You never know what roses will do well here. My introduction to roses that can handle the Florida climate came from a book by William Welch on Antique Roses for the south. Most of my first plants came from Antique Rose Emporium. Now we have a local nursery Rose Petals that also sell antique roses. My favorites class of antique roses is teas roses, not hybrid tea, but the original class of "tea scented roses" bred from Chinese roses in 1800's .

Hi Storm, Drifts and Knockouts do well here, meaning that they stay alive and flower a lot. The original single KO's have cleaner foliage than the double KO's . I am not a tremendous fan of KOs, but they prove that roses can survive here without spraying. Drifts are nice and flower well but they tend to get really spotty at times. My favorite Drifts are Peach and the new Sweet Dreams. Many of your modern northern shrubs roses do poorly here such as Carpet roses, Home Run,. I have had some success with Buck roses and I have a bed devoted to Buck roses

Val: that conclusion is someone else's, and not mine. Sand can be either acidic like in a high-rain Florida, or very alkaline like in less-rain California.

If you look at Kitty Belandez garden in HMF, she stated that her California sandy soil and tap water are alkaline, and her roses are grafted on Fortuniana-rootstock .. with way more blooms than Dr. Huey. The breeder Robert Rippletoe who bred "Miracle on the Hudson" and "Bohemian Rhapsody" has alkaline sandy soil, from CA alkaline tap water and less rain. Seaweed who posted here was from CA, with only 12 inch. of rain, compared to 47 inch for Newberry, Florida.

Clay can be either acidic, like my last house where the hydrangea is deep blue, or alkaline, like my current house. Niels in Denmark has acidic clay due to high rain-fall. Thus what makes an area acidic or alkaline is the annual rainfall.

Rain is acidic around 5.6 on the West Coast, and even more acidic on the East coast, pH between 5 and 4 in states with acid-rain from pollution, such as CT, NC, and NY. I posted on acid-rain in dogcatlady's Rugosa thread.

My soil sandy soil has a ph from 5.5 to 6.5 . In my last house my gumbo clay had a ph of around 8. My tap water at my new house has a ph of about 6.5, it is from a well. All places here have a layer of sand. In my old house you hit gumbo clay about starting at about 4" to a foot down depending on where you dug. On my new property I'm pretty much dealing with pure sand almost completely devoid of organic material. Both soils have their own unique problem. Until I started on this forum, I never thought about Ph. My goal was always to have a good layer of organic material in the hope that the soil fungi will free up the nutrients so that they will be available no matter the ph. I am now reconsidering this approach.

The problem with sand is no nutrients and no water holding capacity. I have had lots of problems with deficiencies in my new plantings

The problem with clay is drainage. In my old yard I went with berms to get the roses out of the water.

This is a rose that does well all over Florida. It is a china called Louis Phillipe. Some people call it a "Cracker Rose" old Floridians are know as crackers. It can grow quite tall, I've seen it as tall as 16' unsupported but a more normal height would be 6'.

Below is Pink Pet, ARE also calls it Caldwell Pink. This shrub came from a cutting I took from an historic house that dates from the late 1800's. For us in Florida it is nearly indestructible. Beats the pants off KOs.

The next is a David Austin. On the whole we don't do well with Austin's here, all foliage and no flower. Lilian Austin is an exception, as is Heritage. This is Lilian.

Val: Thank you for those great pics. of roses that do well in your Florida.

Very nice Lilian Austin .. I love that orange shade. Pink Pet doesn't like my shady & cool wet garden, but does well for a friend in Texas .. so Pink Pet definitely likes heat. Louis Phillipe is very nice.

I have problems with Knock-outs: bloom only when it's soaking wet. Flower Carpet is more drought-tolerant here in Chicagoland, and blooms much earlier than Knock-outs. Drift roses do well in my neighbor's soaking wet alkaline clay. Flower Carpet likes our alkaline soil, so won't be suitable for high-rain acidic areas like Florida.

Here in Chicagoland, Drift roses take humid & extreme hot weather better than Home Run. Home Run is stingy here and shuts down in the heat.

The roses posted in this reply where taken this morning. After surviving 6 weeks of drought, the last week has brought 5 inches of rain. Many of my rose have gone summer dormant. If I want to wake them up quickly, I'll do a light pruning, I need to wait until I'm sure that the rains are here to stay.

If I could grow only one rose in my garden (not going to happen), it would be Belindas Dream. For our hot humid climate, I would have to say that it is the best shrub rose ever bred.

