Rita, if I had to cut that many blooms right now my roses would be bare! You could open a florist!!! Beautiful!

Sharlene ...

Why are you covering the blooms ? Have you already made the crosses ?

The blooms of your new roses look interesting. Do you have any idea if they will be good plants ?

As usual your photos are beautiful, especially to one who is deprived of roses in her garden. For now, I am relying on my heucheras to give me joy ...

Newyorkrita said:More cut roses.

• Roses (Rosa)
• Uploaded by Newyorkrita

• Roses (Rosa)
• Uploaded by Newyorkrita

I am going to go move the water ..

sunnyvalley said:Rita, if I had to cut that many blooms right now my roses would be bare! You could open a florist!!! Beautiful!

I have been cutting at least two and often more bouquets every other day now since the roses started blooming now so for around two weeks? The shrubs look fine, still covered in blooms. I guess I have a lot of blooms.

Rita - understatement!!!! Lots and lots and lots is more like it

Lyn - I covered the crosses I made in the morning because of the rain. Don't need the pollen to wash off before the cross has taken

The two rose I posted are from crosses I made in 2014. The first is Compassion X Arthur Bell and the second is Deborah X Arthur Bell. The outcome on the second surprised me! Both are very healthy! I have four of each planted in the garden and one going begging

Few more photos....



Fragrance is so far not up to the level that I expected. Just mild. But I will give it some time as it's a young bush grafted in Jul 15 on Rosa centifolia root stock, purchased and planted in ground on 26 Jan this year.


Bronze Star bush is also young, planted this Feb. Moderate fragrance and large size blooms.


This is a locally bred rose, bred by Ibrahim Changa. It has been named after famous Urdu language poetess Parveen Shakir who, in 1994, died at the age of 41 in a road accident. A free bird, she always spoke what she believed in and millions wept when she died...... but her poetry will always stay with us...... Just like poetess Parveen Shakir, the HT rose Parveen Shakir is also strikingly beautiful and very special in many ways. The most famous book of Parveen Shakir is Khushbu (Fragrance). Parveen Shakir loved fragrant roses and many of her verses talk about the effect of rose fragrance. The rose Parveen Shakir has a strong fragrance that radiates a feeling..... just like the poetry of Parveen Shakir. Blooms do not fry out even at 110*F and bush has high disease resistance and heat tolerance. Fragrance is classic old rose, quite similar to Gertrude Jekyll. This rose has a special place in my collection.

Khalid ....

I have found that my 'Alec's Red' had little scent during the summer when temps were hot. I also grew the rose in a coastal climate and it was always more fragrant. That climate on the coast was also consistently more humid than it is up here during the summer and I think that also made a difference.

However, we are coming out of a four year drought for my part of California and last winter was the first year we have had significant rainfall. The plant has doubled in size as compared to the last four years. I have not allowed it to bloom this season because of the rose curculios and am still dis-budding my roses for a couple of more weeks. My high summer temps will be hitting consistently next week.

In spite of lack of fragrance in high summer temps, I keep the rose simply because I love the plant and the blooms in spring and fall. Fragrance has never been my highest priority in growing plants. For me, a healthy plant in my climate is number one.

RoseBlush1: Thanks for info on Alec's Red performance in your area. I am also expecting the fragrance to enhance when it get cooler in Islamabad. For me, fragrance is the top criterion while selecting a rose and everything else comes second but this is a personal preference and we all have those.

best regards

Love the spicy fragrance of RiB and it's slate blue shade too.


Mild fragrance and beautiful blooms. Love the yellow / beige reverse. Bush is healthy.


Love the honey fruity fragrance of Gold Medal. My bush is quite pH sensitive and in acidic pH, it remains vulnerable to fungal attacks and grows slow. I raised the pH level to around 7.5 and now it is doing fine..... no mildew, no leaf curl.


Strong spicy fragrance and lot of large size blooms that were more violet in spring but in hot summers, they are more towards purple / pink side.

Khalid, every time you post photos, I want all of the roses. Luckily, I already have many of them. Parveen Shakir is exquisite. I've created an entry for it, but I was unable to find much information on it on the Web. If you have any data to contribute, your input would be helpful.

Rose (Rosa 'Parveen Shakir')

Thanks a lot zuzu. Yes, Parveen Shakir is not a well known rose even locally. And the reason is the personality of the breeder, Ibrahim Changa. He is an old man who can't read and write. Obviously, he is not on the web and has no idea about getting the patent for the roses that he breeds. However, when it comes to roses, he is a living encyclopedia. He can identify hundreds of roses just by looking at the leaves and thorns. He is a remarkable person, a real genius at work. However, being illiterate, he doesn't operate internet. I respect him a lot a try to learn from him whenever I get an opportunity. He lives around 500 km from me but I try to stay in touch. It will be a great service to a person like him if his roses are visible to the rose lovers across the globe on database like the one this forum has. He has bred many beautiful roses and I will post photos of some of them.

I thank you for creating an entry of Parveen Shakir and will give a call to Ibrahim Changa tomorrow to inform him about this. I am sure he will be happy though he doesn't really understand the importance of these databases and also, the importance of getting patent for the roses that he breeds. His life revolves around roses and he doesn't care much about other things.

best regards

Very strong lychee fragrance. My bushes are on own roots and prefer alkaline pH.


This another one bred by local breeder Ibrahim Changa and he name it Hafiz Zaman. Strong old rose fragrance and clusters of deep pink striped blooms. Bush is very healthy and disease resistant. Performs well in full sun.

