Have you ever heard of a "Rose" changing it's flower color?

Question

an email from a friend of mine, with the details:

"I know that you can change the colors of some flowers (Hydrangeas for example) by merely changing the PH/acidity of the soil. But have you ever heard of a "Rose" changing it's flower color? I had never heard of that?

I bought my sister a Rose bush about 10 years ago and she has kept it through all of her moves since then. It's been in the ground 3 times and in pots 2 times. She moved to where she lives now about 6 years ago and the Rose was planted immediately. For the past 6 years it has been Yellow…….but for some reason, without being moved, the blooms are RED this year?!!?

Is this common, do you know?"

thought i'd throw this out to see if anyone on here knows...

Answer 1

A lot of roses - especially fancy colors are done by grafting to red blaze climbers or raspberry plants.  If the grafted part dies or the blaze base sends up shoots you could get some red roses on what should be a different colored bush.

Answer 2

Your sister's yellow rose was grafted onto the rootstock of an old once-blooming red rose called "Doctor Huey."  This is the most common rose used for grafts in the United States, because it has *very healthy* roots.  If she looks carefully at her rose, she will probably be able to see that the branches are growing from below the graft -- that little knobby thing at the base of the rose, which is where the yellow rose was grafted onto Dr. Huey's rootstock.

If the entire rose is now blooming red, what has happened is that the yellow rose was killed down to the graft by something -- probably by a cold winter -- and so only the rootstock is still alive to throw out shoots.  In that case, unless she likes Dr. Huey, it's time to replace the rose with a new one.

If your sister's rose still has some yellow-flowered branches as well as the red-flowered ones, on the other hand, then she might be able to restore the rose by cutting off all of the red shoots right to the base.

It's a very common thing to have happen, especially for people who live where winters are cold. :)

Here's a description of the Dr. Huey rose, which might help your sister decide whether or not she wants to keep it:

http://www.ph-rose-gardens.com/00704.htm