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'Ring of Fire ™' rose Reviews & Comments
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Is this rose very thorny?
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#1 of 1 posted
1 NOV by
 Lee H.
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Mine I would say is above average for prickle quantity. And they are downward curving for maximum pain infliction.
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Initial post
6 APR 21
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* This post deleted by user *
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I have read that Ring of Fire is very winter tender - in Horizon Roses nearly everyone in zone 6 and colder said they have trouble getting ROF to come through the winter. Some say they will still grow it as an annual since it is so good! Did you do anything special or unique for winter protection?
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#2 of 7 posted
27 APR 21 by
JoeyT
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I honestly was gobsmacked to find it budding out so beautifully, because I'd also heard that it is very tender and I was warned 'don't expect it to be alive in spring'. I even saved the receipt from purchase because I was sure that it wouldn't make it and I figured I could get something else (they have a 1 year guarantee.) When I planted it I buried the graft about 6 inches down, fertilized it like mad so it had as much of a boost as possible, and then we got a couple of feet of snow part way through the winter which helped a lot. There was a blast of -20s F before the snow, which should have killed it but didn't. If you don't get good reliable snow cover, I'd say bury it deep, mulch well, and be sure it's well fed going into winter.
Let me know how it does for you! I'd love to hear about other cold zoners growing it!
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Thanks. I will have 9 ROF arriving from Heirloom in the next month. These will be own-root, and I'll be sure to put them in deep. A good amount of snow on the ground is always helpful. Wish I could order that every winter! Here in Chicagoland last winter we had about 2 feet of snow on the ground before the temps really plunged for about 10 days - everything has come through winter better than ever - very little die-back on my shrubs.
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#4 of 7 posted
8 APR 22 by
JoeyT
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An update on my previous comment: Ring of Fire has come beautifully through another zone 4 winter and I am impressed with how tough this rose is. It survived a November move with hard frosts before I got it replanted again, and is showing great cane hardiness this spring.
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Joey - all of my 9 own-root Ring of Fire plants survived a zone 5b winter. I used soil and mushroom compost to mound up around all my 185 plants. For Ring of Fire I made the mounds bigger and higher. Just before Christmas I put down 7 bags of leaves around all the ROF bushes except one. I have not pruned yet but I can see green slightly above the mulch line on all 9 bushes. For me it appears so far that Ring of Fire is of average winter hardiness.
In the Horizon Roses 2020 publication there were several reporters stating how winter tender ROF is/was. Didn't matter if own-root, budded on Dr. Huey or budded on multiflora, they lost plants - and lots of them. One comment said they would grow it as an annual. I wonder if those exhibitors truly know how to winter protect, or is it that they have so many bushes that they can't really do a full winter protection for everything so they end up relying on a "survival of the fittest" approach.
Regardless - my 9 bushes look A-OK after their first winter.
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#6 of 7 posted
19 MAY 22 by
JoeyT
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I didn't winter protect mine at all this last winter and it's one of the roses with the most cane left! It was even moved with no time to establish better roots before snowfall. I'm so surprised to hear that people are losing it, I'm ready to put it on my "recommended for cold zones" list lol.
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My 9 survivors are all own-root. I have two new grafted ROF bushes from Regan that I have planted in pots. We'll see how those fare compared to the own root. I might just leave in pots and overwinter in the unheated (but connected to the house) garage - that worked quite well for my Ebb Tide/Julia Child 36" standards.
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#8 of 7 posted
24 MAY 22 by
JoeyT
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That's interesting that you grow Ebb Tide too. Not wanting to derail the comments for RoF or anything, but I have Ebb Tide planted right next to it, also with no protection, and it barely lost the tips while the rest of the cane is healthy and leafed out. I've heard of ET dying off over a Florida winter ("winter" lol), maybe the more extreme temps help them maintain dormancy better or something???
Back to RoF, the dog dug up the side of mine (also didn't seem to affect it lol!) and it's on its own roots. It also has the most developed buds out of all the roses that I overwintered here, so my money is on it to be the first to bloom.
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I have 9 ROF bushes - all first-year, own-root from Heirloom. This is a very good grower. Good vigor but not quite up there with the most vigorous HTs I grow but still a very good grower (better than most). They have responded well to alfalfa tea - stem length is noticeably improved in the last few weeks. The bloom is divine, very vibrant color, and it lasts for about a week on the bush, maybe a couple days more. Not much fragrance. Disease free thus far but then again I do spray every two weeks. This rose is notoriously winter-tender so my next challenge is to get these through my Chicagoland Zone 5b winter. Wish me luck! I just posted a photo of my best ROF bloom thus far. Enjoy!
Update 9-20-21: starting to see some awesome bloom size on ROF as weather is cooling at last. I am sure I will see even bigger in another week or two.
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