On Fri, 11 Jul 2003 14:00:18 GMT, Heidi Stump
wrote:

Happy Friday everyone!

Back at you!


I am curious as to your thoughts on my experiences so far on growing
roses. I have 3 rose plants. 1 Buttercream HT by JP that I purchased 2
months ago from my favorite local nursery, and 2 JFK HT's that I
purchased 1 month ago from a nursery that has a good reputation, but
that I have never purchased from before. My experiences thus far:

Buttercream HT: No problems whatsoever. [...]

JFK HT's: non stop challenges. [...]

So my question is...why has the Buttercream performed so much better
than the JFK?

The first important piece of information we need before we answer any
questions is, where are you? Roses in general grow and behave
differently in different areas--for example, they get blackspot here
in the SE US, whereas they don't get it in some western places, where
they get rust instead. And so so. Japanese Beetles do not even appear
in all places. For sure, if you are in a place that is prone to fungus
and you will not follow a regular preventive anti-fungal treatment
program, you might want to consider giving up hybrid teas. There are
maybe three or four that might look nice for just a little while in a
swampy garden with no protection from fungus. Same with many
floribundas and other modern roses. You will hear all about resistant
roses from those who grow them!

But a general answer to your question is that they are all just an
accumulation of genes, like us. Asking why one does better than
another, aside from specific climate-related challenges, is like
asking why one person is short and another tall, or why diabetes runs
in one family and not another.

In the five or so years I have been interested in roses, I have seen
JFK sold everywhere, but I have not heard a single good thing about
this rose. Sad, as I would have bought it for the name! For me, living
here in fungus and thrip country, white roses are always problematic.
They just show more damage than other roses.

Buttercream sounds very nice--but then, it takes a while for disease
and pests to set in, so when roses are new in your garden, you still
have a few surprises coming.

I hope you'll tell us more about yourself and where you are.




1) Could it be the quality of the plant....should I not purchase again
from the nursery where I got the JFK's?
2) Is Buttercream known to be more disease resistant than JFK? (I
thought JFK had a good reputation as far as disease resistance)?
or
3) Is it shear luck....welcome to growing roses no one ever said it
would be easy...?


Thanks for your thoughts!
Heidi