The rose seedling I bought isn't true to type - let's see what the seller has to say

This is day 893 of Lan Yao's daily original articles

Rose cultivation series article: No. 90

Recently many gardening friends have asked Lan Yao, why do you have fewer and fewer rose varieties? Actually it's not that the varieties are becoming fewer, but that after the first flush of blooms finishes, they all get pruned. Generally, right after pruning, before new flower buds have grown, they're temporarily taken off sale - for fear that buyers can't accept seedlings without buds and will find all sorts of faults with them. But recently I've still run into some problems, making Lan Yao wonder whether all varieties should be taken down and no longer sold.

Because the flowers bloomed very small and not up to standard, some gardening friends suspected that Lan Yao's rose seedlings were not true to type!

Lan Yao explained, but the gardening friend still didn't believe it. To be honest, Lan Yao has really felt exhausted lately. Every day many gardening friends consult Lan Yao about all kinds of plant-care problems, plus Lan Yao's own health isn't great, and there are many potted plants to look after - it's really a bit much to cope with.

With gardening friends who can understand, one explanation is enough to get through to them. Some gardening friends, though, are just full of doubt, with all kinds of questions. Lan Yao really doesn't want to explain over and over again, so today I'll give a simple introduction:Why do summer roses all seem "not true to type"?Anyone who has grown roses knows that varieties that perform well in summer are few and far between. In the earlier article "The roses bloomed so differently even their own mother wouldn't recognize them - what's going on?", Lan Yao introduced the various reasons that affect rose flower color and flower form. Interested gardening friends can look back through Lan Yao's past articles.

So today Lan Yao will mainly talk about why roses blooming in summer make people feel they are "not true to type". Lan Yao will mainly analyze this from the following 4 aspects:1. Flower sizeJust as our gardening friends said, the seedlings bought in spring came with flower buds, and the flowers that opened were very big, while the flowers that opened later were small. Why is that?

Think about it: *from the start of spring when roses begin to sprout to when they bloom, how much time has passed in total?* Generally roses begin to sprout at the end of February, show flower buds in mid-March, and reach full bloom from late April to mid-May. That is to say, from sprouting to blooming, they go through 2-3 months of growth time. Now look at how much time summer roses need from sprouting to blooming?

Generally, the first post-bloom pruning starts in early May. Because the temperatures in May and June are very high, after pruning the roses quickly sprout and bloom again, so many gardening friends who buy seedlings at the end of May or early June again get seedlings with flower buds. And for the second flush of roses, from sprouting to blooming there is only about 1 month of growth time in total.

Because the flower buds take a short time to develop, the nutrients they accumulate are far less than those of spring flower buds. So isn't it easy to understand why the flowers are small? As the saying goes, when the melon is ripe it falls from the stem - a premature baby certainly won't develop as well as a full-term one. This also makes it easy to understand why the flower form feels off too.

2. Flower formSpring rose buds take a long time to develop, so the flower form is naturally a bit more standard (for many varieties, autumn flowers have a more standard flower form than spring flowers), and promotional photos naturally always show the most beautiful ones - there's no doubt about that, and it's easy to understand, so no explanation needed....... Because the growth cycle is short and nutrient storage is insufficient, just like a premature baby, summer rose flowers become smaller and the flower form changes somewhat - isn't that also fairly easy to understand?

Many roses have different flower forms when half-open and fully open in spring and autumn, and in summer it's even harder to say. Especially some rose varieties with a bun-shaped flower form just "scatter in a day" in summer. All of this is hugely related to temperature, and truly beyond human control - or rather, the cost of human control is too high, so let's not even talk about it for home growing. (Cultivation of cut flowers will use artificial regulation.)

3. Flower colorSpeaking of changes in flower color, the red series is relatively better, with not too much change, but pink-series roses can be called the hardest-hit area. Many people ask me why Misaki blooms white flowers, not pink. Lan Yao just wants to say: my Misaki also bloomed as a big white flat blossom in spring, but in autumn it really is a pink bun, and a big bun at that!

This is not only related to temperature and temperature difference, but also to fertilization and even humidity and other environmental factors. Lan Yao feels that fussing too much is really tiring - let nature take its course, and enjoying different kinds of beauty in different seasons is also a very good thing.4. Single-flower blooming period

Speaking of changes in the single-flower blooming period of roses, earlier a gardening friend also asked Lan Yao how many days the rose blooming period lasts. Lan Yao really finds this hard to answer. Some roses have a single-flower blooming period of about 7 days in spring and autumn, but by summer it may become one day.

The length of the blooming period mainly depends on how well the variety holds up in bloom and on temperature. Generally speaking, varieties with a bun-shaped flower form have a commonly very short single-flower blooming period in summer. For example: Queen of Sweden can bloom for about 7 days in spring and autumn, but in summer the single-flower blooming period is only one day.

Lan Yao has said so much. Actually, besides popularizing rose knowledge for gardening friends, what I want to say even more is:Since we choose to ship with flowers, it's impossible to send fake seedlings to gardening friends!If they were fake seedlings, then at shipping time we could just cut the flowers off. To bloom again would take at least a month. A month is neither long nor short - a lot can happen in between, you know.......

People who often read Lan Yao's articles all know that Lan Yao likes to tell the plain truth. It may not be pleasant to hear, but it works!

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