Shrub, Groundcover Rose 'Sweet Drift'

DFW - Texas My neighbor has the coral drifts planted in full sun and they are constantly covered in flowers. I planted Sweet Drift in t...Read Morehe fall of the year before the big -5 degree freeze. A lot of plants did not make it, but sweet drift came back. First year, was recovery mode, then I decided to move them further back in the bed to indirect sun. Big mistake. The branches that reached out to partial sun (about 4 or 5 hours of mid day sun, with morning and afternoon dappled shade) are covered in blooms, but the rest of the rose has none. Lesson learned, this fall I will be transplanting them back to the partial sun. By the way, when I transplanted the first time, one Rose went into shock due to unexpected heat. I watered it with a mix of sugar and water and it sprung right back. I cut these back to about 6 inches in the spring just as new shoots start to promote bushy growth and feed them with Bayer Triple Rose Food. Looking forward to finally finding the right home for these roses.

Very hardy, disease resistant and vigorous rose that propagates very easily. Mine are never out of bloom and I use them all over my yard,...Read More even as a mini hedge. I don't like their horizontal habit so I selectively prune mine to a more upright habit, although petite as it is. The roses are tightly formed and petite, and I find them very fragrant. I love this rose and have started little groups in different flower beds. They provide more display than any perennial and never have to be dug up and divided, although some spring pruning is advisable.

Despite the dirt being bone dry (apparently for a while) when I purchased it, my 'Sweet Drift' is doing quite well. The flowers are very ...Read Morefull in their adorable petiteness and do have a lovely classic rose scent.

I'll admit to leaving it in the pot I purchased it in for quite a while, but now that it's repotted (along with a 'Coral Drift'), it seems to be growing well. I'm new to roses, and it seems to be easy-going so far, so I may opt to get more for a bed planting shortly.

Sweet Drift is performing as well for me as it does for the Peggy Rockerfeller rose garden. Purchased at Home Depot, where it must have b...Read Moreeen heavily infected, the poor overgrown Drift promptly succumbed to black spot. I considered discarding it, but the high recommendation from the Bronx Botanical Garden made me reconsider. After removing two thirds of the plant I sprayed it with milk, and it recovered in record time. Drift bloomed with reckless abandon through 90F days until ConEd workers dug it up and left it, the rootball up, in the punishing July sun.
Yet it survived the second shock and bloomed and bloomed and bloomed.
Its very double flowers are naively pink, fading to the palest lavender in the heat. A delightful spreading front-of-the-flower-bed rose bush, a vigorous tenacious survivor.