Hafiz Zaman is also beautiful. Hybridizing talents like Ibrahim Changa's deserve widespread recognition and appreciation. I'll create an entry for this one also. It looks like a floribunda. Would you call it that?

Kahlid, Parveen Shakir is breathtaking, and I'm so glad you shared information about the name and breeder. Thank you so much for sharing! Hafiz Zaman is spectacular!

Fragrance has been greatly diminished here since arrival of hot weather. The flip side is dryer weather is helping with some that were balling during all the rain and now I'm seeing some nice blooms on those. I love round, old fashioned looking blooms that remind me of a cabbage, but those seem to be the worst for balling. Cinderella Fairy Tale and Eden are worst for it here.

zuzu, I wouldn't be sure and will have to check from Ibrahim Changa. Many HTs during spring come up with clusters. Thanks a lot for the help.

Neal, thanks for liking Parveen Shakire and Hafiz Zaman, both are beautiful roses with very strong fragrance. You are right about fragrance and my situation is even worst because in Islamabad, temps cross 110*F on hotter days and stay between 104 to 110*F in routine during summers. Most roses become non-fragrant during this period however, Parveen Shakir still hold on to quiet a bit of fragrance and blooms also do not fry out and last of minimum two days which is a very good bloom period in this hot weather .

best regards

Khalid, you said that fragrance is your top priority. I imagine heat resistance is also an important criterion. Is rain resistance also one of your criteria? I personally don't have to worry much about rain resistance because we have so little rain during the blooming season, but I'm always surprised by the lack of rain-resistance information in so many databases. I would include it in our database if I had a comprehensive source for this information. The only database I've seen with the information is the Russian one, rosebook.ru. It rates roses by showing differing numbers of raindrops. In this entry for Rhapsody in Blue, for example, they give the rose three raindrops, which is very good.

http://www.rosebook.ru/roses/m...

>>>Most roses become non-fragrant during this period however,

That is because of both the anatomy of the rose petal and that the heat dries the oils released that carry fragrance to the surface of the petal.

Neal, every climate has its pluses and minuses ... With your more humid climate, you often have to fight off disease and heavy petaled blooms don't open as well, but you often can experience fragrance in a rose that is fleeting in my more arid climate. I think that's why fragrance is not as important to me as it once was when I lived in San Diego.

Yes, the essential oil of roses is fragile. I love them regardless, but what a gift that sweet scent is when conditions are just right The fact that it is fleeting makes it all the more special.

zuzu said:Khalid, you said that fragrance is your top priority. I imagine heat resistance is also an important criterion. Is rain resistance also one of your criteria? I personally don't have to worry much about rain resistance because we have so little rain during the blooming season, but I'm always surprised by the lack of rain-resistance information in so many databases. I would include it in our database if I had a comprehensive source for this information. The only database I've seen with the information is the Russian one, rosebook.ru. It rates roses by showing differing numbers of raindrops. In this entry for Rhapsody in Blue, for example, they give the rose three raindrops, which is very good.

http://www.rosebook.ru/roses/m...

zuzu, it's true that I grow roses primarily for their fragrance, however, I don't overlook the other aspects like vigoru, disease resistance, sensitivity to rain / heat etc. You must have seen that I do comment on these aspects too, however, for me, the qualifying aspect for adding a new rose remains the fragrance. I have few old bushes of not "that" fragrant roses but now, I only add those roses that have a fragrance that I like.
I have been trying to identify those rose whose bush growth doesn't get affected when temps are high and their bloom size and fragrance doesn't go down drastically. Some of the roses do stand out in these areas and it would be good to provide this information in the database if it is confirmed from few other sources also. Similarly, from mid July to end Aug will be monsoon season in Islamabad and that would be a very testing time for roses. I will share my observations regarding that too and the same can be mentioned in the data base, if confirmed.

However, I would like to point out something here that in my view is very important. The performance of a particular rose cultivar grown anywhere is directly dependent on the growing conditions. Few factors in growing condition are constant for a particular area, like weather. However, many other factors are within the control of the grower and that will differ from grower to grower. Like I lay lot of emphasis on soil preparation (a "living soil" with lot of organic matter that encourages mycorrhizae network, microbes and worms). Than, I am always experimenting on the pH levels and mineral availability that suits a particular rose cultivar the best thereby making a rose bush healthy / robust to fight most diseases / pests at its own. Therefore, if a cultivar displays high vigour and disease resistance in my rose garden may not necessarily perform the same way in another garden unless same growing conditions are provided and vice versa. However, one can form a general opinion about the performance of a rose cultivar and I will keep sharing my observations regarding those roses. If the same observation is confirmed from couple of other sources as well than it can be included in the data base.

best regards

PS: zuzu, Just saw that an incomplete post ( Post #1182324) has been posted by me erroneously. I think just clicked the Finished icon by mistake. Could you please delete that post.

best regards

Mary Rose performed very well in spring but as the temps crossed 100*F, it bloomed sparingly. Had strong scent in the spring which was not to my liking though. Smells like the typical odour in a drug store. A vigorous bush in cool temps but goes in to sort of a survival mode when temps cross 105*F.


Shade of Black Prince is quite dark when it is cool. It keeps blooming in high temps as well but the shade is lighter (sort of a true red). Fragrance is very strong old rose damask mix. A very fine Hybrid Perpetual for hot climate.