RE: roses for hot dry climate

Not knowing exactly what your climate is like in southern Portugal, I can only tell you about roses that will take the hot dry summers of the Los Angeles Area in California. We can get weeks and weeks of 100 plus Fahrenheit temperatures (38 plus Centigrade) in inland areas. Winters are usually mild with occasional frosts that are usually not prolonged.
We can grow the tender roses that won't take prolonged frosts. Roses with China blood take our searing summer heat and enjoy it! That would be Chinas, Teas and Noisettes. Of course, we irrigate them in summer.
The banksian roses are once blooming in very early spring here. Rosa banksiae lutea, lutescens, normalis and banksiae are Chinas best used for climbing or covering a wall or pergola. In Italy, there's a hybrid of the Lady Banks rose called Purezza which reblooms and has double white flowers larger than the species. It's new to Southern California so we'll have to wait to see how it likes it here. Mutabilis has China blood, is reblooming, tall and wide.
Nabonnand produced many lovely tea roses. Teas I like and grow are Rosette Delizy, Maman Cochet and Climbing Lady Hillingdon. There are many, many more shrub ones too.
Noisettes my friends and I grow are mostly climbers - Crepuscule, Reve d'Or, Lamarque, Marechel Niel and the best climbing white rose for our climate, Mme Alfred Carriere.
Alister Clarke produced many wonderful roses that take Australia's dry heat. Favorites of mine are Lorraine Lee and Climbing Lorraine Lee.
It's good to remember that teas are different than hybrid teas. The first hybrid tea was a cross of a tea and a hybrid perpetual; and from the hybrid perpetual it received its hardiness to cold, which the teas don't have. Teas, Chinas and Noisettes revel in warm climates, but aren't good in climates that get hard frosts.
Do you enjoy mild winters with only occasional frosts? If not, you need something hardier to cold that will still bloom well in the heat. Ramblers are good. Most only flower once early in the season, but newer hybrids, like New Dawn and the like are reblooming and do great in warm climates.
The very best thing would be to check out your area in summer to see what's looking good and ask the owners what they're growing. If you can't wait until then, trying to find a local rose society or garden group to ask would also be helpful. 

Cheers,

Robin Corwin
Studio City, California (Los Angeles area)
Zone 9/10, Sunset Zone 21






From: "Alexandre Leonardo" <a_m_leonardo@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: a_m_leonardo@hotmail.com
To: medit-plants@ucdavis.edu
Subject: roses for hot dry climate
Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 01:48:54 +0000

hello
can anyone advise me on choosing a rose for hot dry climate. I'm in south Portugal, where summers are very dry and temperatures can reach 40ºC very easily. Never had roses so I have no experience with them. 
Thanx
Alex
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