Interesting! This might be a climate specific issue. I have two of these Raspberry Cupcake roses, one in full sun and one in part shade, both grafted from Home Depot. They both bloom steadily and are pushing 5' tall, much taller than I expected. They're not yet covered in blooms but I don't see much down time where there aren't at least a few blooms. I find the blooms last pretty long in my dry climate and they keep most of their leaves.

In your climate, if she's not wowing you it may be time to look elsewhere. You might give it one more June - particularly if it's own root and needing a little more maturity. The third year can be the charm with some roses.

For me it's a keeper, but YMMV

Cynthia

Thank you! Mine is own root, maybe I need to give her more time then. It's hard to be patient when all of her neighbors bloom away and she's sitting there stingy

Elestrial,

Can you please report on RC's black spot resistance? I have my eye on this rose, but if it gets black spot before July 1st., I will pass on this appealing rose.

Moses.

She's very healthy, no blackspot on mine. Even in this cold damp weather she's clean as a whistle. A nice rounded growth habit too

Healthy and a great bloomer here, I have 5.

Only rose blooming in the super heat of the summer as a baby plant.

More established plants. Moses she usually hold blooms well, but here in my picture after a rain some were pointing down.

Baby plant up close. The scent is wonderful and disease resistance strong.

The young plant pictures were taken August 31, 2025.

Wow, yours are beautiful! Are yours grafted?

Gorgeous, Dianela. Sadly, it was a dud for me. Yes very healthy and a nicely rounded, well foliated bush, but few, unremarkable blooms that balled and browned in just air humidity. It was sheltered by an overhanging roof so got little direct rain.

Last year I planted two Raspberry cupcake rose plants from HCR . The bushes stayed small and were healthy but rarely bloomed , very small & unimpressive blooms unlike the pics . I Shovel pruned them eventually . I think it does well in cooler climates .

Elestrial My 2 original plants came from heirloom and took two to 3 years to bloom well. My newer plants came from a local garden center own root but potted, and were much bigger plants (looked like a couple years old, and started blooming well right away). Anything own root that started small I try to give three years before judging. If after that they don’t do well then it’s gone. If they dont impress you spring 2026 make space for something new.

Nolly it’s a shame a didn’t do well in your climate, we are extremely humid here and it does great, but roses seem to have a mind of their own and act so different.

Pink rose I am sorry yours didn’t do well, but you may have removed them prematurely. If you got them from High country their roses are own root and very small, they definitely take more than one year to establish. Our summer temperatures and humidity are very similar to south Florida, we just get cold in the winter.

Thanks everyone! I'll give mine more time. Mine came from High Country too, so I may give them 2 more years

Dianela, is this your new house on the pic above?

Hi judi! Yes we wont be able to finish the exterior for a while, but we moved in 2ish months ago. My only finished flowered bed is around the house, but I am starting to plant at other areas also. Here I go again, I am praying this will be my forever garden.

Nice pine straw, dianela.

I have to begin my annual scavenging for some soon.

Dianela, roses do indeed have a mind of their own! Thinking about it, we do get very heavy dew here due to surrounding rivers and forests, so most roses are wet in the mornings even when daytime temps are up to 100f. That might explain why mine balled but yours do fine in humidity. I didn’t keep it for long, admittedly, but once a baller always a baller, I find. I hung on to one particular balling rose for five years hoping it would get over it, but alas..

rifis hope you find lots of straw. I refused to use it for several years until i realized it made all the difference on me being able to do all my own mulching.

@NollieSpainZ9 My experience with RC has been akin to yours. Even though I’m in California, I apparently get enough coastal fog that RC’s blooms ball & rot nonstop for me. Big and lush healthy bush though, so there’s that.

@dianela7analabama your pictures give me hope as mine is just two yrs old so I won’t be giving it away quite yet…

Nollie, Rifis, SD, Nollie, Elestrial,

Thank you for your comments on this thread on RC. It great to hear how you all grow RC in different climates, humid, sun, and shade.

Elestrial,

Surprised at end of 2 years it hardly blooms, however it may not be growing well in not enough sun?

It sppears in humid climates it may ball & bloom less if not much sun, like Nollie’s shaded RC. She has hot sun, but her RC was shaded some.

’Dianella, in Alabama, in very very hot sunny temps, though humid, her RC does well, despite humidity.

I noticed I had a super hot & more humid summer in NY this season, however, more hot & humid than any year. I had balling on 2 roses that never happened in all my 30 years of rose gardening. It slowed growth on my Pas de Deux , which balled & bloomed less. Pas de Deux is fine, bloomed well a little. I am thinking it will not be ”that hot or humid in future.)

@Elestrial,

Is your Raspberry Cupcake in ”lots of sun?” ,

I find my yard has trees or house that cast shade at different times of day & different sun hits it from soring to summer. Roses that were growing well with more sun in summer all summer day , now in fall have shade on them by 2pm in afternoon. If your RC is getting less sun than 6-10 hours in humid climate, it sounds like it will not bloom much.

I think it needs really strong hot sun like in Alabama?

I had a RC, which arrived with buds, 2 gallon. It bloomed asap . I didn’t keep her because I didn’t have a good spot for her in planting & was not impressed with first year blooms shape. I see Dianella has good bloom shape when mature & fragrance. I may have needed to give her more a chance.

I have had so many Kordes, that I am shying away from them now. My modern Kordes have excellent disease resistance-i bought many Kordes as a result. They are very leafy in humid weather looking good-not too many blooms-spaced out blooms. However, they grow huge! I want to remove Cinderella with giant canes, small blooms, no fragrance. I think I am just wanting unique florist roses so I was thinning out any unspectacular roses, at the time.

