I am a newbie to roses but I live in Florida and have purchased Cinco. although I have only had it for a few months. My cinco hasn't had hardly any BS although the nursery has sprayed it and I continued the spray routine. The blooms were small on first flush but that was due to temps. Right now Cinco isnt in bloom and Isn't putting out any new growth. My plants are in containers. My main worry is the bugs which continue to eat leaves. All the best with yours. Most people here have had success with it.

I also got this rose on special during bareroot season. What a trooper it is - dazzling flushes of bloom followed by immediate growth of glossy leaves. The nice shape makes it a good candidate for the border. I have it in my floribunda section of the front yard. I will take a photo when blooms are open again. And it's doing very well on limited water since they have cut back sprinkler times to about half. I like it better than its parent, Julia Child.

I was interested to see some plants of this rose, at Home Depot, earlier in the year.

Now, this is NOT my sort of rose color.
Even so, I thought the newly-opened blooms were eye-catching.

Unf., the FADE was, to my eye, most unpleasing. If I were to grow this rose, I'd need a garden-helper to make sure I never saw a faded bloom.

Jeri

I bought this in April and it resides in a pot. I love the Spring color - very unusual dusty shade and it is not my typical color either. BUT I don't like the summer shade. It is a red-orange color, at least here, and that is one of my least favorite colors. I am a blue-red fan and very much against orange reds. :-)

I planted this one last spring. I love the cool-weather bloom color. It has been disease resistant and heat tolerant too. Currently, (during daily temps around 100*) the bloom color is a flourescent orangey-red which I don't really care for. It seems floriferous so far. Looking forward to cooler temps and better colored blooms.

Well, I am falling in love with this rose. The color is very unusual and the flowers do fade to a shade of pink and Jeri - lol - I don't have a garden helper.

However, this rose is in a bed with a lot of orange roses, and some red and red-orange roses, so it blends well for me. I find the color fine. But - the reason I am falling in love with this rose is it is really bushing out and is always full of blooms. Right now, looking out at the bed, it is a show stopper from all the blooms and it has put out quite a bit of growth this year.

I don't spray (just too lazy, I guess) and I have some roses that have BS, (the rose is beautiful at every moment, right?), but I have not noticed any BS on this rose. For me, it's a real winner.

I think it's just one of those colors, you either like it, or you don't.
It's a good thing we don't all love exactly the same thing.
:-)

Jeri

DANG!!! Jeri, I was seriously hoping to enable you into getting it, dang, dang, dang!!!

Are you SURE you don't like the colors???

What I like, as the brick fades to mauve, is that it reminds me of *all* the desert colors at once, espcially the drive thru Red Rock, and I bet you've been thru there. (Uh-oh, yeesh, maybe I've hit a bad memory after your Needles, er, 'adventure'? ) Anyway, it complements pinks and yellows *together* beautifully in a vase like the best colors of nature.

Beyond all that, it is simply a trooper of the first order. I got three this spring. Two for down here by LAX. Today, I finally noticed the first touch of M ("m-i-l-d-e-w" for those who don't know what it means, I dare not do more than spell it, in case it hears). I don't believe it will need spraying, if it's been clean so far. I can keep you posted. In the meantime, they are now 3'high and 2'wide with many great candelabras waiting to blooming this week into next.

At the mtn place, I have one in between and in front of a Golden Celebration and a (very upright) Crown Princess Margarita. It is incredibly cute, especially with the Black Eyed Susans next to it. Around the corner from them are the rest of my 'desert color' series.

Too, bad, sniff...

I saw it, it's pretty but the color is rather gloomy. Would look good in a "Goth" type of garden with black mondo grass.

Wow, it seems like a lot of you don't really care for it! :) Well. I will try it and see how I like it , and if I don't then out it goes. We just made a flag-stone path to go around the house and needed some extra landscaping. I thought a rose would look nice in the one corner by the front of the house....

The picture on the tag looked pretty and the ones I found on the internet as well. I certainly don't want a "Goth" rose, LOL, or anything too orange. Oh well, I will see when the buds open what happens.

I don't like drabby colors either, particularly anything on the order of Sterling Silver and the lavendar/blue wanna-be's.

