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sara_ann_gw

How's it going with your roses?

sara_ann-z6bok
10 years ago

Recently I've been concerned about how things are going for some who have been hit so hard by the horrible winter we had. I thought we had it bad here, but I know not nearly as bad as a lot of you. It was a long winter season, thankfully Beth with her alphabet of roses and others with their lovely garden pictures helped to make it easier with all the beautiful rose photos. For the most part mine are doing good and they seem to be right on schedule. Would love to know how things are progressing for some of you, if you would like to share.

Comments (17)

  • dublinbay z6 (KS)
    10 years ago

    The weather is beginning to warm up and the forsythia to bloom, so I went out yesterday to prune the HTs and a few others, including Mystic Beauty (a near clone of SDLM) and some of my minis.

    It's been a hard winter on my HTs--nearly all had to be pruned down practically to soil level--just 1-2 inch stubbs left! However, there is vigorous growth on most of them down there--with two exceptions: Double Delight and Memoire (also known as Ice Cream). They look pathetic and I'm wondering if they will survive the summer heat. Or maybe they are just late starters in the spring? One can hope!

    My surprise was how hard hit my Bourbon Mystic Beauty was--it had to be pruned back to a few inches from the soil line also. And some posters have described theirs as growing quite large--don't think that is in my MBs immediate future!

    Then there is my poor mini Sweet Diana--I have 7 of them, and they had to all be pruned practically to the ground.

    What did well? --my David Austins (about 15 of them) and my Kordes roses Eutin and Pompenella. Don't think they will need much pruning at all! They evidently loved the winter cold.

    My other shrubs--so-so. No too the ground pruning required, but they weren't real happy with our cold winter either. I'll be pruning them, as needed, today. Going to be in the 60s---Yeah, spring has sprung!

    Kate

  • lesmc
    10 years ago

    I have not pruned yet here in Louisville,KY. Hopefully we will have some nice weather soon. If black canes are any indication, I am in trouble!!! But pruning will tell. I`ll be back in touch when I know something. Right now, it looks like mostly red roses were hit. My Austins look pretty good. I have never pruned to soil level. I sure will this spring. Lesley

  • seil zone 6b MI
    10 years ago

    It's just starting to warm up here and we finally got rid of all the snow and ice but the ground is still pretty frozen in places. It's going to be at least a few weeks before I'll be able to get the pots out of winter protection. Nothing in the ground has even a faint hint of life yet. From what I can see though, anything that was above the snow line is black and will need to be removed. My roses will start out very short this year. Thankfully our rose show got booked for very late in June this year due to scheduling conflicts at the nursery. I'm hoping that late date will be just about the right time for mine to be at peak bloom.

  • redwolfdoc_z5
    10 years ago

    Nothing to report yet. Still a fair bit of snow on the ground and roses wrapped in winter protection. Canes are brown/black anywhere they were above the snow line, but I'm still hopeful. I've seen some green down near the ground where I've been able to peek at them. I'm dying to get at them but I know I have to wait...

  • sara_ann-z6bok
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Kate - Hope your Mystic Beauty bounces back and becomes a very vigorous grower, I know you love it. Hopefully your hybrid teas will be healthy with all the new growth and Lesley and Seil's will do the same. Glad the Austins fared so well, one more reason for me to try them. Lesley, I am keeping my fingers crossed that yours are much better off than you can tell right now. Please do keep us updated. You three are an inspiration to me with your beautiful roses and your knowledge.

  • sara_ann-z6bok
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Redwolfdoc - I didn't see your post before I replied to the others. If you're seeing green, that's a very good sign. It isn't easy to wait, is it? The best of luck to you with your roses too.