I am going to remove a few more roses this week to make room for my new florist roses.

I may give them away.

Elestrial,

Anyway, if you can find a more sunny spot for RC in next spring, transplant her when dormant early & she may have a better season. (Try not to disturb roots.)? Also, fertilize possibly more? I didn’t fertilize when I had extreme heat in August & my roses slowed growth by August end. I gave them a lot of Rose Tone, alfala and fish fertilizer in Sept, and now they are all turning greener again and growing well. If your leaves ate lighter green, fertilizing may be needed?

It also is possible it is not receiving enough “potassium or phosphorous,” which creates blooms due to not enough sun or not soil it likes or fertilizing? . I mix Morbloom with potassium & phosphorousc in with Alaska Fish Fertlizer high in nitrogen (for green griwth.) Then roses received balanced NPK.

However, stop fertiliing 6 weeks before first frost. Time for roses to stop growing & gov dormant before winter.

Could you show a recent photo of your RC?

Thank you, Kitty

Some reasons in above attachment for flowering roses When RC reaches optimal griwing conditions such as more mature, hot enough sun, day length of sun long, rich soil nutrients, fertilizer, it will move from vegetative growth to reproduction growth-flower development! When it’s really growing well it flowers often. Cool!

Happy Gardening! Kitty

Dianella,

I am curious about your straw mulching? Do you use strawxall season? Does it keep ground drier? I have raised beds soil, lots of rain and humidity. Ground can still stay wet too much. Maybe steaw would help me? Curious?

My yard is full hot sun, so definitely not that. She gets regular fertilizing & this year I regularly gave her sulfate of potash to help coax some blooms. It didn't work. I don't think I have any photos of her...she's never impressed me so she never got a picture. She's put on a lot of growth - just a nice rounded healthy bush

To be perfectly honest, I'm not a terribly big fan of Kordes roses, they seem to be stingy for me. Might just be the varieties I'm choosing. I have an Earth Angel who gives me just two flushes a year and I've had her for 4 years and wondering if I should remove her

I think the humidity slows blooming in our roses. We don’t have hot like Alabama maybe. My roses did grow faster when it was teally hot in summer-bloom more 80-107F. . It’s not healthy the humidity for them. Kordes don’t seem to have tons of blooms for me , either-big bushes medium blooms. They are nice blooms like Bliss & Beverly! Some perfumed & disease resistant-so I keep a few. . DA bloom a ton! Cream Veranda is a super bloomer-the best! I tried out 26 Kordes & have kept 5 large Kordes & 5 Verandas. I may remove 2 Kordes to make room for my glorist roses.

ROSIE FRIENDS,

Check out my “Japanese & Florist rose garden” HOUZZ thread. I just added 21 of my new florist roses for 2925 season. Scroll upward forvmany pists this morning….. Thank you, Kitty.

No lack of sun or nutrients for mine. It got the optimum (for here) 4 hours of direct morning sun in the best, most sought-after position in my garden.

Humidity doesn’t bother or slow up the rest of my roses, Kitty. It’s only the the ballers and the severe black-spotters, both of which are given short shrift. Extreme heat and hot winds affect blooming more.

Some roses just work for you and others don’t. Most Kordes I have tried haven’t worked here or excited me, plus fragrance is mostly lacking. RC was my last punt with them. I appreciate they can be fantastic roses for others.

Same experience with Kordes roses for me Nollie. They're very healthy here but stingy, and their rose fragrances haven't been my favorites. But I've spoken with people who have some of the same Kordes roses that I have and they do great there. It's confusing and frustrating for sure

It is definitely very interesting and somewhat frustrating to me how different roses act. Even in my own garden I have had the same variety in different locations both in full sun acting different. All we can do is try them and if we don’t love them try something else. I am not going to lie Austin’s are my absolute favorite, but I don’t want to commit to spraying so I am trying lots of Kordes as they tend to be healthier. If I could have a garden full of Austins without constant spraying I would not miss many of my Kordes except for Earth Angel. RC does have an amazing strong fragrance which is the top reason she is in my garden.

Kitty I use straw all year instead of wood mulch. I think if you have trouble with the soil staying too went just skip the mulch altogether. The straw is a very good insulator and it helps keep the soil moist because it becomes a very tight carpet. It also works very well for anything with a slope because it stays together better than wood mulch.

Dianela,

Thanks! No straw for me.

I use alfalfa hay under roses if I can. I love the protection and soil building qualities it has. Beth Chatto in England used straw in her Dry Garden book.

Sheila I just read an article about Beth Chatto in the English Garden magazine and remembered your post.

Ah, pine straw! If only! When we go to the beach and I see all those piles of pine needles,if it were up to me, I'd stuff the car full of them on the way home! but my DH would never go for THAT,lol.

Nollie, I hate balling, too.

“Elestrial,

Can you please report on RC's black spot resistance? I have my eye on this rose, but if it gets black spot before July 1st., I will pass on this appealing rose.

Moses.”

https://www.homedepot.com/p/BLOOMABLES-Bare-Root-Rose-Scentables-Raspberry-Cupcake-Hybrid-Tea-with-Pink-Flowers-2-Pack-HD1413/324547910

That's not a bad price - 2 for $37

Thanks, Rifis. A steal of a deal! And with two, I can give my, 'two or 3 in the same hole,' scheme a try this year. Always looking for new ways of doing things.

Moses.