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Permies Poll: How many rose bushes do you have?

 
Steward of piddlers
Posts: 7185
Location: Upstate New York, Zone 5b, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall
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Every year, I plant a new rose bush somewhere on my property. It is something that I first did when my wife and I moved in together and has become a kind of yearly ritual. While roses are not necessarily a type of flower that is mentioned commonly on Permies, I figured I would see if anyone out there also has them.
 
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My property had a really pretty bright coral rose when we moved in. I just couldn't bear to throw it away so I moved it into a different flower bed where I liked it better. And over the years I've bought two miniature roses just because I thought they were pretty. I would love to have a rose that actually produces high quality rose hips but I've never gotten around to it. Rose Rosette virus is a problem in our area so I don't want to go crazy with roses when I have a chance of losing them all to an incurable virus.
 
steward
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Location: USDA Zone 8a
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We have one rose bush that so far has managed to stay alive despite the deer browse.  

We had two though the other one died.

My string fence that consisted of one sting tied to a golf cart and the fence post worked well until someone decided to use the golf cart ...
 
Posts: 48
Location: Zone 7b, 600', Sandy-Loam, Cascadian Maritime Temperate
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Family farm here with quite a lot of roses - a few dozen at least.
We have some ornamental roses that were my Great Grandma's, my Aunt has some roses, and my mom has a whole rose garden.
My additions to the farm's collection are mostly Ramanas Rosa rugosas and some of the Northwest Natives in my hedgerows.

Often I stop to marvel and appreciate the soft beauty and fragrance of the roses.   I enjoying seeing insects delight in them also.
I like eating rose petals quite a lot, and the big hips on the Ramanas are tasty to nibble if you can avoid the fluffy seeds within.
I suppose people dry them or make rosehip syrup - I think I'll try that this year.
 
gardener
Posts: 1172
Location: France, Burgundy, parc naturel Morvan
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I met a rose fanatic with almost a hundred varieties. She wouldn't stop giving me cuttings. Hopefully they take, otherwise i only have 4. I'd love to have a rosegarden.
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pollinator
Posts: 863
Location: Illinois
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2. One is a domestic, no idea what variety. It was here when we moved in. The other is a wild rose that I spotted while mowing the lawn. I swerved around it and let it grow. Small white flowers. Wicked thorns!
 
gardener
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I currently only have a few Knock Out and miniature rose bushes. Maybe I will add back fancier varieties when I get better at growing roses.
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KO rose blooming fr April to Nov
KO rose blooming fr April to Nov
 
pollinator
Posts: 463
Location: Oz; Centre South
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Well, I had one, a beautiful "Double Delight" which started out yellow, then changed to pink as the flower aged.  Then the kangaroos got at it; then the feral deer.  It reverted to a single dark red flower of the rootstock.  Then, same again, aided and abetted by a couple of hares that could have been saddled they were so big.  Sad to say, that was the end of my rose, it's now just a stick.  Just waiting to see if there is any further attempts to re-grow. . .😒
 
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Location: Mid-Atlantic coastal plain, zone 7b
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Unfortunately, none! But that will change soon - I only moved to my current property eight months ago. I planted Cecile Brunner and Dame de Coeur roses at my parent's house years ago and I will be going back to get some cuttings in the spring. I'm also interested in buying some rugosas, maybe Therese Bugnet. I like the idea of getting a yearly rose! I really enjoy them
 
gardener
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Location: Zone 5
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A lot!

Most of them are wild multiflora roses, with a few that look like some kind of native rose that were planted, though they are a wild variety. The multifloras pop up in garden beds, they climb up trees, make enormous bushes... I love the scent of them in summer when they bloom, though, and they provide lots of food for chickadees and nibbles for a human. The native roses have fleshier hips that are more substantial but not as sweet as the multifloras.
 
gardener
Posts: 1833
Location: the mountains of katuah, southern appalachia
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right now 3 varietals, though most likely we’ll add one or two more every year. lots of multiflora on the property - i may start playing around with grafting varieties onto multiflora this spring.

one of wife’s favorites right now is the single yellow english rose called ‘tottering by gently’…maybe slightly more for its name than anything else, though the flower is quite nice. an aspirational name?
 
gardener
Posts: 756
Location: Semi-nomadic, main place coastal mid-Norway, latitude 64 north
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Right now 5. Two domestics (Flammentanz and Lichtkönigin Lucia), one horribly thorny unknown wild thing that my brother propagated for us (he's a fan of anything spiky) and two Rosa glauca (suckers from my parents' big wild-collected bush). The glauca makes nice rosehips, good for tea at least, but I'd like to get more good fruiting roses. The partner wants more pretty flowering ones. I see a lot of roses in our future... Luckily our garden is big.