  • bethnorcal9
    10 years ago

    We've had a very strange yr. We had a freak snowstorm the first week of Dec, that stayed on the ground longer than usual. Lost a lot of perennials and other plants that normally don't die in winter. Then it got all warm in Jan and Feb, and into March. But now we're back with cold weather and in the lull between a bunch of big rainstorms. The roses were popping open and irises too. Eveyrthing was looking beauitful. Then this first batch of torrential rain hit for 6 days and was actually supposed to keep going til Wed. We got 8" of hail in some parts of town earlier last week, and thunder & lightning off and on all week. Not sure what's ahead this week, but I'm sure it's more rain to come. It stopped for today, thankfully. I went out and raked up pine needles to fill up the green waste cans for Wed. Everything looks pretty good, altho the roses that were trying to bloom are all hanging low! Once this is all over, I'll get some massive B/S and powdery mildew. That always happens when we have these late rains. Bummer. One good thing, the newly potted up roses that have straggled in from various places are all sprouting and looking great. Can't wait to see them blooming for the first time! Other than that, most of the roses still look good and buds are forming all over the place. In a few weeks it'll all be full-on! Yippee!!

  • sara_ann-z6bok
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Beth - You've had some interesting weather lately. I wouldn't mind if you sent some of that rain my way! We have a good chance of getting some during this week. I have been looking forward to seeing your beautiful and unique roses this year. Hopefully, soon you will have lots of them to show us.

  • justkristyj
    10 years ago

    Jumping from 50's to upper 70's in my area in TX. I finally got around to pruning off all the die back on the tips of most of my roses from the freak freeze we had a few weeks ago. I can't reach the tips of some of the ramblers, so they are on their own, but all are putting out new leaves. I don't think my once bloomers will bloom this year. I can see new buds on the others.
    Perennials are coming out, even the clematis are winding their way upward, searching for the sky.
    Kristy

  • ratdogheads z5b NH
    10 years ago

    We still have snow in places. Lots of rain over past weekend which was good for snow melt, but now there's flooding since the ground is still a bit frozen. It's turned to a slush storm today, yuck.

    It's early but what I'm seeing makes me optimistic.More green than black, and even some buds swelling.

    You know what looks best of all, much to my amazement? My one year old Lady of Shallott & Mustead Wood. What's amazing is that they're planted close to the road where the plows & snow-blower heaped about 6' of snow and they were entirely buried. They've got the greenest canes in the whole garden.

    So my winter protection scheme for next year is that I need to get one of those snow making machines that the ski slopes have and bury my whole yard (jk).

  • redsox_gw
    10 years ago

    Pruned yesterday down to the soil. Some do not have any growth at all. I hope those that bloom come before the JBs or all is for naught.

    Some of mine show no life whatsoever. I was not planning on a polar vortex.

  • lesmc
    10 years ago

    Redsoxâ¦..I`m afraid I will have the same here in Louisville,Ky. I have not pruned yetâ¦no forsythia blooming here yet!!! Things look so bad and sad out there. I do not winter protect and this winter came as a huge surprise to all 140 roses I grow! Hang in there..Lesley

  • jockewing
    10 years ago

    All of my roses have put out a new seat of leaves a starting over a month ago. There are a few buds here and there starting to swell on the Hybrids Teas. Bronze Star has a bud beginning to unfurl. Peace buds and Double Delight buds swelling and showing color. Julia Child started blooming a week or so ago and is putting out lots of glossy green leaves and new buds.

    I am new to roses - I got almost all of mine from K&M in Mississippi so they are almost all on fortuniana. I planted them all about last October so they would have a good long time to establish. I know they are still young, but I was kind of disappointed there weren't that many buds I could see. But---I am noticing within the last week most of the bushes, after putting out a new set of leaves, are starting to bust out with new strong shoots everywhere and I see the tiny baby buds on the end of the shoots. So I think my flush will be better than I originally anticipated. It is interesting to notice the different growing habits, new leaf color, etc., of the different varieties.

    From what I understand we are way behind the normal schedule due to the unusual freezes we got in Jan/Feb where we got down to around 20F a couple nights.

