'Red Drift' |
I attended a seminar last spring on the new Drift® roses and was told by the speaker that his personal favorite was 'Peach Drift'. Despite being a Shrub and Old Garden Rose fanatic, I was encouraged enough by the hype to decide that I'd try one or two out this year, particularly if I could find 'Peach Drift', although one-foot tall roses are really not to the scale of my garden. Perhaps, I thought, in a container on the patio would be a nice spot, since they are marketed as excellent choices for containers?
Fortunately or unfortunately it took me a week to start looking and by then the local nurseries had all sold out except for 'Pink Drift' and 'Red Drift'. And they were priced at $30.00 each! Given the price at 50% higher than the local nurseries sell potted Hybrid Teas, and because 'Red Drift' is more double-petaled than 'Pink Drift', I chose the latter and only purchased one. And I put it into a very large container in full sun and gave it more attention than any other plant this summer.
And it is a good thing I only ended up with one, because I'm not impressed at all by my 'Red Drift' rose. You can see it above, pictured at the end of what was admittedly a very hot summer, the leaves a little scorched from all the Kansas sun. Yes, it seems to be blackspot resistant, but I did have to fight a bout of spider mites with pressurized sprays of water. It didn't grow 6 inches in any direction all summer long, despite almost daily watering in the extreme heat and careful attention to fertilization. And what you see above is the best bloom display I saw all summer, as underwhelming as it is. The lack of bloom was a bit understandable during the heat spells, but I would think that the cooler weather of the past two weeks would have kicked off a bloom cycle, wouldn't you?
So, pending further evidence, I'm done with the Drift® roses. They're just not enough of a landscape spectacle for me to overlook the fact that the blooms are not individually striking. I'm going to keep the container outside, so by next spring, I will have a strong test of how hardy at least 'Red Drift' really is. I also plan to see how they did in the garden of a friend who planted 50(!) of them this spring, so there's still a chance I'll change my mind. Or maybe not, if you get my drift.