few years ago, her adult children invited me to take the giant unnamed rose that had been growing by her raised front porch for decades, because I used to prune it for her. So I transplanted it in the fall and named It Madame Adrienna Alterio.

The rose I have seems to have a more uniform, circular petal arrangement whereas 'Voluptuous' has a more asymmetrical flower petal arrangement.