After living in our house for a little over a year with absolutely no plants/garden to speak of…now is the time to start. Keep in mind that I have no gardening experience so it’s all new to me and I’m learning as I go 🙂 Earlier this year I ordered a few different types of plants from QVC. This “First Prize” rose is from the “Award Winning Exhibition Rose Collection.” It shipped to me in the last week of April so I’ve had it for close to 2 months now. It came with absolutely no foliage, was not in a pot and was called “bare root” because it literally came looking like a dead stick with roots hanging (no dirt/pot) in a plastic garbage bag. I’ve never ordered a plant this way or seen one in that condition so I was a little concerned if it would survive. I planted it in a pot and stuck it in full sun on my patio. This “First Prize” is doing the best of the 3 total that were in the collection. I LOVE IT!!! We’re still waiting on our landscapers to dig the garden beds this week and then I can plant it in the ground. Here is the First Prize rose up close.
Here is the “Arizona” rose from the same collection.
…and here it is fully opened
The 3rd rose of the collection just recently started leafing out. I literally had it planted with the others and it did not show any signs of life for about a month and a half and is only about a 3rd of the size of the other two rose bushes. It still has no buds so I’m not sure what it will look like. I’ll have to keep you posted on that. I believe it will be red though. *Here’s hoping*
And then there’s this one…It’s part of a different 3-piece rose collection of CLIMBING roses. I’m a little disappointed with this one (also from Cottage Farms on QVC) as it does not look anything like the picture they showed on tv. This is the picture they showed on TV of what the blooms will look like.
The blooms in their picture look very full (just like my pink First Prize’s bloom). Compare that with what the bloom ACTUALLY looks like.
The other 2 climbing roses in the collection have not yet bloomed but I’m supposed to have a red one and a lavender one. Hopefully those are prettier than the Royal Gold.
In case you were wondering…I’ve did not fertilize them until after a month of letting them grow. I was afraid fertlizing them too soon would shock them and kill them. I started fertilizing with Cottage Farms Bud ‘N Flower Rose Booster Ferilizer packets that dissolve in a gallon of water. I just use a one pack in an old milk gallon container for all 6 rose bushes that I bought. I just pour it near the base of the rose bushes once every two weeks.
I have to say it has been sort of fun coming home every day after work and checking to see if a new plant has bloomed. You don’t get many surprises at my age so there is a little something to be said for the mystery of not knowing what they’re going to look like.
Something to note about these rose bushes are that I’ve noticed on some of the leaves there are little holes eaten out of them. I looked on the underside of the leaves and saw what look like REALLY small green worms or caterpillers. After doing some internet research I found that they’re most likely the larva of flies. They eat the leaves of roses but will not damage the blooms. They will make your rose bushes look a bit unattactive though so I need to stop at the store after work today and get some sort of pesticide so they stop eating the leaves. Also, I didn’t have any problem with afids until my roses started to bloom. Afids are little green bugs that DO like to eat your blooms. My red climing rose bush has a small bud that’s only very slightly opened and I saw it COVERED in afids the other day. I just took the hose and blew them off of it with the water and they didn’t seem to come back over the last couple of days but I plan to find some kind of killer that will take care of them too. I’ll keep you posted on what formula I buy and how it works.
Ray of Soleil 
How beautiful! Lovely pictures of roses.
Thank you so much 🙂 We just did a ton of landscaping so I’ll post more pictures soon!!