I also like Honey Dijon very much, but I didn't like it until I saw it "in the flesh." It never appealed to me in the original photos of the newly introduced rose because they didn't show the warmer peachy tones the blooms often display. The marketers seemed to be concentrating only on the rose's resemblance to Dijon mustard. As soon as I saw it, though, I had to have it because I love russet tan roses.

I also agree about the potentially polarizing effects of Ketchup and Mustard's coloring. The colors are so vibrant that they can look garish in contrast to the usually more muted and calmer colors of most roses. I'm a big fan of vibrant colors, however. In fact, this is my favorite time of year in the shady parts of my garden because I have hanging baskets of vibrantly colored tuberous begonias in the shade. Nothing lights up the darkness the way a Begonia can.

I fear, though, that Ketchup and Mustard won't be around for long in commerce. It really is a ratty rose bush. I've bought it three times. One died almost immediately. Another is still alive, but quite small in comparison with other floribundas of the same age. The third looks great, but it's actually two rose bushes that were planted together in a container when I bought it. I didn't separate the two when I planted the rose in the ground.

Sounds like another lousy plant marketed just for the bloom. No wonder roses have a reputation for being difficult to grow. I hate that.

I totally agree with Zuzu on Ketchup and Mustard. I have not had one bloom even approach that first bloom I had (the one in my avatar) and I've planted 3 plants of K & M. Two still live, but they are small and, as Zuzu said, RATTY. Honey Dijon, on the other hand, is a terrific rose! I love the odd color.
Crimson Skies is a rose that deserves more attention. It has bloomed like crazy all summer. The deep red holds up in heat, sun, and wind, and even with our freaky rains, it has not succumed to black spot like so many others.
About the rose shows....kinda late to the discussion here, but I have to say I've been to several, one at the national meeting, and they are fascinating. I overheated my camera again! After one show, I was invited to see the garden of one of the main competitors. It was certainly different from my garden! He had several plants of each rose, and kept a rigid feed and spray schedule. The hybrid teas were trained to have long stemmed blooms, unlike mine, where I am lucky to remember to prune once a year.
Several years ago, our local group hosted a district show, and I entered a single rose. Watching the growers groom the roses was a strange experience. In a sense, it reminded me of a dog show. They used hair dryers to open buds...just a little...and Q tips to space out the petals. Tiny little scissors cleaned up any discoloration. I was able to clerk for judges, so I listened to all the comments, and learned so much! I have the book Otherwise Normal People, and I think it's accurate! If any of you get a chance to go to a show, I highly recommend it, and suggest you volunteer to clerk or somehow be on the floor to hear how the blooms are judged. I trained as a judge for daylily and for iris, but rose is a different ball game.

Cindi ..

I couldn't find any information on a rose named 'Crimson Skies', . Do you have any photos and some information ?

At the beginning of my rose life, I volunteered at a rose nursery that was operated by what is called a "hardware hunter" in San Diego. That is a person that is so into exhibiting roses that they were always seeing roses through the eyes of an exhibitor.

I entered ONE rose show and altho' I met some wonderful people, I found that I did not enjoy that aspect of growing roses. I think the competitive gene is missing from my make-up. I didn't have fun. The only fun part of the experience for me, was watching other people have fun. Since then, I'd rather go to a rose show than participate in one.

Learning about roses from my next rose mentor gave me the opportunity to see roses through the eyes of a breeder. That was a much better fit for me ... That's when roses became a lot more fun for me.

I am not sorry about my first experience because we can learn something from everyone and it all comes together, but there were so many roses that called my name that just were not the roses that were exhibition roses.

Cindi probably meant Crimson Sky:

Rose (Rosa 'Crimson Sky')

There are many days that are not holidays, and then there are days like today.

August 7th is Purple Heart Day, so the Rose of the Day is 'Purple Heart.'



August 7th is also International Friendship Day, so another Rose of the Day is 'Continued Friendship,' one of the alternative names of 'Golden Zest.'



August 7th is also National Sisters Day, so another Rose of the Day is 'Seven Sisters.'

These holidays are going to keep you really busy Zuzu but this is a perfect way of showcasing roses!

Purple Heart and Golden Zest are two roses I haven't come across yet. I really like Golden Zest and I see it is also available here in Europe The entry on HMF states that it is very disease resistant but one person commented that it was highly susceptible to black spot in his garden. Zuzu do you grow Golden Zest and if so how would you rate it??

I'm glad you asked, Sharlene. Golden Zest is one of the best roses in my garden. The rose bush has a pleasing shape, the blooms are gorgeous, and it blooms quite frequently. I'm glad it's available in Europe. It has been increasingly elusive here ever since Jackson & Perkins started having financial problems about 10 years ago.

It does get black spot, but so does almost every other rose in my garden, and it's no more susceptible than any other rose in my garden. In my garden, the rose leaves emerging after our long rainy season in winter invariably suffer from black spot. I once made a list of the roses that were resistant, but I had to keep crossing roses off the list as time went on. The last roses remaining on the list were Ralph Moore's 'Playboy' and a few of Ping Lim's roses. Fortunately, the black spot never kills or weakens any of my roses. They lose their leaves, grow nice new ones, and sail through the rest of the year without any relapses.

gemini_sage said:It does look happy Greg, and I like the box and trellis too . Is that Cecile Brunner?

