I've never really looked for fall color on my roses. I'll have to remember to do that next fall.

If you're interested in a fun rose hobby to do over the winter cut those nice ripe hips and take out the seeds and grow them! There's a ton of info on here in the propagation forum on how to do it but it isn't hard, costs very little in supplies and is lots of fun! Keeps me sane through the winter!

I'll have to try it Seil! I bet there would be some interesting (hopefully beautiful) seedlings :) I would really like to see what the Rose du Roi sport would produce! ...and Ballerina might be interesting to see, but its hips are sooo tiny!!

My goal next spring is to learn to propagate from cuttings. I tried it a couple of times this year with a ziploc baggie and nothing took. I also just tried sticking them in potting mix in the shade and some budded, but later died. I'll have to try it with some differnt types of roses that root easier too.

I'm amazed at all the colorful foliage in the fall on your roses. Mine don't do that at all. Is it your climate that somehow brings out the reds/purples shades? Or is it just the variety of rose--some being more inclined that way in the cooler autumn weather? I would love it if my roses would pick up some of those autumn hues.

Kate

Kate, I'm not sure if there is any rhyme or reason in which roses produce fall color for me. Up until this year I only had about 50 roses (then this season came the 150 rose BOOM! I'm exhausted from all the digging!!) But, in general my 4 rugosa varieties seem to produce nice fall foliage, with Hansa leading the pack. With the rest of them, its just hit or miss. Jeremiah Pink has been beautiful for the past 3-4 years that I've had him, but my other albas do nothing unfortunetly. My most colorful tend to be Father Hugo (absolute favorite!), Ramblin Red, and modern gallica Rook...and it looks like Cancan will also be beatiful in the fall when its larger :)
~Tammy

Lovely bud pic of Louis Philipe.

That's a nice looking plant from Pickering. Seeing your pic makes me look forward to spring planting.

Do give it a try, Tammy! Even though those hips are tiny they should have seeds in them. Just an FYI, they will produce seedlings. Each one will be a brand new variety of rose and not a sport. Sports are genetic mutations on an existing and growing plant. Seedlings are a whole new mix of genes depending on what pollen was used in the pollination. Although less likely, even self pollinated hips can produce some wide variations but more generally will look very much like the parent plant. If you'd like a copy of my pdf on how I do mine send me a PM with your email address and I'll get it out to you!

Cuttings are always iffy so don't beat yourself up about it. With practice and experimentation you get better at it but I don't think anyone can say theirs take 100% of the time. Sometimes it has to do with the material your working with.