Dr. Huey is a rose that is commonly used as a root graft on Hybrid Tea Roses to make them stronger and possibly hardier.

If you grow roses, particularly ones that have grafted roots, you probably know that sometimes the root graft can grow it’s own shoots creating an odd looking rose bush with different colored flowers or that sometimes the graft root ends up taking over.

In my case the former owners of our home dug up their single Hybrid tea rose when they moved and I guess they left some of the graft root behind. Much to my surprise the following spring I noticed rose branches coming up out of the ground and realized that it must have been from their old rose. Of course it took me another year to realize that it was the graft root Dr. Huey.

I decided to keep the rose. After all, by accident, it was the first rose in my garden!

Dr. Huey seems to only bloom here once a year and it blooms on old wood so whether it blooms at all depend upon how harsh the last winter was. As a result my Dr. Huey weed rose only seems to bloom about every second year, but when it blooms it’s spectacular.

I don’t mind it’s red blooms one bit.

My Dr. Huey seems to bloom in late June. It’s blooms are long gone now, but not the memory of them.