My Belindas Dreams looking a little bedraggled.

Below is Cadenza, a rose that I have grown for many years under the name of Annies Red. Just got it for my new place ARE

I am always looking for groundcover roses that will do well here. Below are three that I like. The first is Raspberry Vigorosa from Chamblees.

The next is Innocencia Vigorosa pictured below, from Chamblees.

The last but not least is Borderer from Rose Petals

On the whole, we don't do well with Rugosa Roses. Below is Bayse's Purple, which will grow just fine. It is armed with many thorns and root suckers. From Roses Petals.

Lyda Rose is a new rose in my garden. I grew if from a cutting from a friends garden. So far so good, very clean and lots of blooms.

Below is Mystic Beauty, a sport of Souv. de la Malmaison . I did not expect much from it as I had never had success with Malmaison but it has proved me wrong. Clean, good vigor and good blooming even in the summer, also a cutting from a friends garden.

Next is a David Austin Heritage that does exceptionally well here.

A few more photos taken today.

This is Chuckles, it is from Rose Petals, though I'm not sure that they carry it anymore but I know that Heirloom has it. It is a nice happy plant. The flowers are large for a cluster bloomer.

Below is Perle de 'Or, a rose that I have grown for many years but have just reaquired from Rose Petals.

The next is a rose that should do well but doesn't. The official "Yellow Rose of Texas", picked after extensive trialing in Texas. I bought it both as liners for our business from a Texas nursery and as a 1 gallon from Chamblees. It has healthy foliage and bright flowers, but it suffers from "die back" with it being most severe in the winter time. Another rose that had almost the same problem is "Livin' Easy, I lost all my Livin Easy this winter, they were planted in multiple places through out my garden and were the only roses that I lost.

Valrose: Thanks for giving details about Belinda's Dream and Heritage performing well in your hot climate. In my view it is most difficult to grow roses in hot climate with lot of rains and if BD and Heritage well in such a climate, I must have those roses.

I planted Heritage this year but it turned out to be Teasing Georgia (wrong tagging in the nursery while dispatching my consignment. The nursery guy sent me 5 roses in replacement as he did not possess Heritage anymore.

best regards

Val: thanks for posting those nice pics. of roses that do well in hot and humid, sandy Florida. Yellow rose of Texas is pretty, same with Chuckles. Your Raspberry Vigorosa looks fantastic, nice color and foliage (much better than Drift roses, which gets tiny spots in our humid summer).

Lots of people complain about Living Easy, from high-phosphorus soil (Jim in PA), to alkaline clay (Jay-jay in Netherlands). So that rose doesn't pick up potassium well.

A friend gave me a rooting of Perle de 'Or, really like its scent, but it died over the winter (lousy potting soil). Your Borderer and Bayes' Purple are very nice. Lyda Rose didn't like my wet clay and died. Heritage hates alkaline clay, but does well for Sam's loamy soil.

My Marie Pavie looks great & vigorous in my alkaline clay, but blah at Chicago Botanical's loamy soil .. same rainy climate.

Question for Val: are there any own-root roses that do equally well in clay and sand?

Khalid: I'm very impressed with Belinda Dream's drought-tolerance. At Menards they have an indoor bin of bare-root roses, wrapped in plastic. All of them are dried-out canes, except for Belinda Dream, sprouting healthy leaves and green canes .. that's after many months of indoor storage at local store.

Val: Agree with you that other own-roots look so much better than Knock-outs. I killed my 4th Knock-out grafted on Dr. Huey. I thought mine is slow to recuperate from wet winter .. but I went for a walk with my kid, and there's a Knock-out in full-sun, raised bed, and looks awful despite having blooms .. blooms mingled with dead sticks aren't pretty. So I went home and killed another single Knock-out .. . Own-roots look so much better after a harsh winter. Below is own-root Lynnie, bred by Kim Rupert (Roseseek) in dry California. Zero blackspots, zero mildew, plus thornless ... bees love it, and it set pretty orange hips in fall. Own-root Lynnie survived four zone 5a winter:

Drifts get anthracnose spot here they look can look really bad after they bloom and before the new growth. Marie Pavie doesn't like it in my new garden, didn't try it at my old place so I can say whether the problem is climate or soil.

