You probably should put a plastic container inside another container such as ceramic to give the root systems some insulation from heat, possibly even with bubble wrap or packing peanuts between one pot and another for greater insulation. Grouping other pots so that the rose pot is shaded by another pot in between the sun and the rose pot wouldn't hurt either. Light-colored outer containers would be better than dark to reflect some heat instead of absorbing it. Also make the containers as large as you can manage also for insulation of the root systems and too-quick dry out of the soil.

A master rose exhibitor of renown in this area swore by aluminum outer containers, because they did not absorb as much heat as other materials. I do not know if that is true or not but he had ribbons and trophies galore at the national level.

You might need to run drip lines to each pot as in the heat they may need water at least once if not twice a day in summer. I would use a slow release fertilizer such as Osmocote, but that is because I am pretty lazy and would forget about fertilizing regularly.

I would look for a light colored flower with considerable heat resistance. A darker colored flower will probably fade a lot with the reflected heat of a pool deck in Sacramento in summer.

Hoovb is right. I use black plastic for my cold weather in Chicagoland so it heats up the roots for faster growth in cold spring. I have pretty styrofoam pots that keep the soil cool - plants don't grow well in my cold zone, but the styrofoam would be cool for your hot sun. Styrofoam are lightweight.

Roseseek (Kim Rupert) advised against clay pots because clay retains heat longer. Styrofoam would be your best bet if the temp is always hot. When the temp hit 90's, I had to transfer all the roses from plastic pots into the ground, the only ones I could keep in 100 degrees heat were in styrofoam pots.

Kim Rupert had success with MiracleGro Moisture-Control potting soil in the heat. I kept 100% thornless Basyes Blueberry and thornless Annie Laurie McDowell in styrofoam pots and they did well in the heat. So did Blue Mist (tiny harmless prickles) and Norwich Sweetheart (100% thornless, heaven-wafting scent). Other thornless mini-roses with great scent are: Sweet Arlene. Pink Gruss A. is thornless but has no scent. Marie Pavie and Marie Daly both have great wafting scent and tiny prickles ... they would perfume your swimming pool.

Basyes Blueberry smells great and is a bees-magnet. If people don't like bees it would not be a good choice. Blue Mist needs cooler weather. Thornless mini-roses, Marie Pavie & Daly & Pink Gruss would be best for full sun. Burlington Roses in CA is where I get my thornless roses from. If you want 100% smooth rose that smells calming like lavender and lilac while relaxing in the pool, Annie would be my top choice ... just need to shade it with a tall chair when the heat cranks up above 90.
See Annie L. McDowell below. It stays small in a pot, and if you trim it frequently, use low-nitrogen-high-phosphorus fertilizer it would bloom at the expense of growth.

Mrs. Dudley Cross is a thornless tea rose, but it would probably need a very large container. Large, beautiful white flowers that are often tinged with pink.

Ingrid

Here is a list of THORNLESS mini-roses and mini-flora roses sold at Burlington Roses for $7.50 each:

Angel Darling, Angelica Renae, Avandel (scented apricot color), Baby Austin (low-thorn ruffles), Baby Cecil Brunner (scented low-thorn), Baby Love, Behold (yellow), Lo & Behold, Billie Teas (red), Cinderella (pink), Irene Marie ( magnificent bi-color of red/yellow), Little Pinkie, Patty Lou, Pink Petticoat (nice pink orange), Scentsational (lavender with great damask scent), Vista (mauve).
Sweet Arlene is low thorn, lavender, great scent is sold out ... so is Annie Laurie McDowell. Those 2 have a one-year waiting list.

Another top choice is Norwich Sweetheart mini-rose, pinkish red, with a damask/old garden rose scent that perfumes my patio. It's 100% thornless. At $7.50 per band, there's a one-year waiting list at Burlington Roses since it's sold out. See picture below. its scent is just as good as Scentsational mini-rose.

Iced Tea mini-rose is also thornless, sold at Burlington Roses. It has a fun mix of pink, yellow, white blooms, a Ralph Moore creation. See the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Iced Tea mini-rose bred by Ralph Moore

Having just hugged the prunings of Nur Mahal tightly to my body and carried them out to the curb, I know for a fact that she is totally thornless. I had to cut away two-thirds (maybe 3/4) because the metal trellis she was tied to rusted, broke and fell over a month ago. She was 10 feet tall and rangy due to her shady NE corner location. I'm going to put her on a teepee.

Randy in Texas (dry part) grew her as a bush with lots of chopping. In a big pot with teepee supports Nur Mahal would be gorgeous.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

I have had good luck with large pots ( 1/2 barrel sized or at least 15 gallon ) for any of the floribunda sized roses. Any smaller and the watering becomes a daily priority. You want the soil not to go dry constantly because the roses stop making flowers. The water holding crystals are a big help. You can get a big tub with rope handles at a big box store ( drill some large holes in the bottom) and set it inside a homemade redwood box frame. That looks pretty and is inexpensive. The sun won't bake the sides of the tub and scorch the roots.

Thank you for this input! Do roses want a potting medium that stays moist for a longer period of time than other plants? Not something that dries out quickly? Would water holding polymers be a good idea to add to their potting soil?

I like really large pots. They don't need to be watered twice a day in my climate. :) I also like the way they look. I was thinking three very large pots of the same rose.

Weeping China Doll is completely thornless and very pretty. She takes the heat here, and we get over 100 every summer (with humidity, not dry, though). She fades to a paler pink in the heat, but the color is still very nice.

I can offer cuttings if nobody has her available and anyone needs her :) No scent that I've noticed, but the rebloom is excellent.

Hi Andreajp: You ask great questions! Do roses want a medium that stays moist for a longer period than other plants? Both guys, Jeff in Ohio and Mr. Kim Rupert (Roseseek) in CA, recommended MiracleGro Moisture Control Potting Soil that doesn't dry out.

