Hi Carol,
Florist roses are grown inside green houses to maintain the optimum bloom size for the florist industry in a controlled environment. In the green house they can control temperature, ambient humidity, the quality of the light and more. The growing medium is different and how they provide nutrients to the plants is different than how we provide food for the roses in our gardens.
The roses selected for the florist trade must meet very specific requirements to meet production goals and shipping requirements. One example is that most florist roses have heavy petal substance that slows the opening of the blooms and provides for less damage to the blooms during shipping, which is why most florist roses do not have a strong fragrance. They would not provide the right kind of fragrance to be used by the perfume industry.
The whole process is truly quite sophisticated. There's a lot more to it that enables the florist industry to produce enough blooms to meet the demands of the market, but I think you get the general idea.
Since we love these roses so much, some of them are sold as garden roses, but they were never bred to be good garden roses. Some of them can do well in some climates, but generally, florist roses are not considered to be good garden plants.
Smaller blooms for garden roses are also common after the first flush in spring, depending on the rose and all of the variables that can impact the rose in your garden.
I have high summer temps and some of my roses go into summer dormancy and do not bloom again until the temps drop. I keep them in the garden because they are so beautiful, to me, in the spring and the fall, I just have to have them as a part of my garden. I rely on other roses and other plants for the summer bloom period.
At this time, I only have one florist rose in my garden, 'Kardinal 85'. I've loved this rose forever, so I truly don't mind that I have smaller blooms during the summer. I just want a healthy plant so that I can have good bloom performance for spring and fall. During the summer, even the smaller blooms are welcome because they still provide a splash of color for the garden.
Smiles,
Lyn
