Very unique. On overcast days, the color is dark and velvety (darker than Oklahoma). On sunny days, the color is more of a burnt orange. Not the most prolific bloomer. But, worth it if you want a conversation piece in the garden
Considering its age, not at all the "worst" of the "odd" colored roses by a long shot and probably a rose that should be in the collection of anyone who does have an interest in those "oddities." By 2012 standards it isn't even that ODD----Brown Velvet (83), Victoriana (76) and most notably Hot Cocoa (04) are all the same "color"----oxblood red leaning orange that takes on purple cast as the bloom is exposed to sun and then fades quite ashy and wan....Hocus-Pocus (75) is another one in the group..............I do believe the Jackson and Perkins catalog in the early to mid 70's stated something to the effect that this one could be anything from "light pink" to "deep plum" and sold it on those terms which was hysterical..............although the color might have some deep plum shadings, it was never DEEP PLUM and NEVVERRRR light pink........but color-change was a big BUZZ word in the 70's and it seemed this one was sold as some "holy grail" and could of course never live up to that! Not long after, Spellbinder and the big "success" Color Magic came along and catapulted to the "in" spot and then color change fad ended and Smoky was left behind..............where roses meet marketing and sociology, this one is notable in my opinion...............and probably better than anyone expects it to be................
The "russet" roses are quite variable, as are the gray ones. With MOST of them, you're going to find a wide variation from oranges to brown. What you're really seeing is usually shades of orange which "blue" much likes the reds often do. Your eye picks this up as brown. Photography most often doesn't as it never interprets, but merely reports the reflected light rays. So, expect to see many different shades in Smoky, as well as Brown Velvet, Black Tea, Victoriana, Jocelyn, Honey Dijon and all the others, depending upon weather, climate, location and all the vagaries of culture.
You may be right about the color variation, but my original oxblood Smoky, and my "Smoky" from Vintage Gardens were planted in the same location, several years apart, so sun and weather were basically the same, yet,,,the color difference was profound! I thought that Vintage had mislabeled the Smoky that I ordered as a replacement when the JP version died, but I actually reordered another plant a year or so later, and it too turned out orange-red yuk!
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#3 posted
22 JAN 07 by
Anonymous-97434
Your J&P one was also budded, while all the others you are able to find are own root. That, alone, can produce profound differences. If you go to the Sequoia photos on HMF and take a look at the two photos of Grey Pearl in a green house, you'll see a tremendous difference betwen the two. They are the same clone. One is budded, one is own root. Kim
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#5 posted
17 AUG 07 by
Unregistered Guest
Kim,
You state that budded roses appear different than own root roses... In what way? What does the budding process do to the rose that makes it appear different? I have many roses, half own root, half budded. I'm slowly making the conversion to all own root. I'm wondering "color" wise, which is the better way to go... ??
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#6 posted
10 MAR 08 by
Unregistered Guest
it seems logical and natural to plant own root; think about it- a grafted rose is artificial, and an own root is the way God intended it. they take a little longer in some cases to produce, but in the long run they are healthier, more disease resistant and in my opinion, better looking without the huge ungainly knot in their stump. all of my grafted roses have troubled me from the get go, but my own root ones are ass-kickers in every possible way. i think eventually all of the grafted roses are going to be given away to friends and replaced with these. BTW i am in the PNWzone 8.
I am not Kim, but I can tell you that he has written a wonderful article for our Ezine on this topic. Just click on Ezine on the navigation bar to the left, then click EZINE SEARCH and enter "own root" in the SEARCH field (be sure to click the SEARCH button instead of the ENTER key) and all of the articles that mention own root plants will appear. When you read Kim' article, you will learn more than you ever expected to know about the difference between selecting an own root plant and a budded plant.
I owned a Smoky for 2 years (it was shovel pruned this spring) and I experienced the same thing you're describing. However, during the spring and the fall, the color did change to the typical Smoky coloration. It was definitely frustrating and I believe was due to its location in my garden, where it received nearly 10 hours of direct sun daily.
I ordered this from own root nurseries twice in the past and neither of the plants was vigorous enough to grow and thrive and soon just kind of dried up and died despite my best efforts. Lucky me, I was amazed today that I found two bushes of Smoky at my local K-Mart and I snatched them both up. These look like good relatively healthy bushes and have obviously been blooming this season as there are dead flowers present that needed to be deadheaded. The plant has a mild case of blackspot so I know it isn't completely disease resistant. These Smoky's were sitting amongst several Angel Face roses that were covered in blackspot as they are wont to do by nature. Just a little bs on a couple of leaves is all that is on my two bushes. So, once I got them home I quarantined them and sprayed them with my standard mix of Mancozeb, Funginex, and Captan in a gallon of water w/Indicate 5 mixed in to aid effectiveness of the fungicides. I did the same with another rose from Lowe's last year and it cured the bs right away and it has never come back with my regular spraying routine. I am pretty sure these are grafted but am not sure what the understock is of course but it is probably--hopefully--multiflora from Certified growers. Update:: I have enjoyed having this rose in my garden so far this first year 2007. I do have to say that it tries it's best to come down with blackspot and powdery mildew, but my routine spray program has so far been effective enough to keep it relatively but not perfectly clean, just close. The bloom color is remarkably similar to the floribunda Hot Cocoa and I like that quite well.
