Introducing ‘Flower Carpet Amber’ Rose

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that I am implementing a “2 strikes and you’re out policy” with my roses and the reason why is because last spring (well technically I guess it’s still spring), with it’s major climate extremes, has really separated the men from the boys in our rose garden. Roses that were once my superstars, such as ‘Abraham Darby’, ‘Blaze’, ‘New Dawn’, ‘Marchesa Boccella’ and ‘Grüss an Aachen’ for example, felt the stress and succumbed. ‘New Dawn’ is gone, and the rest are going to have to prove to me they are worth keeping. And then there are those that shrugged off all the extremes and bloomed beautifully: “Arcata Pink Globe”, ‘Georges Vibert’, ‘Madame Hardy’ and ‘Flower Carpet® Pink Supreme’ to name just a few. Those roses have set the bar for excellence and now the others need to keep up. {Edit: Marchesa Boccella and Grüss an Aachen bounced back nicely!}

Our rose garden has been an alternating source of joy and despair these last couple of months, but it’s been a good thing, really, because it’s helped me find my focus. I realized that I’m no longer interested in having hundreds and hundreds of roses. Well, sure, that would be nice, but it’s not the goal. The goal is to have all my roses be fuss free–no primadonnas allowed. This is an organic garden so I would rather have 10 solid performers than 50 that were needy and only bloomed if the conditions were perfect. Because let’s face it, the writing is on the wall. We’re in the middle of a climate shift and things are about to get freaky.

That was a long-winded explanation leading up to my next rose introduction, but it’s the main reason why I purchased this rose. I’ve had a lot of success with Flower Carpet® roses and felt it was time to add another. True, they lack scent, but for disease/pest resistance and non-stop blooms they’re right up there with the Knock Outs®. Here is ‘Amber’, my latest addition. I think I’m going back this week for the ‘Red’!