Raft Island Roses

Some be talking to us in the wrong way. It isn’t advised and doesn’t get you what you want. Trust me on this one.

I love selling these plants. Just be cool man! No rants by me today. But relax. If plants don’t help you relax, then…

This rose is climbing Crimson Cascade. For my money the best red. This one or Amadeus. Florentina is up there too. No fragrance, but beautiful.

Anybody get up on ladder to smell climbers anyway. What the?

Good Night

De Colores bloom today!
New too me. NIRP plant

Come to the Darkside

One thing people don’t consider when picking out a rose in the NW is how it will hold up in our weather.

See there is this little thing called rain. And no matter pretty the rose looks in the catalog it doesn’t tell you what it will look like after pelting rain.

I know. And some roses just don’t respond well to heavy rains in June. Some roses ball up. Some roses shatter. Some roses survive the rain and then get infected with disease when it warms up.

The thing we specialize in is roses that thrive in the NW. we carry others that folks ask for because we want the money, but it has always been about performance in our climate.

Attention.

You folks that come down every Saturday I am not excepting any unexcused absences. There are no snow days in the hall of roses and plants.

See you soon.

Weather reports are often overstated for dramatic affect.
Come on G’s! (G is for gardeners not gangstas)

Talking roses is fun. One thing that I have been frustrated with this year is blind shoots. It happens on some varieties for me more than others.

I had Princess Charlene De Monaco from two sources this year. One budded them on multiflora and the other was own root.

The ones on their own roots had almost all blind shoots the ones that were grafted budded up perfect. This confused me and so I decided to talk to someone who has always been straight with me, Tyler Francis.

He said that roses after they are potted or planted are in survival mode. This doesn’t mean that they are desperate or anything, but they are focused on reacting and adjusting.

If this is accurate it makes sense that roses that are more established and comfortable where they are will react differently. The most comfortable rose will produce the most blooms.

Think about this. Roses are pulled from a field where they are perfectly happy. The soil is removed and they are thrown in a cooler. They get use to the new environment over time and just kind of chill out.

Then someone like me says send them my way. So they get tied up with other roses, thrown in a bag and stored in a dark box.

That box gets moved. As it travels sometimes it gets super cold and sometimes super hot. So the rose is like what’s happening?

When it arrives to the destination is what really matters. What we do at Raft Island Roses is restore the rose to what it wants. After a haircut of roots and top canes we pot them up.

The roses are happy to back in soil that is perfectly calibrated to sustain them. NW weather is perfect with lots of moisture to keep the plant hydrated. They are fully content to real and grow.

However, some roses are more disgruntled and take longer to settle down. One that I love is Love and Peace. That rose gets blind shoots first bloom every year I get them. The second bloom is so perfect that I forget all about the time it took to get there.

And it doesn’t mean every year there after it is going to miss the first bloom, it just means that it takes longer sometimes to settle down. It is the same with Sweet Madamme Moiselle. It is true with many varieties unfortunately, but they are definitely worth it.

Some roses won’t ever get comfortable in the NW. I am not naming names, but like Biggie said “another day another struggle.”

This is why budded roses are so appealing by the way. The rose often gets comfortable faster. And if you plant them right you can get roots off the bud union and the understock.

Anyway, just thought I would throw this out there.

Every month is rose month here, but it does hit different in June.

Was talking with Tyler Francis tonight. By the way the April and Ashley stuff is performing great here. Zero complaints and can’t wait for the summer late summer bloom cycle here. First blooms in the NW are always unpredictable. Anyway, can I get some feed back from people that bought them from around the country.

After they came through me and we did the proper prunning and blessed each one I am sure everyone is having good results right.

Feel free to respond right here. No meanies on here, but feel free to text me the hate at 2535098409.

Sexy Rexy probably the best McGredy rose. Tilt a Guinness to him tonight.