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kanuk_gw

Long Rugosa branch: prune or not

kanuk
10 years ago

I planted this Roseraie de l'Hay rugosa shrub June 2012. It has not been pruned since planting. One branch is 48 inches long while the others are 16 inches. Reddish buds have developed along all of the branches to the tips.
Is there any reason(s) to prune specifically the 48 inch branch besides giving balance to the shrub or leave it as is? It seems to me the blossoms were all on that taller branch last summer when planted.
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Comments (14)

  • the_morden_man
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Leave it, or prune it a little to the height you prefer. But RDLH wants to be a big rose and that cane is more indicative of it's natural growth and vigour. After about 4 years, you are going to have trouble keeping this rose under 5 to 6ft tall and 4 feet wide without a fair bit of pruning.

    Question, how much sun does it receive? I see a lot of trees in close proximity and am wondering if they shade it out, pending exposure of course.

  • kanuk
    Original Author
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    thanks Morden Man .. I think I'll let 'er do what she wants since it's less than a year since I planted it. I planted it where it is because it provided enough space to grow as big as nature lets it ... so I'd do good to leave it alone.
    I thought perhaps it shot up a long branch due to stress like water suckers on trees will do ... but guess it's not.
    Your right to say there are lots of trees here but those you see are to the North of the shrub. It gets morning, noon & mid afternoon sun varying from full at times to dappled at others. Fingers crossed it's shade tolerance agrees with the planting site. This is what we got last summer.
    {{gwi:247255}}

  • the_morden_man
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    It looks very healthy and happy and it sounds like it receives more than enough sunlight. More than my 2 RDLH's receive in any case. I asked about it, since roses that don't receive enough sunlight will often throw up long and leggy canes that try and reach more sun. In your case, it just appears that it was getting nicely established and happy and decided to throw up the first of what will soon be many mature canes. May it give you many more of those wonderfully fragrant blooms this summer.

  • kanuk
    Original Author
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    How much sun are your RDLH's getting now?and how are they performing for you? It's nice to know incase I can't provide as much sun for others I might add in the future.
    I've only enjoyed the 5 blossoms last summer & I have to say ... intoxicating is the scent. So happy I purchased this rose. The petals dried & held their colour nicely...even held slight fragrance into the winter months. In our climate Rugosa's are my new found glory. RDLH to me is a winner.

  • aklinda
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I planted a rugosa about 6 years ago whose name is long forgotten - but has pink and white ruffly flowers on it. When it was 2 or 3 years old it threw out a really long cane like in your photo. I just left it even though it looked kind of funky and over time it threw out many more long canes and is now a very large rose with many long, arching canes. I wouldn't worry about it - there are probably more of those long canes in its future.

  • kanuk
    Original Author
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    aklinda- I've always been so quick with the pruners that I'm going to take your advice. Thank goodness I'm not a hairdresser because everyone would have short hair cuts if they came to see me!!
    I chose this rose in part because I wanted a sizeable shrub so I best let it be.
    Thanks for sharing your experience.... & I'm sure the Roseraie de l'Hay is thanking you also.
    BTW... your rugosa sounds like it might be one that comes by many names ... Polareis,Polaris,Polar Ice, Ritausma .... if any of those might ring a bell. It's on my 'want list' & a beauty.
    {{gwi:247256}}

  • Thorntorn
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Roseraie de l'Haye is my favorite large (bush and flower), hybrid rugosa. I have grown it as a climber on a 4 ft. fence where it spread 5+ feet in each direction from the crown. Tip to tip it easily covering 10-12 feet of the fence. This means that some of the canes were 10+ feet long measured from the crown to the cane tip, following its curve as it lie tied to the fence. My RDLH would make 1 -2 new 10+ basal canes a year, until at about age 6 it slowed down with the basal canes, evidently reaching its mature size. Every couple years the oldest basal cane is removed as close to the crown as possible. These old basal canes begin to slow down in producing flowers. Always maintain at least 6 thick basal canes. This makes for a mature full bush. You already have your first one. It will be the first to be pruned out 6 or so years from now.

    The canes of RDLH are a bit stiffer than most climber's canes so it needs a bit or 'man handling' to get it tied down properly if it is to be grown as a climber, and the super abundance of thorns are not easy to overlook, but for disease resistance, rich flower color and size, and powerful fragrance this rose possesses cannot be beat.

    As a free standing shrub it should be let to grow as it wants to, canes arching in all directions, only pruned very, very lightly just to aid in it balancing itself, or to remove dead wood. It will develop a somewhat arching form in time, but not like say to the extent that a forsythia bush arches and cascades

    Looking at your photo:.

    The older branches on your RDLH are characteristic of growth given by young bushes. Its first 'grown up' cane is the one your inquiry is about. As RDLH matures expect most growth to be long canes like this first one emerging from the crown, pointing in time, in all directions as the bush fills in. It will also grow with many flowering (lateral) canes considerably shorter in growth emerging from along the length of these basal canes. They fill in the bush, giving it substance, while the basal canes give the bush its structure.

    Hope you like RDLH as much as I do.

  • kanuk
    Original Author
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thorntorn~ your description of the growth behaviour of RDLH applies to so many other roses/plants that I cannot tell you how helpful this has been to me.

