Irish Eyes Floribunda Rose Bushes

Irish Eyes Floribunda Rose

Irish Eyes is another awful name for a brilliant rose. Given that Irish eyes are supposedly emerald green and this rose is gold and orange Tiger Eyes might have been better, but rosa Irish Eyes it is. This is a beautifully scented rose with flowers that start in shades of deep yellow edged with red and then fade to orange. The blooms are small, cupped and double while the plant is vigorous growing to about 3ft (80-90cms) but tidy and extremely disease resistant with lovely glossy green leaves. Young leaves and shoots are an attractive reddish-bronze. The flowering period is tremendous with the first buds often breaking in May and the last flowers hanging on until late November or early December in a mild winter.

Irish Eyes is an outstanding all-round yellow/orange rose that deservedly was Rose of the Year in 2000. Browse our full selection of roses, or our other Floribunda roses.

Great for your garden

Irish Eyes is ideal for growing in a group of 3 in a rose border but it is also a cracking plant for a mixed flower bed and if you are someone who likes 'hot borders' then the yellows, oranges and reds are perfect. It also flowers early enough to be underplanted with tall purple alliums to fantastic effect. This is a stout citizen and is not as fussy as some floribundas about location. It is as hardy and disease resistant as any other rose available today so will easily cope with more exposed and colder locations. Irish Eyes roses just need good light. If you are planting in a rose border, we recommend that you plant in an triangular group with the plants spaced about 60cms (2ft) apart.

Features:

• Type: Floribunda
• Colour: Golden Yellow with red edges fading to orange.
• Flower shape:Fully double, bowl shaped.
• Fragrance strength: Light
• Final height and spread: 3ft x 2ft
• Flowering season: All summer
• Repeat Flowering: Non-stop
• Disease resistance: Excellent

How to plant Irish Eyes

Choose a spot in the border with good light. Dig a hole large enough so your rose will be planted with the graft union at soil level and with plenty of room for its roots around the sides. Improve the soil from the hole by removing weeds, large stones, rubbish and roots and adding a shovel full of compost or rotted manure. Sprinkle Rootgrow mycorrhizal fungi in the bottom of the hole so it will make contact with the roots. Potted roses should have some roots gently teased out of the rootball before planting.

Position your Irish Eyes rose so its roots are spread out and backfill the hole with soil, firming it gently as you go. Water in thoroughly.

You can order bareroot roses at any time and plant them from November to April, or container roses are available all year round.

Feed and mulch with well rotted manure in spring every year and keep well watered during dry periods for the first year.

Floribundas are pruned in late winter, when the strongest shoots can be cut back to an outward facing bud 30-40 cms above soil level and the weakest shoots are removed altogether. Irish Eyes should be deadheaded throughout the summer to encourage continuous flowering. It is worth it.

Did you know?

Irish Eyes parents were 'Mr JCB' named after Joseph Cyril Bamford of earth moving machinery fame and Gipsy Dancer. All three were bred by the great Alexander 'Patrick' Dickson (1926-2012) of Dicksons Roses in 1999. He left us many good roses, some of the best include Isn't She Lovely, Tequila Sunrise, Greetings, Valentine Heart and, of course, Oirish Ois, as our nursery manager, ever attentive to detail, insists on pronouncing it.