I saw a HUGE pretty blue styrofoam pot at Walmart, very light. Only drawback: styrofoam pots are made flat at the bottom, they don't drain water if sitting against a flat surface. Since elevating them with bricks look ugly, I had to drill holes at the sides, 1" off the ground.

My roses did better with plastic pots - the new ones have indentation at the bottom, which elevates the drain holes 1/2 inches off the ground. I like Hoovb's and Kitty's idea of putting plastic pot inside another pretty pot. Roses do best in plastic pots if there's insulation outside.

I recommended mini-roses and mini-flora since they are round shape, no need for pruning, and like heat. Mini-roses have China ancestry, they did well in full sun, 100 degrees here. Blue Mist, is a 3' x 3' round-bush in CA. Mini-roses don't do well when it's raining all day here ... they don't tolerate wet soil like Austin roses. I shipped my mini-roses to CA, since they don't like all-day Chicagoland rain and poor drainage styrofoam pots.

Mini-roses prefer well-drained soil, versus wet soil for Austin roses. Burlington Roses has Old port, a mauve floribunda with many petals, almost thornless, that one likes it wet.

Costco has fairly nice styrofoam pots that are 27", I think, for 17.99$ right now. they are made to look like pottery.

I'm going to grow Souvenir de la malmaison in a pot this year. She's considered thornless. *relatively* small-- not a mini though. She is said to do well in Sacramento.

Another thought is to buy a standard (tree form) iceberg rose. I've seen some looking quite nice. If you go the standard route, you'll need a BIG pot to be sure it's not top heavy and tip in the wind. You will need to prune this rose.

Here is a link that might be useful: souvenir de la malmaison

This post was edited by lola-lemon on Sat, Feb 16, 13 at 0:47

I've grown everything from micro-minis to OGRs (Reine des Violettes gets BIG but she is thornless!) in pots and they all did just fine. We get days in the high 90s to low 100's but not as many as you. However, my pots sit in full sun all day on a huge expanse of concrete patio that gets very hot and reflects a lot of heat around. Get pots bigger than you think you need, I like the resin or foam ones best, and keep them in lighter colors and they should do fine for you. Pots do need extra watering and because of that will need more frequent fertilizing as well.

Hi Seil: I like your putting big pots on base with wheels. Where do you get those round base with wheels from? Those elevate the styrofoam, to give it better drainage and ease of relocation.

I used MiracleGro soluble fertilizer for my pots. I wasn't happy since it attracted thrips with its nitrogen content. Can't get away with the salt in nitrogen fertillizer.

High Country Roses in Colorado uses low-salt Daniels soluble fertilizer for their roses (lots of blooms!). Burlington Roses uses both: oscomolite and MiracleGro soluble fertilizer.

To get away from the salt in nitrogen fertilizer, I use organic source for nitrogen (coffee grouds and alfalfa meal), then use the lowest salt index of 8.4 (soluble monopotassium phosphate) for phophorus and potassium.

Plastic pots heat up the soil and decomposes the organics better for my cold zone 5a. I like plastic pots better since it promotes faster growth, and easier to transfer root to the soil. I don't like styrofoam since soil gets stuck to the inside and it's harder to transfer roses to the ground. But for your hot CA climate and longer stay in pots, resin/foam would be better.

I know this is the antique rose section but I just wanted to stop by and say 'Deja Blue' would make a wonderful choice for your situation. I just found some under the My Bouquet label at Lowe's that are beautiful, labeled as nearly thornless (but I didn't see a single thorn on the plants) and these particular ones were not grafted like hybrid teas, they are shrub roses which would look great in pots. They are a bright pink/purple in color with the outer petals a shade darker.

Here is a picture I took right before I planted them. In the shade here they looked more pink than purple.

I got my wheeled saucers at Home Depot. Think (5+ years old, so really no longer sure WHAT they cost) they were $20 - $25 each. HD has them every time I go down that aisle.

Thank you, Minflick for the info. Thanks Aslan for mentioning Deja Blue, also sold as mini-flora at Heirloom Roses. Lots of people like that thornless Deja Blue.

I get most of my pot trolleys from Big Lots but I've seen them at all the big box and hardware stores too. ACO has some on sale this week for $3.99! They're only 3 wheels and I really do prefer the ones with 4 wheels, because they are less tippy, but at that price I can't pass them up. The metal ones last about 3 or 4 years before they need to be replaced because the wheels are plastic and get brittle and break. The plastic ones are not sturdy enough to hold up for even one season and don't have any drainage holes usually so I don't bother with those. The trolleys really are helpful though. Trying to move a large pot full of wet soil and a 4 ft. tall rose bush can be a challenge! The wheels make it so much easier.

Hi Seil: You got some great deals there! Thanks for the info.

I found a thread about roses don't bloom well the 2nd year in a container ... many factors here: fertilizer-salt-build-up, pots get too small, too much nitrogen, etc. My best result with maximum blooms were with Schultz Bloom Plus soluble fertilizer 10-54-10, but only Menards has that.

Someone has good result putting a few earthworms in his containers. I think it's a great idea: putting manure-making machines (worms) in your pots !!

Great suggestions here. We have Sac heat and I always double pot-a sturdy plastic pot inside a clay pot or just whatever light colored outside pot I want to use. Sometimes I use compost or shredded bark to layer between the pot walls. I wet that layer down too every time I water. I usually lay a piece of landscape cloth in the bottom of the inner pot to slow down the loss of soil. Fine plastic screen works too. I repot with fresh soil after two years and use the water crystals or a soil mix with those added. I had been using weak fish emulsion mid summer but I may reconsider soil mix and fertilizer since salt buildup has been mentioned as an issue. Mary