My Leontine Gervais rose didn't bloom at all last year;
it just grew profusely. I assume that it blooms on old
wood.
Almost all of my roses are blooming now here in N.
Florida, zone 8b, including many of the once-blooming
species roses. There are two remontant bushes next
to the Leontine Gervais, treated more or less the same
way as it is when it comes to fertilizer, watering, etc.
and they have been both putting out new growth and
blooming, but it is simply growing like mad, with fat
new canes springing up with remarkable rapidity, and
new growth from the middle of the old canes. (Both
are own-root, one a Lafter and the other a Prosperity.)
Do I simply have to wait until later for this ungainly
giant to bloom, or is my weather perhaps too mild
over the winter for any blooms? It lost almost all
its leaves over the winter, but it's on the south side
of my trailer and it might have not gotten a lot of chill.
It's a cheapie I picked up on sale as a bare-root grafted
rose (probably on Dr. Huey stock) from Wayside
Gardens, but it seems rudely healthy, and I pruned only
dead wood from it last year.
Mark.
