Identifying roses

[woolybanana]

Have acquired a couple of roses in pots ready to plant from a nursery that was closing down and anxious to offload them for little. But they have no labels on them, so, any of you clever chaps got an idea for identifying them as climbers or whatever, svp.

[Loiseau]

I should keep them one season in the pots, and see what sort of growth they put on.

[Gardian]

I was hoping that someone who was a real Rose expert would come along (he / she may still), but in the absence of that for the moment, I’ll offer my thoughts.

First of all, any climbers that I’ve ever bought have been sold with a cane & already climbing (as it were). So, if they’re not like that, they’re probably not climbers.

The plants that you’ve acquired will probably fall in to the general Hybrid T / Floribunda category, but the precise definitions seem to have become somewhat blurred in recent years. As Loiseau says, you’re going to have to see what happens this Summer.

Wouldn’t mind betting that these plants are in quite small pots, i.e. 15cms-ish. For the moment, I’d pot them on in decent fresh compost to 30cms+ pots at least and leave them for a couple of months to establish. Then you can put them in even bigger pots or open ground. Maybe best to see what you’ve got in a month or two - might not be worth the trouble!

Prune though. There’s hardly a plant that we have down here that doesn’t benefit from cutting back. Be quite brutal & the plant will come back stronger. Feed of course when they’re in their final position.

Hope that helps a bit, but happy of course to hear more knowledgable advice.

Monty