Miniature Rose 'Sweet Chariot'

One of the best of all miniature/patio roses, and still very popular.

1.5" flowers with up to 60 petals, very full, rounde...Read Mored, cupped, old-fashioned form. Strong damask fragrance. Borne in large clusters, in flushes throughout the season.

Similar to its excellent sibling 'Vinyard Song', but with a smaller habit.

The habit is spreading/pendant/cascading, 12-18" tall, good for the top of a retaining wall or elsewhere at eye/nose level. It is vigorous and can reach 3' tall by 5' across.

This was bred by rose legend Ralph S. Moore.

US PP # 5,975 (1987) has expired.

I have grown Sweet Chariot for several years.
It wasn't doing very well in the ground so I potted it up and grew it on the patio f...Read Moreor the past year.
It has flourished there and increased in size threefold.
It is in full bloom now (November 29th).

This rose needs a bit of protection and actually does better in partial shade.

The bloom color is at its most intense in the Fall.

I originally had this plant in a hanging basket and while it bloomed well, I started noticing decline. I never could get the watering/fe...Read Morertilizing quite right. So, I transplanted it inground and it has done much, much better. The fragrance is incredible! I suspect one needs on of the large hanging baskets to accomodate root system properly. Those 14" baskets simply won't do. As a ground plant, it has stayed at 2' wide x 1 ft tall.

I purchased this plant in late fall 2006 and planted it in the 12" diameter 7.5 " deep hanging basket shown in my photo on this webpage. ...Read More I used the soil mix recommended by the vendor (1/3 miracle gro soil, 1/3 perlite and 1/3 peat moss) and adopted a once/7 days spray program using Orthonex. Until June, my Sweet Chariot grew and bloomed well. Then it started to show the yellow leaves that you can see in the center of the plant. The yellowing accelerated until most of the plant's leaves were yellow, or stippled with white. I originally thought that I was overwatering but a sharp reduction in watering (from every 2 days to once or at most twice a week) did not revive the plant. I supplemented my spray program by washing it thoroughly several different times with a Neem oil/dish soap mixture and Rose Pharma to combat any possible fungus or insect infestation, but the plant has continued to deteriorate. As of late July, my sweet Chariot is almost leafless and looks unlikely to recover. However, I would still give sweet Chariot a neutral to slightly positive rating and cautiously recommend it to other DGers on the grounds that while it was healthy it was a lovely, fragrant, prolifically blooming rose and it seems likely to me that I may have inadvertently damaged the plant due to my inexperience with roses. This Sweet Chariot, a Sequoia Gold mini and a Laura Ford climber were all bought at the same time last year and are the first roses I have ever grown. Happily, the Sequoia Gold and climber are doing fine, but one cannot expect beginner's luck to have a 100% return :).