Not sure, I didn't keep the tag that came with it like I usually do, I had to look it up. From the images I found, it sure looks like it. It's now got about 2 dozen blooms and counting. Here's how I brought it back to life. I'm only a beginning gardener and I mostly garden by "the seat of my pants", although I'm not averse to doing research and buying books. I took it out of the ground where it wasn't doing well and getting attacked by a vole. I put it in the cedar planter which had potting soil. Sometime later, I read that potting soil isn't real soil and has no nutrients, so I scooped out about half the potting soil and added premium soil amendment with 15% chicken manure, added the companion ornamental onion, and started fertilizing it once a week.

This is the day of the Qixi Festival (or Qiqiao Festival), a Chinese holiday that celebrates romance, comparable to Valentine's Day in the West. It's also called the Night of Sevens because it's on the seventh day of the seventh month of the Chinese calendar, so the Rose of the Day is Seven Seas.



If you can find this rose anywhere, I urge you to try it out. It's a Harkness floribunda with beautiful blooms.

Lovely color and frilly petals! I'm glad you were able to make the sevens connection and offer such a great representative rose.

Wonderful colour on Seven Seas!!!

Zuzu, thanks for the feedback on Golden Zest! As far as black spot is concerned, I think you are right that almost all roses get it - some more and some less. It is only that I would like to avoid adding the ones that completely defoliate - I have enough of those already so when I read a comment that says 'highly susceptible' I am a bit wary. (And I do realize that roses perform differently dependant on location - even in ones own garden!)

Out of interest, I just took a quick walk through one section of the garden to see if I could find any which don't have any spots.
Absolutely CLEAN at the moment are Samaritan (aka English Sonnent), Christopher Columbus and La Rose du Petit Prince (aka Arctic Ice) - the rest all have at least a couple of leaves with spots.

That's a good idea Sharlene , I'll take note today which ones have shown the most black spot resistance. I'm happy to see that La Rose du Petit Prince has shown such great resistance! Summer has been rainy, hot, and humid here, so I'm seeing more black spot this year than usual.

Do that, Neal. I was truly amazed when I made my list a few years ago and then had to keep crossing names off the list constantly as the black-spot season went on. The roses that surprised me the most were the Buck roses, which I mistakenly had expected to have some resistance. I have almost 50 Buck cultivars in my garden (plus duplicates of some of those), and all of them looked horrible for at least a month at the end of spring. Luckily, they're scattered all around the garden, so I didn't have whole rose beds of unrelieved horror.

Everything looks good now. As soon as the black-spot season, curculio-weevil season, and sawfly-larvae season are over, the roses look good for the rest of the year.

I think rose names are so interesting and fun! August is pretty brutal here, and I've even seen nurseries close for the month. It feels like we're all just trying to conserve our energy! This rose, though, just keeps on pumping out beautiful blooms. I'm pretty sure it's "America" after a quick search of its most notable attributes (climber, salmon/coral blooms that just keep on coming) and a vague memory of that name on its long-ago-discarded tag. Right now, it's covered with buds just like this one. This is one that seems to do well in my garden no matter what.

Super photo. It certainly does look like America. Besides, vague memories are the very best clues of all!

August usually is quite pleasant here. September can be brutally hot, but the daytime temperatures in August rarely climb above 85 degrees. Our nighttime temps are always in the 40s and 50s in August, so that cools things down nicely for each new day.

How curious! Does summer move across the continent from east to west? August is the height of summer swelter for us, and sometimes it is beginning to improve by the end of September.

I think summer vacation from school ends earlier now than it did years ago, but when it used to end the week after Labor Day, I always felt so sorry for the kids when they had to go back to school because the two middle weeks in September tend to be the hottest of the year, and I never lived anyplace where the schools had air conditioning. That's the time each year when I spend all day watering my garden and sometimes vow to start growing nothing but succulents because there isn't enough water in the world to keep any other type of plant happy here in September.

zuzu said:
August usually is quite pleasant here. September can be brutally hot, but the daytime temperatures in August rarely climb above 85 degrees. Our nighttime temps are always in the 40s and 50s in August, so that cools things down nicely for each new day.

In this part of Switzerland, August tends to be the hottest summer month - last year was exceptionally hot and dry with temperatures often over 95F! This August, on the other hand, seems to be cooler and wetter than usual and temperatures similar to what you describe Zuzu. I am hoping it warms up again

Some roses really grow like weeds!! In March, while I was pruning, I stuck a couple of the cuttings in the ground. No special treatment and basically forgot about them - I did water them once or twice but that was it! Julia's Rose and Alte Liebe with blooms now. Blue Moon and Blue Parfum have also had blooms already.

I stuck them really close because I actually didn't expect them to take - going to be fun trying to separate them

Here some pics from the last couple of days ....
Soleil Vertical - Blue Girl - Blue Parfum - Golden Monica


Close up of Parfum de Grasse - beautiful bloom (quite difficult to photograph) but the plant has proven to be very susceptible to BS


This is one of my own roses from 2014 - a cross between Deborah and Westerland