I planted my 3 gallon ones 18” apart about 4 years ago. They have reached their maturity and stayed approx 18” tall and 18” wide.

I also have Apricot Drift, Coral Drift, Sweet Drift and added White Drift this year. Peach Drift is the largest together with Sweet Drift among all.

I think Sweet Drift is the heaviest bloomer, with the quickest repeat. Does anyone agree, disagree? Let me know quick, before I buy it and find out otherwise, because my Apricot Drift is my favorite for color. It's fragrant too, surprisingly so.

Like Suzanne is doing, but for a different reason, I am replacing all my 'pain in the neck' minis at the front of my border with Drifts, mostly Apricots so far, but the Sweet Drift which caught my attention is in the tube to purchase this Friday!

Moses

Moses, to me, Sweet Drift is the best repeat bloomer with the heaviest blooms. They bloomed all the way into last Thanksgiving.

Zzzone7b, where exactly are you geographically?

Zzz,

Thanks greatly. I wil try ONE Sweet Drift, and go ahead with my plan to plant 6 more Apricot Drifts, which will make my total of Apricot Drifts, 11 bushes. Boy do I like the heavy petal count and color of Apricot Drift, especially in cool weather when an intense, deep apricot color comes through the bloom's center, really pretty. Not intensely fragrant, they are definitely at least moderately fragrant, not zero "0" fragrance reported in its marketing.

Moses

Suzanne, I’m in Southern Virginia off the coast.

Moses, you’ll like Sweet Drift. They have the old fashion very double blooms. They self clean so I didn’t have to prune them at all during the growing season. I love my Apricot Drift too. They are the most changeable in colors that each bush has colors from peach to apricot to pink. I didn’t notice any smell mostly because I’ve never thought of smelling them. You said they have a little fragrance, interesting discovery, I’ll try this year. Peach Drift is also lovely, growth is especially vigorous and shiny green foliage looks so healthy. I’ll see how White Drift does this summer, so far excellent performance.

My experience with Peach Drift is different than that of zzzone in 7b.

I have just one. Purchased as a 1 gallon OR 3 years ago this July. Grown by IvyAcres in PA - an intimate next door neighbor of Star (Roses and Plants).

It gets 5 to 5 1/2 hours of mid-day NJ sun. I cut it back moderately 5 weeks ago. Today, it was 2x2.5 feet (length x width) and maybe 16 inches high when I did my thrice weekly survey. I had seen this discussion prior to conducting it, and thus paid particular attention to PD. It will be bigger, I suspect, by the time flower buds are present.

Thanks, Moses and Zzzone7b.

What I'm puzzling over is that my Peach Drifts are already 24 inches wide or more, and they're still in the pots. (3 gallon pots). They're short but wide. Super healthy looking, wonderful glossy foliage. I'll need to plant them 24 inches apart at least, but can't help but wonder if they're going to get bigger.

Hi rifis - I just now saw your comment. I think we must have been posting at the same time. Yes, based on the size my Peach Drifts are now --- even in the pot --- it seems likely that they'll spread some more.

I wonder if a 30 inch spacing would be appropriate? Somewhere on the Roses forum -- but I can't find the posting now -- someone talked about putting in Drift roses too close together, and then having to pull half of them out.

Suzanne, I forgot to mention I do hard prune all my drift roses down to 6”- 8” each year. Maybe that helped keeping them petite. Coral drift is the smallest drift rose in my garden. They stayed 12” x 12”.

Thanks, zzz. My guy is coming Saturday morning to plant all these peach drifts, so I need to make a decision. I hope 30 inches will be enough (and not too much).

Wow, zzz, thank you so much for the picture! I really appreciate your going to the trouble to help me out. Your roses look great. I think maybe I'll just space mine at 24" after all. That's the width of the foliage now, and if they grow past that maybe they can meld at the edges.

No worries. I learned so much from this forum I truly appreciate everyone’s generosity of info and knowledge so I’m more than happy to pay it forward. I think you can always prune them a little harder to control the size. They respond to pruning pretty well. I know there are nurseries mow them down to the ground every winter and these little roses are so vigorous that they come back nicely in spring.

Thank you so much zzz. We got all the roses planted yesterday, and by the time we were finished I was way too overheated and exhausted to even think about taking a picture. But the little Drift roses look great. I still need to get one more -- with the 24" spacing we ended up being one short. Once everything gets settled in I may try to post some pictures. Thanks again so much for your help!

You were too overheated and exhausted?

Then what was the “guy” for?

Ha! He digs the holes, which I can't do anymore.