Climbing Orchid Masterpiece

11 years ago

I bought a body bag [bareroot, grafted] Cl. Orchid Masterpiece last year, potted it up and it just kept on growing 2 long canes and no flowers. I pruned each of those long canes and it branched out big time into 6 new canes... all blind except one which flowered. That was it for last year, no more flowers. This year it has lots of growth and again all canes are blind with no flowers. Their tips look like they are trying to flower but continue to stay blind.

Is something wrong with this rose? I know climbers need years to get going but the bareroot stuff was already 2 years old when I bought it as is standard with how long they grow them before sending them to market. Then I grew it last year, so that makes this its 4th year.

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alameda/zone 8/East Texas

4 years ago

I just saw this rose at Tractor Supply but was in a hurry and didnt buy it. Thinking of going back tomorrow.....it was in a peat pot with absolutely enormous canes and plenty of them but they are waxed. Probably got chopped off roots..... Its $9......am thinking of experimenting with it - potting it up in a large pot with good soil, leaving it in my greenhouse until mid/end of February when our freezes are over and see what happens. It sounds like the sport of Cl. Peace that doesnt bloom much.....but they all looked so healthy with such nice canes, and I love mauve. So does anyone who grows this rose have any recent comments to make about it? I have alot of room to plant, so space isnt an issue. Not sure if I want to spend alot of effort on a dud of a plant.......would appreciate comments from those who grow it. Thanks!

Judith

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Comments (8)

bethnorcal9
11 years ago
I know my ORCHID MASTERPIECE climber blooms mostly on new wood. You'd think it should've bloomed by now. I wonder if your plant might just be rootstock.
braverichard (6a, North MO)
Original Author
11 years ago
Definitely not rootstock as I got a bloom from it last year and the canes it grew last year all survived the winter - one long cane developed a canker way down below so had to be cut off unfortunately.
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bethnorcal9
11 years ago
Oh, sorry I guess I misread what you said. I thought it didn't flower at all. Mine is not the most prolific of bloomers, that's for sure. But I usually get at least a handful of blooms in the spring. Not much thereafter. Being that it's a climbing sport of a bush rose, it inherently will spend more time growing that it does blooming. And really, it doesn't even grow that much. My plant is about 16yrs old and has never gotten taller than 7ft, and it's very scraggly and spindly. I wonder if it would do better to be treated like the shrub version and maybe we should hard prune it more to pump out more new growth, and maybe feed it with a higher phosphorous fertilizer to promote more blooms.
braverichard (6a, North MO) thanked bethnorcal9
braverichard (6a, North MO)
Original Author
11 years ago
16 years old and lackluster performance? Wow... looks like mine needs a SP! Thanks so much for giving me your feedback, I can't seem to find anyone at all among the Rosarians available locally who has grown this bush. I've been very patient with a lot of my plants, giving them the time they need to mature and hit their strides. This one is just being very difficult and at 4 years old should be doing so much better.
bethnorcal9
11 years ago
Yeah, it's not the best rose that's for sure. I keep it because I love the weird coloring on the blooms. They're mauve with a hint of tan in the center.
stillanntn6b
11 years ago
For me, Orchid Masterpiece is the one that got away. Ten years ago I found the most magnificent specimen with its roots in a plastic bag. Seven of the healtiest canes I've ever seen on a climber. Not anything wrong. Until I grabbed the plastic enclosed roots and the bag was nearly empty. I could feel one woody root. And not much else.

So, having learned on some Don Juans that I should have left at Home Depot years earlier, I walked away from Orchid Masterpiece.

If I were to try to grow it, I'd try to give it growing conditions like a playa lake in California...very sandy loam and alkaline conditions (and flood it with water every so often) because that plant that got way had gotten that big in two years of field growth in those conditions.
braverichard (6a, North MO)
Original Author
11 years ago
I can't say my Climbing Orchid Masterpiece came in good shape in the bag but I was able to pot it up, feed it and nurture it to get it to "grow up." So now I'm quite dissappointed in the lack of blooms on a bush that is supposed to bloom on new wood, is 4 years old at this point, showed pretty good cane hardiness for where I planted it (I planted it against a South East corner wall so it is probably zone 7 in there) and is supposed to at least have a good spring flush. Well, it will probably meet the good old shovel this weekend.