Foolishly I bought some of those "body bag" roses late
this winter from WalleyeMart and others: you know,
the ones with the roots cut short and packed in wood
waste then wrapped in brown paper and then plastic,
with the tops sheared short and tied with string and
dipped in wax. I potted them up and most of them are
doing more or less okay; maybe I should be disbudding
the weaker ones, but at any rate many of them are in
bloom already.

Most of the roses I own don't produce flowers that look
like the classic florist's rose, high-centered, relatively
few petals, the whole shtick that one expects to get in a
florist's bouquet of a dozen long-stemmed roses. Most
of the new body-bag bushes do produce flowers in that
mode, as do most modern hybrid teas, many miniatures,
and even some floribundas and shrub roses. The more
I see of this shape, the more I realize how much I have
come to dislike it. It seems both hackneyed and not
quite natural.

Interesting (to me anyway) to note: I saw some old roses
the other day in the Kanapaha Botanical Garden (it's near
me, in Gainesville, Florida, and better known for a good
collection of bamboos, not to mention for a director who
lost a forearm the other year to the resident alligator, than
for roses); a bush of one variety had mostly quartered
blooms, but two or three (of dozens) had the form I deplore.
I can't recall the variety.

Mark., opinions?

Mark. Gooley wrote:

Foolishly I bought some of those "body bag" roses late
this winter

Yes foolish, not just due to the short roots
but because you have no idea what you are getting
until it blooms. Unless that excites you. In my case,
then I have a living rose I don't know what to do with,
but don't want, such as the two Faux Granadas that look
more like Judy Garland.



Most of the roses I own don't produce flowers that look
like the classic florist's rose, high-centered, relatively
few petals, the whole shtick that one expects to get in a
florist's bouquet of a dozen long-stemmed roses.

It is a matter of personal taste. I love the grace and
form of the classic high-centered hybrid tea rose. It has
beauty and a kind of "restraint" that the big floppy
"antique" and Austin roses do not, and HTs tend to last
longer without looking like garbage, too. On the bush
and in a vase. I only keep roses with poor form (in my
opinion the big floppy ones)because they are so often
fragrant. I am willing to put up with lousy form and
poor substance for fragrance. Speaking of substance, that
is another thing the classic hybrid tea tends to have that the
"old roses" and "nouveau old roses" do not. The petal
thickness tends to be better in hts.

Again--it's all about what you like.

Your first sentence says it best. It is all personal taste.
Like Mark, I prefer the old rose forms (but you already know that). To me the
old rose forms each have their own personal charm. I love the floppy, loose
teas. I see them as graceful and soft. The fully petaled roses, those with
100+ petals are romantic and remind me of a kinder, gentler era and usually are
very fragrant. I also like the simplicity of the single roses. They are the
elegant roses.
I see the "perfect" form of most modern HTs as fake. Only artificial roses
should look like that (or their cousins, the florist roses, that neither smell,
open nor last).

As my mother said to me last night when we were discussing cutting roses for
indoors or leaving them on the bush, "aren't you glad we are able to make that
choice?"

I like choices and the ability to make the choice that suits me. When it comes
to roses, my choice is to leave them on the plant and enjoy the old roses.

It is a matter of personal taste. I love the grace and
form of the classic high-centered hybrid tea rose. It has
beauty and a kind of "restraint" that the big floppy
"antique" and Austin roses do not, and HTs tend to last
longer without looking like garbage, too. On the bush
and in a vase. I only keep roses with poor form (in my
opinion the big floppy ones)because they are so often
fragrant. I am willing to put up with lousy form and
poor substance for fragrance. Speaking of substance, that
is another thing the classic hybrid tea tends to have that the
"old roses" and "nouveau old roses" do not. The petal
thickness tends to be better in hts.

Again--it's all about what you like.