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Smaller but more roses?

MeomyeMeomye Posts: 949
in Problem solving
What does it mean when you have a larger quantity of buds forming but smaller flowers as opposed to bigger blooms and less of them? Is it to do with feeding? t i a

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  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    Not down to feeding - down to variety.
    A lot of old rambling roses and shrub roses have a mass of small blooms for a few weeks in June, and that's it for the year. Some repeat flower, and some carry hips over winter.
    More modern roses have been bred to be smaller plants with larger flowers that bloom throughout most of the season.

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • Lena_vs_DeerLena_vs_Deer Posts: 203
    edited June 2021
    Agree, it's just down to variety.
    Unless... you DID have bigger blooms before and now it's different? Really curious about it now :) 

    The only thing I can think of in that context make me recall my grandma growing roses for a florist. In that case it all came to trimming - she would only leave 3-5 branches maximum and roses would come up on very long (over a meter) thick stems with gigantic blooms. But even then it's still down to a limited range of variety, not every rose can be treated this way. And it has zero application in regular garden.
    It was pretty much treated like an fruit tree where you take off unripe fruits to make a better yield of fewer items. Every small offshoot other than main stem was taken off right away.
    I think they're called "Russian cut roses".
  • MeomyeMeomye Posts: 949
    Thanks @Pete.8 , @Lena_vs_Deer for replies, yes Lena, I was referring to the fact that one of my roses (unknown name) that used to produce bigger and fewer flowers looks to have lots of very small buds although not in flower yet. I did ramp up the mulching a bit this year so I wondered if that was a factor?
  • Lena_vs_DeerLena_vs_Deer Posts: 203
    I don’t think mulch would change anything in terms of blooming . And small buds before the open don’t mean smaller flowers at the end. They still may grow into their size just fine . 
    How many years you had this rose?  :) 
  • ERICS MUMERICS MUM Posts: 627
    My late Grandad called them floribunda roses - clusters of smaller blooms rather than large “single” blooms which he called tea roses (and which were beautifully scented).

    this was 50 years ago - the terms might have changed nowadays.
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