The two roses in question are Pompon de Bourgogne and Cecile Brunner. The CB is in full sun, and PdB is in almost full shade (only about 1-2 hrs sun/day). I figured I would take a chance on that one, and it is slowly growing, but not thriving. I have just read that CB is shade tolerant. Both plants are about a year old (still about 12" tall; actually CB is only about 8" tall because she was attacked by a rabbit). Should I dig them up and have them switch spots? How likely are they to survive it?
One to two hours of sunlight is not enough for any rose - even the so called "shade tolerant" ones. At best, they will sulk, have difficulty growing and won't meed their full potential for flowering. But more then likely, they will fade away and die. Most roses need at least 6 hours of full sun to do well. "Shade tolerance" when applied to roses is a relative term - they will still need more than 2-3 hours of full sun to do well.
OK, based on what you've said so far, it seems instead of swapping the roses, maybe I should just move the PdB out of the shade. But before I do anything, I'd like some opinions on whether I really need to do so. I've attached 2 pics of the plant. You can see that the foliage looks really healthy (except for a little rust), and the plant does grow, albeit a little slower than I'd like. When I first planted it 7 weeks ago, it was below the top of the rabbit fence that you can see around it in the pic. Now it stands 2-3" higher than the fence. So maybe my problem is really the 'patience' thing again, rather than the shade. I guess I'm trying to justify leaving the plant where it is because I don't know if digging it up might cause it more harm than good.
