SEXY REXY ROSE

By David Marks
Sexy Rexy was bred by Sam McGredy who originated from Co Armagh in Northern Ireland. He emigrated to New Zealand and continued his business of breeding roses.The name “Sexy Rexy” was the nickname for this variety during the breeding phase of this rose. By chance it remained and the rose was introduced with it in 1984.It has been popular for several decades around the world and has won several awards.

Sexy Rexy is an upright Floribunda rose whose distinguishing features are its flowers. They are fully double and almost camellia like with the frilled form and pure pink colour. Quite exceptional. Flowers are easily held upright by the stems.

Being a Floribunda, roses are produced in clusters, the size of individual blooms is about 10cm / 4in. Scent is light, its parents being Seaspray and Dreaming.

Rose Sexy Rexy

Leaves start off as a burgundy colour quickly turning to a glossy deep green. This is a strong growing and upright rose bush which reaches a height of 90cm / 3ft and a spread of 60cm / 2ft.

It has been included in these pages because of its stunning flowers and it has above average resistance to black spot (see below).

PESTS AND DISEASES

Sexy Rexy is generally a healthy, disease resistant and quick growing rose. We still suggest however that you follow our instructions on ontrolling black spot which can be found here.

HOW TO PRUNE A SEXY REXY ROSE

Prune a Sexy Rexy rose as follows:

Remove all stems which show any signs of disease or damage. Cut them back to ground level or back to a main stem.
Remaining stems should then be pruned back to 30cm / 1 ft from ground level. This will allow you to get a good view of the structure of the rose bush.
Now prune the rose bush so that it has five or six stems arranged equally apart roughly in a circle from the centre of the plant. These stems should ideally be growing out from the centre of the bush.
Compromise may be required but the idea is to keep the centre of the rose bush open and have the branches growing outwards. This is to allow air circulation to the centre of the plant and avoid infections.
When selecting stems, make sure that you remove stems which are touching or nearly touching another stem. Where stems are touching, they will rub off the outer bark and allow infections to enter.
Green stems are healthier than browner stems so remove the browner stems and leave the green stems.
When selecting the stems to remain, don’t leave spindly stems. Your are looking to have five or six stems which are at least the thickness of a pencil, hopefully thicker.

Floribunda rose before pruning

Floribunda rose after pruning

CULTIVATION RECORD FOR ROSE SEXY REXY

PURCHASE
Bought online from Ashridge Nurseries with another rose on 24 January 2020 at a cost of £27.60 including posting costs (so £13.80 per rose).

It was delivered with the other rose on 12 February 2020, the slowest delivery time, by a large margin, of all the rose suppliers we tested. The rose was supplied as a bare root plant, see the picture below.

Sexy Rexy bare root rose from Ashridge Nurseries

Rose variety “Sexy Rexy” ready for planting

See our page on comparing online rose suppliers here.

Because of the delayed delivery time, it coincided with the wet weather caused by storm Ciara and then by storm Dennis. These storms caused the ground to be severely water logged. Rather than plant out in water logged ground we placed this rose in a large container and covered the roots with moist compost.

We are still awaiting better weather before planting out this rose. This is one of the problems with buying bare root roses online. They will arrive whatever the weather conditions and you may well need to “containerise” them temporarily – not a pleasant task in 60 miles an hour winds or sub zero temperatures.

Eventually planted out in our rose bed on 2nd March 2020.

2020

4th April 2020
Sprayed with Roseclear. Looks to be establishing well. Surrounding ground covered in cardboard and mulched with very well composted wood chip. Watered twice after planting because of the unusually dry weather.

1st June 2020
Sprayed with Roseclear.

18th June 2020
First full flower produced.

20th July 2020
The first flush of flowers can be considered to be over although there are still several flowers remaining. A truly beautiful rose with flowers being held high above the foliage with almost all of them showing no signs of drooping. Completely disease free in our trials.

21st August 2020
A stunning second flush of flowers appeared around the 10th August and is still in progress. Far more flowers compared to any other rose in our trials. What’s more, with rain and wind, the flowers are held high and proud.

Disease resistance is excellent with only a very few leaves showing any signs of black spot. The picture below is of Sexy Rexy taken a day or so after Storm Ellen – battered by wind and rain but almost untouched.

Rose Sexy Rexy in full bloom. Click picture to enlarge

VERDICT 2020
In the top three roses we grew this year. Masses of beautiful flowers, held high on strong stems. Very good disease resistance. Very highly recommended.