(Refrigeration, life-extending solutions in their water and roses bred for cutting help too.) Hungry roses drop their petals earlier than well-fed ones, which is one of the reasons the florist's roses may last longer than yours. Trim off dead blooms, though Iceberg's vigour means you'll get blooms no matter how you neglect it, just not as many nor as long lasting. The better it's fed the more roses it will put out. Otherwise treat Iceberg as you would any rose. You can also put in a "possum guard" metal ruff that they can't climb over, a bit unsightly, but a vigorous unchewed rose bush should more than compensate. Possums like firmness beneath their paws. NB: If you don't want to put in a possum highway, place your pergola on a rocking platform that will shake when the possums climb it. It blooms for 10 months of the year, much longer than our standard Iceberg, that blooms about eight months of the year, partly because it's climbing next to a warm, sunny, stone wall that may help it bloom into winter and start again in early spring, and also because it has bushy branches that are too long for the possums to get to, even when they use the pergola as a possum highway. Only the fourth turned out to be a true climber, growing up its post and along the pergola, as perfectly obedient as a rose grower could wish. The third one grew into a tall handsome bush, not quite a climber, but at least with a determination to reach for the stars, or at least out of the way of peckish macropods. Two of them failed to climb in any fashion and were eventually eaten by the wallabies when I grew sick of protecting them in wire enclosures waiting for them to grow out of paw reach. ![]() There is also a Climbing Iceberg, though too often it doesn't much. (Thorny roses are far less attractive to possums, though still not possum proof –especially if they are near a wooden fence or a low shed roof that they can use as a non-thorny platform). They are commercially available but I haven't tried any of them yet – our possums are well enough fed already, and our three Icebergs are enough for me and them. ![]() Iceberg is, of course, pure white, but Blushing Pink and Brilliant Pink sports originated in Tasmania, and Brilliant Pink in turn gave forth the sport Burgundy Iceberg. The only thing that really knocks Iceberg back are possums, which appreciate the regular sweet tender flower buds even more than gardeners do. Iceberg may be be the world's most popular rose, with its lime green, disease-resistant leaves and general hardiness and extreme floriferousness. Iceberg (or Schneewittchen in German) was one of the "new" floribunda roses, almost ever blooming, though with short floppy stems that meant they weren't much use in vases, though sweet as a posy in a bud vase or narrow-rimmed cream jar.
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