I love FC too! This is the one that is recovering from nearly dying several times and having been weed wacked to within an inch of its life several times.

Yours is very full of petals! Amazing that it does well in Florida too!

Couple more bush shots from this morning. In each photo First Crush is on the left of the trellis. Madame Anisette is on the right of the trellis. Summer Romance is on either side (no trellis directly behind). They’re different bushes.

I have these three roses repeating along a stone wall. 4 of each.

Two of my FCs are about 5 ft tall (just got them in spring). Two are about 2-3 ft... but they’re growing new basals so I have a feeling the will be tall soon too. Sumer Romance and Madame Anisette have more arching growth, while I think First Crush would make a great hedge. I like my stone rose wall idea with all three repeating though. :-)

Thank you. It seems happy here. Yours are really pretty and have so many blooms! This FC is at least 3 years old, maybe 4, even though it's been a rough 4 years. The blooms have definitely gotten fuller. I hope when it gets bigger and stronger I'll get more blooms at once.

Blooms look great Cori Ann! :-)

And suncoastflowers!

Gorgeous! SR has done well for me too. A hedge of FC would be amazing!

You all are lucky - she seems to be much better suited to warm weather. FC was a total dud for me. Two own root plants went in the ground last spring, one made it halfway through the fall then died and the other is still about the same size it was 18 months ago I saw 1 misshapen bloom and she's been covered with blackspot. Nothing like Earth Angel and Madame A which were planted at the same time and have been almost unbelievably vigorous and perfectly healthy. I'm glad FC is performing well for others though. Keep posting pictures.

Even thought I threw a bunch of them away for arriving with spider mites, they did well here also in high heat and humidity and shade. Still have some in full sun in both clay and sand and they are doing fine without a lot of care.

My Lowe's reject is finally doing well after being transplanted into better soil. Healthy leaves for once and is already putting on multiple buds and new basals. I think it likes the alfalfa hay i gave it. : )

Pretty Petals what a display! Do you have all 10 in a hedge or group of some sort? I really think that would look amazing with this rose.

Mine had an amazing month long spring flush and only one or two blooms since then. We got a lot of rain in August which resulted in Kashmir, Plum perfect and Poseidon being covered in blooms but First crush barely did anything. It is completely healthy I just hope the repeat is better next year.

Hey Cori. I have about 7 all together but not a hedge per say. The others are scattered out down a path. I love this rose.

Oh my goodness, those are too lovely for words, Prettypetals! Lisa

I agree, WOW!

I really need to prune my FC because I get one rose st a time, pretty much one right after the other st the end of the octopus arms. It makes me laugh though because it looks like it's waving at me.

I really need this rose. Gorgeous pictures you guys

I have a similar experience as Modest's with my third year FC. Last year it did the same. Thing, but I thought perhaps it was due to transplanting it. Maybe it is just not warm enough here? Or too much shade. I did have a midge problem too this year so who knows.

wow beautiful I have about 15 roses but it is there first year Next year will be better I hope just worried about the winter it is very cold in quebec grr

If this is what my First Crush does in fall... what will it do in spring? Amazing!

Thick, waxy petals like a gardenia. Scent like champagne and apricots or fruit cocktail. Perfect foliage. I love this rose.

Note, they are long canes (“octopus arms” to some), but almost everything grows like that here so I have them pulled and trained laterally, just about 45 degrees, across a trellis and this is what they did. About 2 dozen buds per cane. In fall!!! On a young rose!

That's quite the picture!!! I wish I could touch my screen and be transported into it! This thread convinced me to move mine towards the back of my beds to grow laterally along the balustrades. She's really blossomed from the tiny, spindly thing she was recently and has about 12 nice fat buds waiting to open as a thank you. Still small, but I see good things for her in the future. I'll post pics if the weather holds out for them to open. : ( It's suddenly in the 60s and 70s.

One of mine (with the long canes) is in too much shade. I think it's searching for more light. I was hoping they would sprout laterals since they are at a 45 degree angle, but so far nada!

Both of mine threw up huge basals. One cane had a cluster of 4, but the rest were single. Wondering if I could peg it come spring.

Mine are clustered, similar to Cori Ann's, but on a MUCH smaller plant. I gave mine some alfalfa hay when I transplanted her; maybe that's the reason she's so happy.

I was wondering about pegging too, Witchygirl. If pruning and removing the tree doesn't help I might do that. The one so have in sun has short canes and is bushier.

Pretty petals your bouquet is perfection! The vase looks nice too!

Looking forward to a big first flush!

Like Modest, I am not expecting much rebloom on this one which is why it is behind the Japanese maple in a less prominent spot.