Storm: I'm not sure that I can answer your question about own-root roses and sand versus clay because of the way we plant. Our clay is covered by a layer of sand, if the clay is near the surface, then we plant our roses really high with the root ball maybe 3" inches out of the soil ( a planting method that I am assuming would probably kill northern grown roses). We then mulch with about 4" of organic material. The best yards for roses around here are ones with clay about 1 foot or so beneath the sand. Our biggest problem is getting organic material into our soils, that's why we plant high and mulch. The organics support the fungi that kill nematodes, so here healthy soil fungi is important for more than providing nutrients to the plant. We only have trouble when the yard has clay and is poorly graded so that it holds surface water in heavy rain.

Storm great photo of Lynnie. I have Lynnie and I love it, I agree that it is clean, thornless, blooms a lot and great foliage color. I have about 10 open pollinated seedlings from Lynne, I'll post photos when I can see more about their blooms.

Val: I like your answers, thank you. My username is Straw, not Storm.

Straw so sorry I knew that, not sure where storm came from.

Khalid , hope you have good luck with Belinda's Dream and Heritage .

There are a few gardens in HMF with sandy soil: Here's one from Germany with 49 roses, and Eyes-for-you is one of them. I used to grow that, very drought-tolerant, but hated my wet clay. An excerpt from below link from Germany: ""We have here almost pure sand down to about 8 m. Rather poor soil with very low water and nutrient holding capacity. Needs lots of compost and were possible incorporation of clay minerals."

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=3.10593&tab=1

The above sandy garden also grows Westerland and Multiflora, which confirms my hunch that multiflora likes acidic loamy soil. When I googled "sandy soil" in HMF, I found the below comment:

" R. rugose

Initial post 29 NOV 14 bySambolingo

This rose, in most every place, performs admirably. The blooms are nice, and so are the hips, but in clay soil, like mine, it's not as vigorous as some sources state it to be in looser soils, which is very understandable since R. rugosa naturally lives in sandy soil."

Robert Neil Rippetoe

'Pink Clouds' has not performed well for me as a rootstock in my warm low desert climate. It performs fine in containers, but like multiflora, it seems to dislike our alkaline sandy soil."

Did some research in HMF and find that EarthSong is hardy to zone 3, and thrive in Sandy soil, see below.

" RoseEarth Song

Initial post 18 AUG 04 byanonymous-40716

I grow this rose in Northern Michigan(Zone 3b) in sandy soil and DEER!! with a little protection from the critters, it is my favorite rose...It is all that I think of as a grandiflora. Tall with gorgeous deep pink blooms all the time..In winter, I make a chicken wire cage, mound up the soil and fill the rest of the cage loosely with shredded autumn leaves." Anonymous in HMF.

From Straw: Re-post the potting-soil recipe that Jay-jay in Holland uses to grow roses from seeds. He posted in HMF when I asked him... lost that info., so glad that I found it:

" Jay-Jay

I made/make my own mix of part Coconut(-bark)-substrate; part peat-based (normal) potting soil; part coconut(-bark) based potting-soil; a little bit of Mycorrhiza-drenched grains of some kind; some perlite and some vermiculite (as much as the eye wants); a very little bit of fine ground lava-powder... and when the rose is potted: Some fine grained natural composition of fertilizer on top of the soil covered with some coconut-soil when watered.
Very well drained, but a heck of a job watering the plants, when the weather is dry, sunny and windy."

Hi Straw: I am thinking about using shredded peanut hulls for mulch, what do think?

There are big peanut farms here. I just need to find someone to haul them for me. I would really like to use the alfalfa hay, but I have way too many roses. In the past I have used the shredded debris from the tree trimmers but now all the wood waste goes straight to our "biomass plant" to be burned to create electricity. Last year I bought shredded yard waste, but I won't do that again, I was afraid of what was in it.

Interesting mix for potting soil. I may need to try coconut coir fiber based soil.

I have Earth Song. It is young but it looks good so far. I looked up Eyes for You, it looks very nice but I have not had good success with Bulls Eye and it seems closely related.

Multiflora does not do well here, may not be the sand but the heat that bothers it or perhaps the lack of chill hours. For instance, the Seven Sisters rose will not bloom here, not enough "chill hours".

Most rugosas do not do grow well here, they don't like our winters, too humid and big temperature swings. Highs can be in the 80s, this will cause a plant to break dormancy, then we will get lows in the teens and it will cause split bark. A plant can die from split bark if it is severe or it can led to canker. Maybe this is why some of the Northern roses do well for us, they are resistant to split bark.

