Cindi, all of mine from the fairy tale series have gotten pretty big, the largest of the bunch being Golden Fairy Tale- this is its 2nd year in the garden and its about 6' tall and nearly 5' wide. It is everything I wanted in a yellow rose, a vigorous grower with big, petal packed blooms of great substance. It even has a slight fragrance in cooler weather.

The rest are 4-5' tall, although a few have single, taller canes too.

I plan to move Lion's Fairy Tale this fall. It is more beige/buff colored than I thought it would be and will look great in the area where I'm working with that color. I'd thought it would read more as white from a distance and I'd like to find a smaller white variety to put in its current spot.

Thanks, Neal. You might like Bolero or Polar Express in that space.
I'm loving my little Popcorn Drift as a cute whitish plant. I wonder why more stores don't carry it?
Charles de Gaulle is blooming now, great big blooms with intoxicating scent. I can't wait until that one gets bigger!

Glad you reminded me about Bolero, that's one I've seriously considered in the past.

gemini_sage said:Golden Fairy Tale- this is its 2nd year in the garden and its about 6' tall and nearly 5' wide.

Wow that is bigger than I expected - do you prune Neal? I might have to reconsider where to put mine - should be arriving next week - because I was going on the sizes mentioned in the data base here and on HMF.

I pruned it back a bit this spring, and last fall had to cut back a few canes that were whipping around in the wind. They were 10-12' tall! I was kinda freaked out by that last year and thought it was going to perform more like a climber, but this year it behaved more normally.

Sharlene, you'll definitely want to give it plenty of space. Its an arching shrub and has tons of thorns, big ones, little ones, covering every stem.

There are a few with freakishly long canes out there right now. Zaide has one that is about 8' tall, and that one is an own root plant planted this spring! Berolina has 1 skinny cane about 8' tall with a single bud at the tip.

Thanks Neal - going to have to rethink placement. Just when I thought I was done digging holes and amending soil

Our newspaper has a story telling us today is National Pumpkin Day!!

I grow 2 'Pumpkin Patch' roses, and neither was worthy of a photo. Maybe that's because they are next to Easy Does It, Anna's Promise and Mardi Gras.
By the way, this was labeled 'Sonia', and it is not. Any guesses? Something a big box store would carry.. and I can't pick up any scent.

Cindi, you are right it is National Pumpkin Day but it is also 'Worldwide Howl at the Moon Night' so maybe we could have two roses for today. I would suggest the rose 'Full Moon Rising' for Howl at the Moon Night @zuzu ?

Don't know what your big box store NOID is but it is a lovely bloom

Autumn has really arrived here and the misty/foggy/rainy weather we've had the last couple of days, is taking its toll on the roses.


Still haven't given up hope! There are quite a few buds on the roses and if the weather warms up again, like it did last year, I'll have a couple more to enjoy this year.

Armed with this knowledge by Sharlene, I can tell you that today is Howl at the Moon Day. Our Rose of the Day is Full Moon Rising, a sport of Polka.



Cindi, I skipped National Pumpkin Day because I had just used Pumpkin Patch as the Rose of the Day earlier this month on National Pumpkin Seed Day.

Coukl your orange rose be Marmalade Skies? That one would be fairly easy to find at a big box store, I think.

Rose (Rosa 'Marmalade Skies')

My mystery orange rose has more of a hybrid tea habit with one bloom at the end of each long stem. I'm guessing it is an out of patent hybrid tea because that's usually what we find here in potted roses at box stores.
Sharlene, your garden is a wonderland. I wish I could fly you here to re do my whole yard. Wow.
We got 2 inches of rain last night, along with a "warm front". I love seeing all the big blossoms, but all the warmth and rain is keeping the roses from moving towards dormancy.

Cindi, it could be Tropicana. I see that one a lot at my store. I love it's color but hate the lack of scent on it so I never bother to fall for it and bring it home.

I think it looks too orange to be Tropicana or Cary Grant, the two that I would expect to see most often at big-box stores. They're more coral than orange.

Maybe Shreveport? It's supposed to be a grandiflora, but mine has never produced clusters of blooms.

Rose (Rosa 'Shreveport')

CindiKS said:I grow 2 'Pumpkin Patch' roses, and neither was worthy of a photo. Maybe that's because they are next to Easy Does It, Anna's Promise and Mardi Gras.
By the way, this was labeled 'Sonia', and it is not. Any guesses? Something a big box store would carry.. and I can't pick up any scent.

Cindi ... a guess would be 'Tropicana'. I've seen centers like that on my plant. When Kim saw my rose, he told me that it was one of the original 'Tropicana' roses as the color was the right color of the rose when it was first released. He said over time, the color of the rose in commerce has changed. The rose in your photo is much more orange than my rose, but the foliage looks right.

Lyn, when Kim told you about the change of color in the rose in commerce, did he say it's now orange, and did this happen because of faulty cloning techniques, or is it just a case of mislabeling? I've seen lots of nurseries offering Smoky, for instance, but they're selling a solid orange rose bearing no resemblance to the original Smoky (grayish-purple, with a brick-red reverse and an orange center). Burling seems to be the only source of the "real" Smoky, which I remember well. I had a spectacular Smoky that I lost in a divorce, and it took more than 30 years to find a replacement.

I have four Tropicanas in my garden. Two came from my neighbor, who planted them the first year they were offered to the public, in 1960 or 1961, and two are more recent purchases of mine. All four are the same shade of reddish-coral. Cindi's rose is so very "orange-juice orange." That's why I suggested Shreveport.

Zuzu ...

You've asked a difficult question. With the bankruptcy of J & P and Weeks, the rose industry was kind of turned upside down. A lot of rose growers went out of business or decided to grow other crops. Some stayed in business, but grew fewer roses. There was less demand for roses. As usual, when there is a void, new people started growing roses.

When Kim made his observation, the clone on the market was more orange and it's possible that Cindi's rose came from a grower that is still using that rose for budwood. Your newer roses could be coming from another grower that is using a different stock rose for budwood.

I really don't know.

I just went back and re-read your question ... if I remember our discussion correctly, Kim was telling me the change in the color of the rose in commerce was due to poor selection of budwood that was carried forward over time. It was not due to mislabeling.

As far as Smoky is concerned, I couldn't even begin to answer your question. I think Smoky is a beautiful rose, but if I remember correctly, it is not a very vigorous rose. I've only seen it in person once. It could be the conditions where it was growing that made it seem like it was kind of a wimpy plant, but the blooms were beautiful.

Hey, it's Navy Day. The Rose of the Day is Seven Seas, a wonderful Harkness floribunda.

That is a pretty one Zuzu - love the colour and supposed to be fragrant too!
Actually did considered adding this one but hesitated because I hadn't read any reports about it and also it is not on offer on the Harkness website, which made me wonder a bit. Took Huddersfield instead and have no regrets

@IrisLilli BTW - I see it is on your want list. Myroses.de has it on offer.

Seven Seas is beautiful. I find ruffled petals irresistible. But which seas are included in the famous term "seven seas" ? I've always wondered.

Seven Seas is wonderful! It has the qualities I love about Angel Face but the color looks cleaner.

Porkpal, that's a good question! Piqued my curiosity and I had to look it up. Wiki says:
the Adriatic Sea.
the Mediterranean Sea, including its marginal seas, notably the Aegean Sea, Ionian Sea, Adriatic Sea and Tyrrhenian Sea.
the Black Sea.
the Caspian Sea.
the Persian Gulf.
the Arabian Sea (which is part of the Indian Ocean)
the Red Sea, including the closed Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee.