Nine years later....

6 years ago

last modified: 6 years ago

I have extreme patience. I once babied a peach versicolor brug for 7 years until it bloomed, then died soon after. But I was determined to turn this plant back into the gorgeous bloom-filled plant it was in my old yard.

2011 - dug up my Confederate Rose from my old house in North Port and put it into a 7-gallon pot. This plant was very precious to me because it was grown from seeds I got in a trade here on GW that had been smuggled into the US from Hawaii sewed inside the hem of her skirt. It's not the usual blooms-white-turns-pink variety, but the one like I used to have in SC that blooms pink and turns a darker pink. It was beset by every insect possible when I was in Venice, and I fought just to keep it alive.

2013 - moved to Gainesville, brought my confederate rose with me. It never bloomed while in the container, no matter what I did.

2015 - moved into this apartment. By now, this formerly amazing plant was reduced to one weak stem. I planted it outside in September, and it froze back to the ground that winter. I didn't know if it would come back. I prayed over it a lot, talked to it and begged it to live.

2016 - in May, I finally saw a tiny bit of green around the bottom of the plant, then another, then another. It put up three shoots that year, but was beset with whiteflies and almost died -- again.

2017 - 2018 - it was beset with whiteflies and thrips and only ever put out one bloom, which was distorted and ugly. I was trying to grow it organically, but came to the realization that if I was to save it and ever have blooms on it, chemical intervention would be necessary.

2019 - I treated the plant with Bayer systemic insecticide once it got to a decent size, and re-treated it three months later. I fertilized it with 10-10-10 and later with 15-30-15 to get it to bloom. This month, it finally put out buds, and I treated it again to ensure the thrips didn't get the buds.

This morning..

IT BLOOMED! It has dozens of buds, so I'm waiting for it to burst forth into full bloom, but this will do for now. Sorry it's not the best quality, and the flower really isn't fully open, but it was still not completely light and I had to hold the camera way over my head to get this shot, since it's over 10 feet tall.

Featured Answer

vml68

6 years ago

Awesome! That is some serious persistence and patience. I am glad you were rewarded for all that effort.

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Comments (13)

popmama (Colorado, USDA z5)
6 years ago
Now that is some serious perseverance. Gardeners don't give up easily! Congratulations.
dirtygardener thanked popmama (Colorado, USDA z5)
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Glenn Jones(9b)
6 years ago
Very nice DG I'm glad it finally bloomed for you and what a beautiful bloom it is.
dirtygardener thanked Glenn Jones(9b)
irma_stpete_10a
6 years ago
Bravo! A beautiful flower and bush! 9 years ... whew!
dirtygardener thanked irma_stpete_10a
mjkjrobinson
6 years ago
Way to go, your awesome! Beautiful flowers!
dirtygardener thanked mjkjrobinson
HU-986973820
6 years ago
Congrats! just to be safe, try air-layering a branch as an insurance. I did mine and took three weeks to get a well rooted baby.
dirtygardener
Original Author
6 years ago
Air-layering is really unnecessary. I root cuttings constantly in water, in fact, I cut large branches off when it starts to lose all its leaves and just stick them in a bucket of water during the winter, and they root quite readily. I grew my first one from seeds, but they don't have seeds up here, so I always root cuttings. I cut them from 8" to a couple of feet long and they always root. They do root better in the summer, though.
tcgardener Zone 10a SE Florida
6 years ago
Beautiful blooms!!! Hope it keeps going for you.
dirtygardener
Original Author
6 years ago
It's still blooming up a storm. I'm very happy with it.
justcallmepool
6 years ago
Love it!

My mom gave me a couple cuttings from her confederate rose and I planted them both several months ago. One took off and grew very well, but the other almost died. It recovered and came back, although smaller, and it was doing quite well when I stupidly decided it was getting crowded in its location and moved it. The next day the leaves were wilted and dried up in the sun. So that sucked bc it even had several blooms.

My other one that was doing so well also got whitefly and I am trying to keep it going even though half the leaves look brown and gross and it's looking sparse now. But it did have one bloom this week! DH and I were so excited. I'll post some pics.

When I got married 9 years ago next week, our wedding budget was next to nill and we used the confederate roses from my mom's tree as my bouquet. So to us it always referred to as the Wedding Tree. :-) And I really really want it to look amazing one day, hopefully next year. I will look into that Bayer insecticide you mentioned. I'm currently trying neem oil.
justcallmepool
6 years ago
Day 1
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Day 2

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dirtygardener
Original Author
6 years ago
Houzz is evidently messing with the site again, because my post keeps disappearing. I'll try again later.
sultry_jasmine_nights (Florida-9a-ish)
6 years ago
You are very patient! Its beautiful. I have one rose of sharon that is double blue. I like them they are mostly carefree unlike the tropical hibiscus etc.