    One question I have -- I have been spraying religiously with Honor Guard mixed with Mancozeb every 2 weeks since pruning in mid February. But I have noticed that a lot of my leaves are turning yellow and getting mottled spots and dropping off. These are not the new leaves, it is all old leaves that hung on through the winter. I am wondering if this is a normal shedding of the old leaves that is normal? Most of mine retained leaves even through the freezes.

  • nippstress - zone 5 Nebraska
    10 years ago

    I have a zone 6 pocket in my yard where the roses with surviving canes were budding out, so I was able to get some early pruning in. Boy, it's not a pretty sight. Virtually everything is pruned to the ground - even old fashioned roses like Madame Isaac Periere - and I'm not sure even some of my well-established grafted roses will come back from that pruning. In many cases, I couldn't cut back to healthy cane because there wasn't any. Thank heavens for own root roses, so we at least have the illusion of hope for winter survival even if it's unlikely in some cases.

    As others have mentioned, my Austins are by far the greenest canes around, along with ridiculously hardy plants like Quadra. Even some of my stalwart Kordes shrubs like Bad Worishofen/Pink Emely were pruned to the ground, though I'm sure they'll be back. Surprising to me were some hybrid teas that still had live cane - Nigrette comes to mind as a weak, spineless wimpazoid of a bush that needs heavy feeding to put out those gorgeously maroon blooms, but it survived this nasty winter better than most.

    I ended up pruning virtually everything in that bed down to 6" or less, most of whom are well established, even Madame Alfred Carriere who had 8-10' of droopy canes left from last year. Turns out this wasn't a bad thing, as I found some brown cane centers low on the plants below what looked like healthy cane in many of the roses, maybe from some rabbit damage over the winter low on the canes. Austins are notorious for me to hide hidden canker damage low on the plant and still look like the canes survived.

    All in all, it'll be the opposite of last spring where I hardly pruned anything and had roses falling all over everywhere all season. Still, it's not bad to get a complete haircut every now and then, assuming of course things survive. I think the death count will be rather higher than usual, including some old favorites that got shocked.

    Cynthia

  • pembroke
    10 years ago

    I live just South of Lesley of a few miles and was cleaning weeds from rose beds. Low and behold I saw sprouts coming from Ebb Tide. What a relief to see green on something. Mom's Pink looks like it may have to go almost ground level, as does most of everything else. Question: with own root roses will they come out of winter better than roses that have been grafted? Thanks. Pem

  • nippstress - zone 5 Nebraska
    10 years ago

    Pem - in response to your questions about own root vs. grafted survival, I don't know that there's clear evidence one way or the other. Grafted plants tend to grow a little more quickly in their first summer, which may give them a headstart in their first year on winter survival if the graft is buried deeply enough, but it's a tossup most years.

    What the difference is for me is that if I see something sprouting from an ownroot rose I know I get to be excited about the real rose surviving. Too often I've gotten excited about sprouts from a grafted rose only to discover a visit from Dr. Huey the next year when it blooms, and I kick myself for nurturing the little bugger through a whole summer thinking it was my original rose. At least with own root roses, it either survives or it doesn't, and you don't have the cruel limbo of unidentified growth.

    Cynthia

  • jazzmom516 (Zone 6b, MA)
    9 years ago

    This was absolutely the worst winter in terms of winter damage to most of my roses. I have pruned down some of them to half their size due to the extreme winter damage seen on the canes. One rose is completely brown except for some green seen at ground level-- this 'Hot Cocoa' is an own root rose so I am hoping to see some new shoots emerge soon before I do the drastic pruning of the brown canes. The rugosa rose 'Blanc de Colbert' was hardly affected by the winter weather. 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' had to be pruned by half. All the roses had mulch over their roots but no burlap around them or leaves in their centers.These are established roses from at least 5 years in the ground. 'Hot Cocoa' was planted last year.

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