Rose bloomed!

This is pretty exiting because this rose was 'rescued' from a mistake I made awhile back. It is a 'Honey Perfume' Jackson & Perkins 2004 Floribunda of the Year and this is how it looked the first season after I planted it in 2005.

I planted it the same day as I planted the 'Tuscan Sun' Jackson & Perkins 2005 Floribunda of the Year.

They were both planted in a south facing position against two different buildings, in similar soil. I'm not 100% certain why they turned out so differently but the 'Honey Perfume' was not doing as well as the Tuscan Sun. As you can see the bush only put out two roses and it only grew to just under two feet tall. The Tuscan Sun put out many roses and grew to over three feet tall. This is all in the first year. So I decided to move it next to the 'Tuscan Sun' this spring.

Here are pictures of each one as of this month. This is the Tuscan Sun.

This is the Honey Perfume.

The picture quality is not the best, I really need to learn how to use this camera.

But the difference in size can be easily seen. I have fed and cared for them both in the exact same way, it is just difficult to imagine what went wrong with the Honey Perfume. It bloomed in its original location (only two blooms) while the Tuscan Sun had many. It must be something to do with the soil.

I moved into this house four years ago, and therefore I cannot know what was in the soil before I planted these roses. Hopefully, I got it out in time to save it.

I know some of you are thinking 'get a soil test' and I know I should. I did a home test with one of those home kits and the pH is nearly identical, as far as I can tell. I guess I should talk myself into just getting a real test done.