It occurs to my why I don't consider CDM drab, is because it is a florabunda. The flowers in each spray mature at different times, so there is a range of color (amazingly) exactly like the pic we are all familiar with in the garden porn catalogs. Like a desert sunset or colored desert rock. When the older ones get their pink tones, it seem 'dusky' I suppose due to the younger flowers next to them. I think if the dusky mauve were the only color, I probably wouldn't like it, either.

I also enjoy the scent which was, again, unexpected. It actually wafts so you can smell it standing next to the plant.

dmama, let us know how you feel when your plant matures.

lagomorphmom -- Now, that's not fair! ;-)

No, honestly, I LOVE desert cliffs and rocks and wide, dry open spaces.
Needles aside.
That Needles adventure does not bear repeating.

But somehow, in the garden, I like softer colors.
We had a rose here for a couple of years that bloomed non-stop and had no disease.
It had a pleasing habit.
But it was the most screaming meemie red I've ever seen.
EVERY time I looked out the window, it was like looking directly into a stop light.
Among the pinks and blue-reds, and the Sunset colors of the Tea Roses, it stood out like the proverbial Sore Thumb.

After two years, DH came stomping up, shovel in hand, and said: "Can I dig up THAT thing?"
And so much for 'City of San Francisco.'

But, there -- I bet a bunch of people love that thing.

Jeri

I don't have to worry about the summer color because it seems not to want to bloom at all in the summer.

(I think I've got her going!!! ;-)

But Jeri, it's no where near that bright, btw, I wasn't tempted by the city roses either. I would put CdM blooms in the pastel chalk box, if I had one, when they open and when they change.

I have two 'candelabras' starting to pop now. I will try to take pics over the next several days.

Oh, and Jeri, did I mention how long the blooms last on the bush???

Naaaahhh . . .
You know what? If you like the color (and the fade looks OK to you) and it blooms in your garden, then it's a good rose for you.

Me, I have to admit, I grow weird stuff. :-)

I found a quote that I used in the August HRG "Rose Letter":

"The rose that all are praising is not the rose for me."
(Thos. Haynes Bayly)

That really "spoke" to me.
I never like what everyone else likes.
Story of my life.
;-)

Jeri

Have to support Jeri's evaluation of the color of this rose. It has its very brief moment when the color is fresh and five minutes later it isn't pretty anymore. I actually saw this at the Sacramento City Cemetery this spring when believe me I was on a MAJOR rose-enjoyment-rush at that moment and seeing a faded Cinco de Mayo was underwhelming.

However if it turns out to be healthy, you have room for it, flowers well and was on sale why not:) If I hadn't seen its late in the bloom color first hand I probably would have gone for it also.

Kate

I also do not care for the last stage of Cinco de Mayo, and I really wanted to like the rose. Like Rio Samba, in our zone, the first stages go by quickly, and we are left with that last stage of a mottly color.

I do have the rose.

Sammy

Cinco blooms very well for me. I like it next to roses like Distant Drums, or other lavender toned roses.

I attended a seminar near the Cal Poly Pomona Farm Store this weekend. They have a fantastic planting of Cinco de Mayo along a white fence and near the store. It's just in its second season. The manager tells me they do nothing other than water the rose and it's almost always in bloom. I'm trying to attach a photo with no success. Will get it to you as soon as I can.

Got it. Thanks to serenasyh.

{{gwi:315232}}

amandahugg-I love the pic of the Cinco. If mine turns out like that then I will be happy with it!

My Cinco has very high density thorns, similar to Polar Ice. Is that normal?

Warren, I grow all the "Easy to Love" varieties from Weeks, including Cinco de Mayo, since they have above average blackspot resistance here in our humid, high bs pressure conditions. Most are thorny to the point I often put new growth on "RRD watch". Due to losing an Easy Going last year to rose rosette disease, I find the new growth on them to be alarmingly thorny, but with the exception of that Easy Going last year, none has been diseased...just very thorny.

I'm in South Jersey, but I can say I love my Cinco de Mayo. Lots of happy blooms, reblooms like a champ. Definitely a keeper.

I really dislike the color when it fades. it is like brown red clay. at that point the flower falls shattered on the ground. It does NOT bring to mind the rose petals on a lawn after a wedding. it is impossible to miss them.

this is only its second season and it didnt get fed untl 2 weeks ago. i know it deserves a better chance.