Drift Roses

Drift roses are a relatively new breed of rose and combine groundcover and miniature roses. Find out how these are the best of both worlds!

Drift roses were created by Conard-Pyle, who also created the immensely successful knockout series of roses. They created a tough compact groundcover plant that has many great qualities. They have the small manageable size and repeated blooming of the miniatures, combined with the hardiness and disease resistant nature of the groundcovers. I haven't figured out why they are called "Drift" though!

There are seven types in the Drift series so far, along with their key characteristics:

Apricot (Rosa Meimirrote) - Apricot colored double blooms

Icy (Rosa Meipicdevoj) - Pure white double blooms

Sweet (Rosa Meiswetdom) - Light pink with double blooms

Coral (Rosa Meidrifora) - Exotic Coral-orange blooms

Pink -(Rosa Meijocos) - Deeper pink with slighter larger blooms

Red (Rosa Meigalpio) - has the smallest blooms of all the Drifts

Peach (Rosa Meiggili) - Beautiful peach blossoms, with blooming from early spring to the late fall

These are small easily managed plants. They are hardy down to zone 4. They have grown in popularity because they can fit in areas where bigger plants won't fit, or are too hard to manage. They should be pruned after the last freeze to 4 inches. Repeat blooming can be helped with deadheading.