Val: I don't know much about peanut hulls, but potting soil here has rice hulls, and it works really well. Any hulls is better than wood chips, which robs the soil of nitrogen as they break down.

Straw: I saw on another thread that you grow a whole lot of varieties or roses. I was wondering what roses for your garden would be in your favorite top 10.

90% of my roses are own-root. The top performers in heavy alkaline clay are: 1) Marie Pavie 2) French Romantica like Bolero, Sweet Promise, Frederic Mistral, Liv Tyler 3) Dark-green leaves Austin roses: Evelyn, Mary Magdalene, Wise Portia, Radio Times, CPM 4) Dark-green leaves like Old Port and Stephen Big Purple 5) Glossy leaves like Flower Carpet Coral 6) Dark-green and glossy foliage like Pat Austin.

The above are my top performers. My favorites are top-scents like Eglantyne, Sharifa Asma, Jude the Obscure, Comte de Chambord .. these pale leaves gave me hell, but I pamper them just for the scent.

Val: what are your top performers in your soil/climate? thanks.

All my rose roses are own root except 2 that I received as presents. I try to avoid roses that are still under patent.

Top Performers for me are

1. Any tea rose, my top favorites are Mrs B.R. Cant, Mrs. Dudley Cross and Rosette Delizy
2. Most China roses, I like Louis Phillipe and Mutablilis the best
3. Most Noisettes I like Lamarque, Reve d'Or, Crepuscule, Champney's Pink Cluster
4. Hybrid Musk Rose: Most do well Gartendirektor Otto Linne, Buff Beauty, Prosperity, Mozart are favorites
5. Polyanthas: These two do well: Pink Pet, Perle d'Or and Cecil Brunner Spray
6. Belinda's Dream
7. Buck roses are still being trialed but I like Polonaise, Quietness, Aunt Honey, Earth Song and American Legacy
8. Many Kordes, both old and new Lions Fairy Tale, Rosarium Uetersen, Shreveport, Westerland
9. Some odd and sundries: Elina, Marco Polo, Birthday Girl, Lafter, Fields of the Woods, Mystic Beauty
10. My best for scents are Heritage, Clotilde Soupert ( though she tends to ball), Comte de Chambord,

This was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I know that I missed some of my favorites.

Thanks, Val. for a great list of roses that do well in hot & humid Florida, sandy soil. I hope that more people put info. in HMF to guide folks in buying roses best for their soil and climate. I gave my garden in HMF the name "Alkaline clay zone 5a", and listed all the roses I have experience with.

It's easy to set up one's garden in HMF, so when people google for a rose, it will show where's it's being grown. In HMF, under Q & A forum, one can search for discussion on any topic. When I type "sandy soil" for that Q & A Search box, there are many people who asked what roses do best in their sandy soil .. but no one answer.

It would be nice If folks use a descriptive name for their profile name, or garden's name in HMF, such as "sandy, rainy & humid garden", or "sandy, dry and alkaline garden".

That's a great list Valrose. Thanks for the effort. A very nice list of OGRs and I can only drool over it as most of them are not available in Islamabad. But I have noted down these names and study them at HMF too. May be I get a chance to import few of them!!

best regards

Found this fantastic info. when I googled "heavy clay" in HMF's search box of "Q & A forum", written by BAM on July 29, 2014:

" We also have a display rose garden at the front of Rutgers Agricultural Research Farm where the soil is less sandy, classified as a Loam with 2% organic matter. This soil is about 50 % sand, 40% silt and 10 % clay, not a heavy soil by national standards, but heavy for south Jersey. 'Dr Huey' performs better in the heavier soil at the research farm. I think soil texture may be more important than pH within reason. " BAM

Posted 15 JAN 15 by hmfusr "Of course the rugosas wouldn't like the clay. I killed Rose à Parfum de l'Hay with mine, much to my great at the time sadness and guilt, and that's even a Rugosa Hybrid that's not so Rugosa-ish as some." hmfusr

" I agree on clay cause, and already added a layer of coarse sand over clay soil around all roses. Somebody recommeded this way, watering and rain should integrate sand into the soil. Around 40-50% of organics (manure, pine bark) were added before, in the time of soil improvement." 22 JUN 05 by Unregistered Guest

Valrose: Would love to see the photos of your roses if it is convenient to you.

best regards

Straw I like the way you set things up so that people can get the benefit of your experience and then encourage the rest of us do the same. You must be a very thoughtful and caring person.

