Flower color changed!

[ButterflyLady29]

I bought a potted rose from the local grocery store, it was labeled a victory rose if that helps. Anyway, when purchased the flowers were a lovely lavender color. I took it home and repotted it into potting soil mixed with coir fiber and some rabbit manure and rabbit urine soaked pine pellets. The next buds the plant formed were a florescent red/pink. Has anyone else ever had this happen? Are some roses like hydrangeas and the flower color is partly determined by the soil ph?

I'm so disappointed, I can buy hot pink roses by the dozen but it took me nearly a year to find the lavender colored one. Any help or ideas are greatly appreciated.

[rainbowgardener]

The most common reason for this is that roses, especially unusual colored ones like that, are grafted on to a hardy rootstock, most frequently red or deep pink. Since the rootstock is used because it is so much stronger and more vigorous than the hybrid, it can kind of take over, especially if the graft union wasn't buried. So now you have the root stock sending up shoots and blooming. If that is allowed to continue, the top rose, the one you wanted, will die.

It is possible for a "sport" mutation to happen, but that would usually only affect one branch and it usually produces paler flowers, not darker. Some minor changes can happen related to weather - e.g. roses may fade in the heat.

But I'm guessing what you have is a shoot from the rootstock.

[imafan26]

I might also have changed color as it aged.

[rainbowgardener]

I bought a potted rose from the local grocery store, .... I took it home and repotted it into potting soil ..... The next buds the plant formed were a florescent red/pink. .

doesn't sound like it "aged" any, if the very next buds were red. However, it also doesn't sound like there was much time for any other processes to happen, like the root stock growing out.

I did some more looking around. This question of roses changing color (usually from some desired color to red/pink) is a common one around the web. No one seems to think it could be a response to pH. But it is also reputed to be a response to temperature and sun exposure. But usually that leads to changing from darker to lighter. Someone on another forum said:

Very dark blends seem to be most affected by high temperature and bleaching from the sun. My fragrant plum is very dark in the spring and fall and relatively pale in the heat and strong sun of the summer.

But I also did find this:

It is not unusual for roses to "change color." A minor change occurs when cooler weather intensifies pink-to-red shades, or age and hot weather fade them. https://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/why_are_my ... ging_color

So it sounds like cooler weather could make your lavender roses darker. What has your weather been like?

[imafan26]

I looked up "victory rose". It should have been yellow. I guess that is the problem with buying roses from grocers instead of rose companies.

But it is unusual for the roses to bloom in different colors on the same bush. Roses like peace will have variations from plant to plant in the depth of the cerise around the edges and as flowers age they can be come darker or lighter depending on the weather.

[ButterflyLady29]

The plant was in a cooler at the store and much warmer the next time it bloomed. Also it was in a much sunnier location when the next buds were produced. No, it wasn't sprouting from the old rootstock, it was the same branches and didn't have enough time to grow to blooming size from the old rootstock. The change happened within 2 weeks. Victory wasn't the variety name, just what that store calls their little potted roses in the cooler section of the florist department. The old lavender flower was on the same branch as the new hot pink one.

So apparently it must have been the weather and sun exposure. Bummer. Oh well, maybe if I put it in the basement where it's cool and has artificial light it will turn lavender again.

Thanks for the info. I had searched before and couldn't find anything about it.

[imafan26]

If you want true lavender roses Sterling Silver, Angel face, Memorial Day, Barbra Striesand,Neptune,Amnesia, Ocean Song, and Nautica. Sterling Silver was the first lavender rose Angel face was made from it as well as Heirloom. Some can be whiter when they are crossed with white roses and blush more toward the deeper pinks when crossed with pink and red roses.

[ButterflyLady29]

Well I was hoping it would come out lavender when it bloomed again but sadly it's still red.

[ButterflyLady29]

Here's a picture of the whole plant.

I think it's pretty but definitely not the color it was when I bought it. I really liked the lavender.