Hot Season Reveals High Performers

This article was first published on 07 Mar 2013.

This summer has seen a particular good flowering display from the roses. The recent mild spring provided us with a fantastic start to our growing season, allowing the roses to put on plenty of lush, healthy growth.

Now that we are at the end of summer, any roses that are still performing well are, to my mind, worth considering adding to your rose collection.

At Dunedin Botanic Garden, some roses are showing signs of struggling with the dry and heat from the recent fantastic weather. But many of the roses do still have a reasonable amount of growth and flower buds, still promising that late season burst of colour.

Some of the late season performers are:

• Rosa 'Iceberg' - what can you say; it’s a fantastic reliable white flowering rose, plenty of flowers and healthy foliage.
• Good old R. 'Paddy Stephens' - extremely lush healthy foliage at this time of year, perfectly formed blooms of bright pink with coral and gold.
• R. 'Lasting Love' - I love the deep green healthy leaves, deep dusky red blooms and fragrance.
• R. 'Matawhero Magic' - a real Autumn rose with bronze-orange tones; is prone to black spot but the amount of flowers more than makes up for it.
• R. 'Golden Age' - this rose just glows with plenty of rich golden flowers and attractive dark green glossy leaves.
• R. 'Glorious' – plenty of glorious blooms, a good yellow flower, healthy foliage and a good picking rose.
• R. 'Faithful Friend'– a medium size bush with a mass of golden apricot blooms.

Linda Hellyer is curator of the rose garden at Dunedin Botanic Garden.