Hi Khalid, will try to get some photos tomorrow . Wish I could send you some roses. I root roses all the time, if there is a way let me know

Question for Val: I'm trying to root Yves Seedling (100% thornless, heat tolerant & hardy rose). I failed for the past 2 years .. I kept it outside, our weather is too erratic: heavy rain/flooding, then hot &dry, then humid & more heavy rain that flooded pots. Peat-moss potting soil drowns in the heavy rain, despite using 1/2 perlite.

I had much better luck rooting with 100% pine-bark potting-soil, but that's hard to find locally. So I bought orchid-potting soil (small chunks of pine bark).

Should I mix 1/2 orchid-mix with 1/2 peatmoss-potting soil (very dense)?

Or should I use 1/2 orchid-mix with 1/2 perlite ?

I'm going to keep the rootings in my front porch (no direct sun-light, and shielded from heavy rain). How often should I water that if it's 1/2 perlite and 1/2 orchid-mix? How often should I water if it's 1/2 peat-moss-potting soil and 1/2 orchid-mix?

My hunch is Yves Seedling, bred by Robert Rippletoe in a hot & sandy climate, would take a fast-draining mix of 1/2 perlite and 1/2 orchid-mix, and Austin roses, being bred in wet & rainy climate, would take a moist medium of 1/2 peat-based soil and 1/2 pine bark or orchid-mix.

I'm not sure how to water them if kept in a front porch, zero sun nor rain. Thank you for your feedback. Some pics. of Yves Seedlings. They come in 2 colors: pink and dark red. Very fragrant, and 100% thornless. Survived zone 5a winter for many years, also drought tolerant.

Roses that can handle extreme cold weather, can also handle extreme heat and drought. Meilland Romantica roses are not hardy in my zone 5a, lots of them died on me when we had a dry winter or dry early spring.

Romantica roses like soaking wet alkaline clay, versus Robert Rippetoe's roses bred in a hot & sandy climate .. his can survive my cold and dry winter better.

mind blowing, beautiful... breath taking! wow...

Hi Straw, I root in a commercial mix containing about half perlite and half Canadian peat moss, its ph is limed to about 6.5. I need a soil that will not get water logged no matter how much water I use. I am rooting under white poly that is about 50% shade. I have an intermittent mist system that runs for 10 seconds at a time every 10 minutes for about 12 hours a day.

Above are cutting that I stuck 2 weeks ago. They are already starting to root. The "secret" to rooting soft cuttings is to figure out how to keep them from getting stressed and dropping leaves. If I can keep the leaves green and healthy, the cuttings root. If the leaves fall off, then the cutting usually die. I keep my cuttings happy with lots of water, so I need a potting soil mix that will not become water logged.

Roses react to water stress by dropping their leaves, then they immediately start growing new leaves. I once did two trays of cuttings, one where I removed all the leaves, the other where I removed no leaves. The leafless cuttings quickly started sprouting new leaves, the other tray had no new growth but rooted quickly. Most of the cuttings in the leafless tray died.

The Canadian Peat Moss that I use is not dense but light and fluffy, it holds water well and releases it well. Florida has peat but it is very dense and not good for cuttings. I haven't tried it, but I know people who make miniature greenhouse for their use in their home using bags, plastic bottles ect. The secret to the bag, bottle setup is to always have enough water in the pots that use see condensation of the inside of the bag/bottle.

I would definitely go with a perlite mix.

Thank you, Val, for taking the time to answer .. and your rooting-setup looks very good. The only time I succeeded in rooting roses big enough to survive zone 5a winter was when I used 100% pine fines potting soil ... had to special-order from a nursery. Pine fines is very expensive.

Buck's rose Distant Drum was 100% healthy & fantastic looking at the rose park as GRAFTED ON DR. HUEY, but Distant-Drum as own-root was a BS-fest for a few people.

Buck's rose Hi Neighbor looked great at the rose park as GRAFTED ON DR. HUEY, but I don't know if it's vigorous enough as own-root.

Agree with you on many types of peat: Canadian Peat moss, verse sedge peat (also from plant, but less acidic).

There's the black-peat soil, nasty stuff, very dense like clay, sold cheaper than peat moss.

Khalid, I took these photos an hour ago. It has been raining off and on today, so I had to use my phone, can't get my camera wet, so please excuse the quality.

This is Blue Sky, a "Bucks" rose. It is its first year, but I like the color.

Deanna Krause, also a new rose and cross of Carefree Beauty

Cecile Brunner is a very vigorous and sweet smelling rose. The flower are miniature in size.

