When I find a hybrid tea or grandflora that I can't live without, I'll have to try a grafted one from Pickering or Palantine. I walk right past the big box body bags. I check the potted varieties, but most are knock outs or obviously grafted. Poorly grafted roses on Dr. Huey are not for me. I wish that they would mark the floribundas as grafted or not so that I wouldn't have to dig around in the pots in the store to check.
It makes sense that the older varieties of hybrid teas would perform best grafted because most were grafted at that time.
I am busy wrestling my own root antiques and Austins right now. They come back bigger and more beautiful each year. They are huge this year. I had very little die back this winter (except for Tiffany and some minis). I cut a couple of inches from the ends of various plants. Good thing, I would need a step ladder to trim the tops of William Baffin and the larger Austins.
I need better markers. Assuming everyone survives the move, I am going to be playing "who is this rose" this summer and next spring. Last year I started painting the names of roses and perennials on rocks. They have held up well.
Veilchenblau (from melva) is about 8' tall. Last summer, I trained her around a Shepard's hook in a fountain shape. I thought that was a good compromise for a once blooming rose. I get a fabulous show of blooms in spring but it doesn't take up a lot of garden space. I am waiting to dig her up so that I can enjoy the blooms. It is my only purple rose. I have a white clematis growing with it.
I trained another prickly monster around a wooden post with a welcome sign in the front of the garden. The wood bees got the post, but the rose covered the damage. As I was wrestling with the monster, the welcome bracket popped off and the post slipped out of the rose. I now have a deformed monster with few leaves on the lower canes and deformed tops. the roots on this thing were so big that I had to cut them back to fit in this huge tree pot. I cut some of the top. I'll cut more in the morning. I never prune when I am angry. This monster better have gorgeous blooms, otherwise it may not be worth the bother. Of course, the label has faded.
I learned my lesson. I am only trying fancy maneuvers with thornless or nearly thornless roses. Mme. V is much easier to work with than the thorny monster whose name I forget. (It is a pink or white antique judging where I have her planted. that narrows it down - not)
