Does my gertrude Jekyll rose look OK?

[Rosemaryandlavender1]

Hello,
I was gifted these two lovely roses by my DH and it's my first experience with roses as a novice gardener. The two are Queen of Sweden (which is looking quite healthy and Gertrude Jekyll which I am unsure about as the leaves are more reddish and slightly shriveled. Is it supposed to look like this?

A close up

New rose shoots are often reddish, before their green chlorophyll develops. And they need to unfurl. It looks great OP. Just give the pots a big watering, and plant them in a hole with lots of farmyard manure. You might want to plant a flowering salvia at their roots which helps protect them from pests. Enjoy!

I can’t see anything wrong from the pics? What are you concerned about, different varieties have different colours and as pp said sometimes they start off red a become green.

do get them in the ground quickly though, roses are quite adaptable but do like their feet to have space and if you have any obliging horses nearby they like a bit of muck.

The other rose has slightly yellow leaves which can denote over watering. I’d water them in after planting, assuming you are doing that very soon. Manure is always enjoyed by roses.

They’re David Austin roses…they’ll be fine!

Thank you for the reassurance. As I a said I am a complete novice and the Queen of sweden just looked healthier than the other. Both of these are going in larger pots for now which I'm hoping to purchase tomorrow.

I was impressed with their packaging though I must say. I have ordered other plants from two different online retailers previously and none were packaged aswell and securely as these were.

I have the rose slow release food and the mycorrhizal fungi. I will be going to the garden centre tomorrow, what sort of compost is best for these roses?

Manure is best! Well rotted. However any decent soil is ok and roses don’t mind clay soil. They don’t need much pampering. I would not put them in pots though. They like less restriction.

I purchased the shrub roses from the potted section on the website. It does mention the pots need to be quite large.

These aren’t patio roses though. I think you will find keeping the pots sufficiently watered a challenge. It’s not that these won’t grow in pots, it’s just more difficult.

They will probably be ok in a pot for a year or 2 but they really prefer their feet in the ground.

I went to the garden centre today and purchased a huge terracotta pot that was In the half price sale. I have decided to plant one in a pot and one in the ground and see how they both do.

If anyone is still around, I would appreciate the help. I planted both roses yesterday, one in the ground and one in a pot. The worker at the garden centre said using just John innes no 3 by itself is fine. However I have just read online again that it is best to mix with a multi purpose compost. Should I take the rose and compost out of the pot and start again with a mixed compost? Or will it be ok?

I have Gertrude Jekyll and mine looks the same as yours, it's doing well in a huge pot that has a mixture of sieved garden soil, multi purpose compost some of which I know is peat free and I put a few handfuls of farmyard manure from a bag I bought last year. I have around three roses in very large pots and two in the ground.

I have been watering them each day as we've had a dry spell, I think mine are all looking healthy. I have high hopes for some beautiful roses this summer, fingers crossed the weather is sunnier and warmer than last year. 🙂

This is my GJ in a pot. It's a very big pot, the only thing I'm worried about is I only used John innes no 3 and didn't mix it with multi purpose compost.

Should I take it out and mix normal compost in it and start again? Does anyone know please as it's my first time with Roses.

It’ll be fine. You can add some manure to the top of the pot or slow release fertiliser if you like but honestly it should be fine for now. I would just let it settle and then feed it a couple of times a year.

Thanks alot for the reassurance. I did purchase the slow release feed so I will add it to both roses today.