Another Bucks rose, Honey Sweet, I love the way it is always in bloom, not happy with the foliage, has lots of leaf spots.

Austin Heritage, always in bloom

An Old Rose, Cl Devoniensis

One of my Favorites, Dame de Coeur. It is very prolific, clean and doesn't mind the heat. Sorry for the photo quality

Pink pet an old friend, have grown it for many years.

Another favorite, Barrone Henriette de Snoy. Handles the heat, very clean and thornless.

This is Marco Polo. The rain has really hurt the old flowers, but I thought that I should post it anyway. What a remarkable rose, very clean, blooms alot.

Just three more photos. These are show some of my beds. I like to mix roses, perennials and self seeding annuals.

My pond, surround by roses and other plants

The front of my house. The birds planted the sunflowers.

The path between my house and barn

Very nice pics. Thanks Val. I like them all, esp. Barrone Henriette de Snoy, thornless , and the last yellow one. Just saw pics. of your garden .. lovely setting. I really like your pond, looks very natural with pretty rocks.

Wow.... wonderful roses and a fascinating garden. Like the "very natural" arrangement in your garden. Pink Pet looks so gorgeous. Thanks for sharing these wonderful pics Valrose.

Val: Is your Marco Polo a Meilland hybrid tea? Yellow is my favorite color, and I checked that rose in HMF, someone said it's Marco Polo is hardy for cold zone. Roses which can handle brutal cold winter tend to be vigorous for hot & dry climate too. HMF info. on Marco Polo, Meilland hybrid tea:

" extremely healthy and hardy to zone 4-5 even in strong winters.
continuously flowering."

Other Meilland roses which are hardy for my zone 5a: "Centennial Star" (gorgeous blooms !!), and Carefree Wonder.

that is such a beautiful garden Valrose.

Valrose wrote: "The "secret" to rooting soft cuttings is to figure out how to keep them from getting stressed and dropping leaves. If I can keep the leaves green and healthy, the cuttings root. If the leaves fall off, then the cutting usually die. I keep my cuttings happy with lots of water, so I need a potting soil mix that will not become water logged."

Thanks for sharing this, Valrose. This will help me in growing cuttings in monsoon.

best regards

I didn't know the origin of my Marco Polo, it was a cutting from a friends rose, but does appear to be the same rose as described as the Maitland hybrid tea. It is a very vigorous rose, some sources describe it as a climber, but unsupported it is upright and about 5' in my climate.

Thank you, Val, a good fragrant yellow that doesn't scorch in hot sun is hard to find. I don't like Julia Child since the blooms fade to white, plus the scent reeks like cough medicine. I killed Arthur Bell since the blooms became single-petals in hot temp. Marco Polo as hardy to zone 4 to 5 is impressive.

How about Sunsprite. But it would also scorch in the hot sun...

Hi Straw, I just wanted to let you know that Marco Polo is clear yellow color and lighter on the edges. Most photos show it a deeper yellow color than it really is. In cooler weather it becomes pink around the edges. It is more yellow than Elina Hybrid Tea. I don't want you to be disappointed .

Valrose: came back to this thread to admire your roses. Really like Buck Blue Sky (that one didn't do well for alkaline clay CA folks), but Buck roses look so good in your sandy soil & lots of rain.

Agree with you that the Canadian brown peatmoss is fluffier than the black-peat (more like clay).

Came back to this thread to check on Comte de Chambord, yes, Val grows it, and I agree that needs loamy soil, lots of rain, and healthier if alkaline. Comte is rooting easily in my wet baggie, and rooted easily in heavy out-door rain, while other cuttings rot. Comte has aggressive root and can root easily in alkaline sand, but I need to make my rooting-medium more acidic for the cuttings which are harder to root.

Pink Pet definitely likes dry/loamy soil and warmer climate (Val's pic. is awesome). But died in my soaking wet clay last winter.

bump up for reference.

To be entirely frank, in my " soil, and amount of rainfall" I would have to say ... opuntia cactus.

Many thanks to Valrose for her sharing of how roses perform in hot & sandy Florida with high-rain. I learn a lot from you, Valrose, and I really appreciate your generous sharing of info., esp. on rooting roses in your nursery. Lilian Austin doesn't like my soaking wet clay. It's quite thorny, thus prefer drier & faster-draining soil like loamy/or sand.

bump up for reference on choosing the right own-root roses.