Soil affecting colour of roses

Quoted from @wiseowl's reply to Jenny's thread, so as not to hijack it:

"as you know the colour of Roses can differ by location and soil conditions"

I really didn't know this. I bought a Blue Moon from a discount shop in the UK and it bloomed pink, so I just thought it had been wrongly labelled. But it's lovely and only cost £1.99 so I didn't mind. I bought another last autumn from a local garden centre here in France which has a good reputation and planted it in an adjacent bed and it has just also bloomed pink. So, what soil is needed to make a Blue Moon produce blue flowers? It will also be interesting to see what colours other roses I have just planted come up as. Though the deep red one I planted last year in the front garden is deep red and the peach one in another bed is peach.

 

An interesting subject LIF. Back in the '70's I had the original 'Blue Moon' growing on clay soil and although the flower tends to have a hint of pink anyway, it was the blue expected. I'm gardening on a sandy soil now but unfortunately don't have a 'Blue Moon' so can't say whether the soil here would affect it's colour.

 

Just a complete guess but I wonder if it's more to do with the breeding than the soil.I took a cutting a couple of years back of an unknown cerise pink climber,it's still potted and in totally different soil to the mother plant and it's identical to it...

 

Blue Moon that is one rose I have tried to grow in all of the gardens I have had and failed miserably everytime.

I know with daylilys soil type can make it look a different variety once it blooms.

 

I agree and I do love them as they are, just wondered why they came up pink, rather than blue/lilac. They are very healthy and bloomed from June to November last year with a lovely fragrance so I can't complain.

Will be interesting to see what colour the blooms are on Waltz Time when they come through.

 

Wow, all so different. The second to last one is the how I envisaged mine would look

 

That's how my original 'Blue Moon' used to look LIF but as the flowers died off it would look a dirty blue.

 

Don't mind dirty blue - I just want blue

 

Well if you can live with the fact this one below isn't 'Blue Moon'.....does it pass your blue test? This is my 'Blue For You' a floribunda rose. The colour in the picture is pretty much spot on.

 

Oh, that is beautiful. Yes it very much does. I will be on the hunt for that. Getting it in/delivered to France is sometimes the problem though. Unless I can find it in Sussex when I'm over

 

It doesn't grow as tall as others LIF but it makes up for that with the perfume. Mine's growing in sandy soil if that's any help. I find the floribunda's are tougher than the other types of roses, they are also repeat flowering.

This isn't the best of pictures below but shows you the change in colour as the buds develop.

 

When I bought my climbing rose a few years ago, it said on the box (complete with photo), something like, "deep crimson blooms, highly perfumed". I was most disappointed when the flowers started to come out. They look exactly like Wiseowl's 4th picture when they first start to open, but they end up looking a dirty off-white/grey and have hardly any perfume at all. You have to stick your nose deep into the flowers to get any hint of scent - which I did once without noticing there was a huge bumble bee inside. I have grown to love it though and it produces masses of flowers from now up to late autumn.