Viewing comments posted by StarlightCat

I had bought what I thought was a white iceberg rose from Tractor Supply. The first two years, the rose was a long-stemmed yellow rose. Obviously, the graft wasn't even an iceberg rose! Then, this year, the graft must have died and the rootstock just exploded! My research indicates that Dr. Huey roses are often used for rootstock because the roots are so tenacious. Unfortunately, it only blooms once a year for the most part and then the spent canes apparently develop black spot, which has been happening to mine. The recommendation is to prune back the spent canes as it only flowers on the 1-year-old growth. So, if you want more flowers next year then you'll need to stop wasting energy on spent canes and prune immediately after blooms are spent. I was hoping to get a rose that I could use to collect rose petals so I had wanted an iceberg as they are prolific. However, this dark red (rather than white) bloom is also stunning in how deep red and velvety it is and also seems to resist sun bleaching. So, I think I'm going to keep this rose anyway as it's much better than the long-stemmed yellow rose. I will collect so many petals for my crafts!