One interesting one: in a place where we've stopped by a couple of times when going to the south of Sweden by car, I found the tallest climbing rose I've ever seen. It scrambles probably five or six meters up along the trunk of a massive oak tree, partially supported by smaller trees around it. The first time I saw it, it was flowering. I remember the flowers as being quite big for a wild rose, very light pink. Two months ago, we stopped there again, and it had a few fruits! Needless to say, I gathered them and put the seeds in the fridge to stratify. Hope some of them take!
 
pollinator
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Location: Chicago
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I have two, but I wish I had just one! When we moved in, there was one tangly, thorny, rambly rose bush with tiny white rose that have no scent and no rose hips. They are pretty enough when in bloom, and bees like them. But it is an aggressive, spiny plant that I do believe could survive any apocalypse. This may be the very rose that engulfed all of Sleeping Beauty’s palace. Second year we lived here, I had the great idea to divide the rose bush and placed one half a few feet from property line, where it promptly clambered to the neighbors’ fence and reached its claws across their walkway. No matter how I dig and hack at it, I cannot get it all out, and it come back every year and sneak-attacks the neighbors.
 
gardener
Posts: 657
Location: Grow zone 10b. Southern California,close to the Mexican border
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I have three rock roses, which technically aren’t real roses. Their leaves make a strong antibiotic tea, that while very effective tastes extremely bitter. I add honey and licorice root to the tea, so it’s easier to get down. I have three different varieties, since they all work for different types of infections including viral infections, but also have other properties. One of them has a sap, that works fantastic for shock.
I also have 2 roses (one is Rosa regusa, don’t remember what the other one is) one isn’t doing too good, I think it’s too hot here, the other one though, gave me 2 quarts of nice sized hips. It’s also taking over the area, so I will have to prune it soon. Also, the one that doesn’t produce hips yet, has edible flowers that I dry and use for makeup or as a food color. I love using roses for cooking and color, and want more, so I can make a nice hydrosol.
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Fresh rosehips
Fresh rosehips
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Roses
Roses
 
steward & manure connoisseur
Posts: 4829
Location: South of Capricorn
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just one!! a supermarket rose I thought was cute, which lives in a pot!!!
(if I can't eat it, it doesn't get garden space, things are tight and I need to have rules)
 
Posts: 36
Location: Cool climate NSW, Australia.
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12 for now, but I have two Mr Lincolns which I propagated from cuttings from my old home.
Just last April I moved in with my partner. A very formal garden but devoid of colour and scent. I adore roses for fragrance and beauty, as well as herbal uses, so I put 12 in last year. There will be more going in this year!

My sister is a heritage rose fanatic and she has definitely educated me! I still love the hybrid teas for cut flowers and nostalgia, but I love the old fashioned ones for their history, shapely bushes, toughness and long flowering times.

Shrub roses along the front driveway:
- Sarah van Fleet
- Reine des Violettes
- Heritage

Hybrid tea roses in their own bed specifically for cut flowers:
- Blue Moon
- Paradise
- White Ensign
- Rod Stillman
- this is also where Mr Lincoln will go

Climbing roses along the fence between the pool and the back of the block:
- Blossomtime
- New Dawn
- Clair Matin (she is the happiest rose I have right now - we are having a very hot summer with repeated heatwaves and she is right on the edge of the bioseptic flow!)
- Russeliana

I tried General Gallieni but he didn't like me going away for a month in early summer! Or the competition from the surrounding couch grass.

Oh and we also have a Double Delight that came from my old home - my partner took some cuttings when I pruned it years ago and just stuck them in the ground - and one took spectacularly. Such a great rose - hardy, giant beautiful flowers with a gorgeous fragrance.

 
pollinator
Posts: 76
Location: SE France
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Second post today, my giddy aunt!!
Roses, it`s a love affair, particularly old style beautifully fragrant roses.
I love watching bumble bees rolling about in the flowers, drunk on nectar?
petals are dried and used in soothing teas, additions to salads and in rice dishes, inspired by Iranian jewel rice.
And preserved in honey.
Hips are gathered, some eaten on the way home and the rest dried for use in sugarless jams and syrups.

So another story, here it comes; boarding school a country away from nuclear family was a blessing and a challenge for me and my keepers. Room for lots of adventures for a feisty 10 year old.
Anyway, a besandaled(my invention) nun took me under her wing, told me that the rose garden was my look-out.
I learnt a lot from her including grafting which has been splendidly useful over the years.
Rose grafting is not too dissimilar to grafting vines and it has given me the confidence to graft fruit trees in spring and later in summer, using different methods of course.

The rose nursery has become a veritable jungle with cuttings competing for attention.
Even in last summer`s heatwave, they managed to grow vigorously.
They do receive tender care and attention, so much so that an apple tree, a couple of peaches and some invasive plum have joined them. Food forest? The dewberry is under the impression that ground cover is needed, in the mix, battling with Melissa, a harpy of a wonderful herb.

I gather that rose bushes are planted at the end of a row of vines as an indicator of disease. The roses give advance warning of potential illness in the vine.
Thank you for contributions, inc pictures.
I shan`t go on, it`s a bit of a train spotter thing, yawn.

Blessings
M-H






 
pollinator
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too many and yet.. not enough. A fantastic mr. lincoln that us surpassing 6 feet tall, and blooms non stop all summer right through hard freeze.

that is the single pic.

A climbing rose that the birds planted that i have to wrangle every year or it will overtake the patio!

an icecicle rose, others and perfume factory is the latest. it got black spot last fall, so we shall see if it makes it.


sandy
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software bot
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Last vote in apple poll was on February 2, 2026
 
This guy is skipping without a rope. At least, that's what this tiny ad said:
Large Lot for Sale Inside an Established Permaculture Community — Bejuco, Costa Rica
https://permies.com/t/366607/Large-Lot-Sale-Established-Permaculture
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