The Lady of Shallot behind First Crush reblooms much better in a partial shade spot in comparison.

Vaporvac, how's 'First Crush' is doing as a short climber/trellised in your zone?

Well, we'll have to wait and see about that, but none of her short little canes were killed back in -7 nights and single digit days and weeks of freeze/thaw. She was a weakling from the Lowe's reject pile for $3 at the end of 1016. I plopped her into a crappy hole to get her through the winter. I suspect she had the horrible root system we've been talking about recently. She gave maybe 1 bloom until I moved her into a good hole and spread her roots last Fall.. She almost rewarded me with a huge flush (on her little self), but winter intervened. She's looking very good today, putting out lots of new growth, so while I can't answer your question, I do think she's a winner. Her buds develop slowly as they're petal packed.

That's great to hear! We didn't get that cold (wind chill we did, but not temp) but we had that freeze-thaw too. I foresee a lot of the "Parfuma" series getting a try in my yard. I should really wait until next year, but Lowes isn't that far away...

Dark Desire is alive, but killed right down, OTOH. Summer Romance is SOLID, even better than Fire Opal that had some dead canes.

vaporvac- I have similar experience. Savannah, Plum Perfect and First Crush all look sad. First Crush has a tiny cane growing from her base but had complete cane death over the winter. Savannah might be dead. She's not showing any hint of growth. One Plum Perfect looks dead, the others are just hanging on. Winter Sun is struggling. South Africa is dead. It seems like the sunbelt line isn't very hardy for our erratic winters.

sharon

got FC from Lowes, at year end clearance. Wasn't sure I even wanted it(as i have too many pinks already), but thought why not, plant looked very lush and healthy. Plant was potted, so don't remember if it was bare root or own root. Planted it in ground 2017 fall, no cover for winter(got down to single digits this year). It's covered with fat buds(our winter in richmond, va just finally ended!) and several sturdy new canes. Beautiful Shiny leaves, I don't spray. I even dropped a big branch from an oak tree(heavy) while pruning- plants still doing great even after losing a few canes! Based on everyone's comments and the beautiful pics, sounds like a winner.

Dark Desire is going in a bed with some others I know will do better with a covering of leaves, so I'm alright with that. As long as it will still bloom fine getting a hard trim in the spring.

Sharon, that's good to know about Winter Sun - I ordered it this spring! I'm wondering if it might do better on the north side of my yard where it stays consistently cooler, vs. the south where it warms up more.

First Crush photos here today...

so pretty. I wish it was hardier. I might try to winter protect my tender roses next fall and see if that helps.

sharon

can't wait till mine looks like that, such a cool spring, might be a few more weeks before our first flush

I'm still getting ONE.bloom.at.a.time.. but OH what a bloom! . So full and quartered!

I haven't pruned this one because it was the one that kept getting whacked down, after voles ate it's roots all the way down to nothing. It has been through the wringer.

However, it is sending up several new canes so I am going to chop the older somewhat bare canes off when the new ones get a little bigger and hope to get better bloom from it.

J Sturg interestingly enough mine are one of the only roses hardly bothered by thrips here. BUT... where I have it there are several little lizard families and maybe they’re eating all of them off the roses?

Is the fragrance totally champagne and fruit cocktail cups or what? Or maybe a Bellini? It’s delicious!

I was able to snag a First Crush last weekend at Lowe’s for $10! I can’t wait for it to start blooming, everyone’s pics are amazing, it’s such a pretty rose and the fragrance sounds delightful. Cori Ann your photography is superb, you have managed to capture this rose at its best.

coriann .. your First Crush is so pretty! thats next in the list for me..

Oh boy, I'm kicking myself now. I saw one container of First Crush at Lowes a week ago, and now it's gone. I had read enough negatives about it to turn me away, but from the posts from other enablers in my zone, it clearly is something I'd love to try.

3 or 4 people in this thread found it on sale at Lowe's.

Going to have to stalk their garden centers.

My Lowe's only has Knockouts this year. Such a disappointment. I didn't go all crazy with mail order places because they've had such great roses the past couple of years I thought I'd save some money for that. Oh well.

Mine had mostly knockouts and drifts, but also a handful of floribundas branded under Star Roses.

I love first crush but it's a beetle magnet, must be because it's so fragrant. Japanese beetles hang on even if the flowers are all spent out.

Lowes in Ric, va did not have very many kordes roses this year, the ones they did have were the drift variety. Also, they were completely gone before they could end up in clearance, which is where I snagged my FC from last year. This year I stumbled across vavoom-love the orange. Lowes did get a few more interesting hybrids mid summer from Weeks roses in 2 gallon pots. Never seen roses disappear so fast.