Chimera roses?

[tsubasahome]

Anybody ever have this happen before with own root roses?

We got a bunch of David Austin roses from Chamblee's(the ones they actually remembered to send). I understand that Chamblee's often puts multiple cuttings of the same rose in one pot, but something very weird is going on here! Among others, we got Tamora, Ambridge Rose, and Heritage. The first to bloom was Tamora, then Heritage. All was well. Then Tamora bloomed again, producing a flower that looked an awful lot like Ambridge Rose! On close inspection, the middle cutting looked like the foliage was slightly larger...

Then Ambridge Rose, which I planted at the front of a border because of its size, popped its first flower and it looked just like Heritage! I was pissed! Why do we need two Heritages? Heritage is not small! One side of the rose grew strangely tall and leggy. Then it popped another flower that looked like Ambridge Rose. All was well. Then it bloomed again today on the leggy side and looked like Heritage!

Tamora has also bloomed again, producing two Tamoras and one Ambridge Rose. LOL...

I wonder what is going to happen to these roses...Chamblee's has a policy that they'll only replace roses after 30 days, which is tough if they take longer than that to bloom. I hope they don't have a fight to the death or something...

Also, I think my Griff's Red is really Don Juan, because it is now taller than I am.

Comments

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

IF the rose is growing okay, come dormant season you can actually dig it up, saw it apart at the base, and replant the different chunks. Much easier with own root plants! The trick with grafted would be to make sure each section gets a decent chunk of the main original root. You could do it over more than one season by digging down partway so you can see what's going on at the graft, and saw it partially apart but not completely, cover it in dirt again, and wait until the next year or two to dig and move the parts. In the meantime, you'd have to prune the more vigorous pieces to keep them restrained from drowning out the littler variety.