Imagine walking out into the rose garden to say good morning, which I’m sure everyone does every day…I know I do! It’s part of my routine, and in the summer the roses keep growing all night when it’s hot and steamy. I walk from rose to rose and from garden to garden. Picking off a beetle here and breathing in the scent there. This year I’m seeing something really unusual more often. An alien rose! It’s something strange that happens right in the center of an open bloom. That’s when the petals open wide and expose the center of the plant so the pollen-laden stamens can dance in the breeze. This year, I’m seeing weird growths in the centers of the blooms on some of the roses. It looks like a bud, or in some cases, multiple buds that grow right on upward!

The first time I saw this phenomenon was probably 30 years ago and it really freaked me out! I thought it was some kind of strange rose cancer or something and I ran for the pruners to cut it off. I cut through those small buds in the center of the bloom, and sure enough there were tiny petals and stamens and everything that belonged in an immature rose bud. When the rose rebloomed, the blossoms were normal.

Alien Rose?

This strange happening is called ‘Phyllody’ or ‘Proliferation.’ A more technical term than ‘alien rose’. While it can be a harbinger of rare diseases, usually it is a response from your rose to the weather conditions. Some reading material attributes it to cold springs so the first flush of bloom is affected. Usually, though, when I have seen it, the temperatures have been soaring…yesterday we touched 99 degrees here in Windsor…and in checking around the garden, I’ve found more proliferation than normal.

Botanical observers have been writing about these alien rose happenings since the 1700’s! I think the bottom line is that as long as your rosebush is growing well and is healthy, don’t let the proliferation bother you. Deadhead the bloom, and the next round should give you the blooms you know and love.

Old Roses

I rescued a rose from Old North Cemetery in Hartford three years ago and have been giving away plants to anyone that is interested in growing it. It is a beautiful, fragrant bloom, and I’m trying to find out what this rose’s name really is. Last summer, I spoke to a rosarian in New Jersey who is a rose rustler. He and his ‘rose sidekicks’ go to old cemeteries a lot, dig suckers, take cuttings, and propagate these lovely old ladies so they don’t become lost in the rose world. After seeing my pictures and chatting a couple of times, he suggested that our rose might be ‘Prolifera de Redoute.’

I told him that I hadn’t seen any proliferation on my rose, but it was just the first year. Well, guess what? This year she gave me a spectacular, fragrant bloom. There were literally hundreds of beautiful, deep pink globular roses that perfumed the whole yard. Then, when the bloom was finished, I noticed that I was having a second flush. This rose is an old garden rose that only blooms once, so I thought that was really unusual. When I went out to check, sure enough, the new flush had proliferated through the spent blossoms!

You see? Sometimes unusual happenings can help to identify a beloved, unnamed newcomer…in this case, our Old North Cemetery Rose just might be ‘Prolifera de Redoute,’ which was first identified in the early 1700’s! So, if you see some proliferation, don’t worry. It’s probably just due to weather conditions out in the garden.