Shrub Rose 'Coral Drift'

"Coral Drift" made the NYBG's Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden's list of top performers with a high rating. The Rockefeller Rose Garden is a...Read More sustainable garden in which no toxic fungicides are used. In NYC, this cultivar has excellent, clean foliage all season without spraying for blackspot.

The color is more orange to orange-red than coral. The flowers are fully double and a little over 2" across, and the foliage is proportionately small. In NYC, bloom is profuse, starting in June and continuing nonstop till frost.

Because of the challenge they present to weed control, I wouldn't use any rose as a groundcover. "Coral Drift" has a good low mounding habit that's useful in the garden but not especially useful as a groundcover.

Like most roses, this cultivar performs well with a soil pH between 5.6 and 7.8.

The poster below is talking about Rose Rosette Disease, which afflicts all roses and not just floribundas or "carefree" roses. This cultivar is no more and no less susceptible to this disease than any other.

The cultivar name is 'Meidrifora'. "Coral Drift" is a trademark and a proprietary trade name.

Bred by Alain Meilland in 2006. Introduced in the US by Star Roses/CP-Meilland in 2008.

Ne experience with this new type of "carefree" rose. Absolutely LOVED this rose when I planted 3 last year, 2 facing South, one facing Ea...Read Morest. Out-performed all expectations.
This Spring, all got bad infestation of aphids. Sprayed them, all aphids split. Then, one got a weird "Witches' Broom" and did my research only to find that there is a new, specific genetic disease that predisposes this type of rose and all floribundas to something called "Rosa Rugosa Disease." Spread by a non airborne mite (?never heard of such a thing.) No cure, must destroy (burn) any plants.
So sad. The one in the back is staying, I am keeping an eye on it. I will not buy any more "carefree" roses.