    Of the rugosas I'm smitten with RDLH as you seem to be. So much so that it could be the only rose in my garden & I'd be more than content.

    2012 was my first real venture into growing roses so my experience is extremely limited.
    To do myself a favour & in order not to frustrate myself from the get-go I decided to begin with hardy roses. Rugosas & Canadian Explorer/Parkland series roses seemed my best choices.
    The selection from these categories is extensive but limited in the vast rose universe. It still provides me with enough choice & better 'assurance' of success to satisfy me at this time.
    Fragrance is important to me & on that note RDLH meets my requirement where many others fail.

    You have informed me & encouraged me enough to consider getting another RDLH to train as a climber!

    Question: Will the cement pavers around the base(protection from lawn mower)
    interfere with growth (cane growth or suckers)? Should they be removed?

  • Thorntorn
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Dear Kanuk,

    Glad to share my experiences.

    Unfortunately, hybrid rugosas do not make good cut flowers. They drop their petals rather quickly. Sufficiently long stems are always in short supply, too. So it is best to enjoy them in the garden.

    Also, there is a strong tendency for hyb. rugosas grown on their own roots to 'run at the root' that is, send up suckers, true to the parent plan.They spread over the years in all directions eventually becoming a community/colony with no major crown, but having several canes emerging from the ground spaced at 4-10" intervals. This habit is ideal if one is using hybrid rugosas as a hedge. The canes fill in all the available vacant spaces of ground in the hedge. They will not become so dense so as to choke the bush to a stunted mess, but reach an equilibrium "No more cane space here, must move onto new ground," they could be saying if they spoke. In the already conquered territory only dead canes are replaced. New canes expand farther and farther out in all directions. This is not a good growth habit if one wants a bush that stays put.

    I hope your RDLH is grafted, it will be easier to control.

    When grown on a rootstock, such as is Pickering Nursery's cultural practice, suckering is rare. This Canadian nursery of yours is much beloved by so many US customers. It uses rootstock on almost all its roses, and uses multiflora rootstock. Hybrid rugosas grated/grown on multiflora rootstock are very unlikely to send runners unless planted too deply.

    My next favorite hybrid rugosa is 'Schneekoppe," (Snow Carpet), a refined hybrid rugosa....so many hybrid rugosas have sloppy flowers...comes with the territory. Cupped white blooms with a hint of lilac on a three ft. tall bush. The cupped flower habit holds the otherwise blousy inner petals neatly together. Again, on its own root, in time it will be sending runner growth into its neighbors. Make sure you get it grafted, which practice is falling out of favor, so it may be hard to find a grafted Schneekoppe.

    Hybrid rugosas are almost iron clad. They can be susceptible
    to stem girdler, not stem borer (they get stem borer like most other classes of roses do). I had a planting of Martin Frobisher that was infested with stem girdler. The grub of a certain moth or beetle, can't remember which, eats a tunnel below the outer bark, completely girdling the cane in question. It often attacks the biggest most robust canes, about a foot to 18" from the ground. Some canes survive the attack but usually all growth above the "girdle" is compromised/weak. Often the stem above the 'girdle' just dies. The entire stem may die to the ground, and in the worst cases it was apparent to me the entire bush's death was attributed to stem girdling. There is no way of preventing or treating an attack by stem girdler that I am aware. No insecticide or any other means.
    You can see the girdle. It looks like a swelling from beneath the bark that makes a pronounced ring around the stem. A stem can have more than one girdle.

    Non-hy. rugosas are not as prone to stem girdler.

    So, there's the good, bad, and the ugly on hybrid rugosas.

    Throntorn

    BTW, your RDLH has an exceptionally beautiful flower form, unlike most hybird rugosas.

  • kanuk
    Original Author
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thorntorn~ thanks again for contributing to my being a more informed gardener by sharing your knowledge with me on the subject.

    I anxiously look forward to finding out whether I'll be blessed with numerous suckers so that I can distribute more RDLH shrubs around the property & perhaps gift some to others. If it is the case surely there might come a time when such behaviour becomes a bit undesirable. At this point it would be a welcomed characteristic.
    Your passion is contagious & as a result I'm heading outdoors to listen to the birds singing their spring songs & spend some time with the rose bushes... even though they don't have leaves yet. ..*sigh*

  • the_morden_man
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Kanuk,

    If you ever have any questions, feel free to fire me off an email. I fixed the email address that was attached to this site through my profile. It had an older and invalid email address.

    I'm in Ontario, so a little warmer and less snow than where you are, but I also do a lot of gardening in PEI where my Mom lives. Plenty of Rugosas on her property where they tend to thrive more than they do here. Happy to help a new rose grower if you need it. All the best.

    Tim

  • kanuk
    Original Author
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Tim
    I've made note of the email change you mention & will surely keep it handy whenever I need some help in the rose department.
    Thank you for offering your knowledge....much appreciated.

    Yesterday I dug up a bunch of suckers from a friends place. What a jungle that was! A doulbe white rugosa I had seen in bloom a few years ago but name undocumented by owner. Beautiful fragrant flowers but proved to be too much work for them to control their desire to spread.

    I came home & potted up 2 that will be experimental 'rugosa standards'. Only because of their present growth habit did they appear to be candidates for growing as standards. Whether it proves to be feasible of not is yet to be seen but I'm up for it. I will keep them growing in containers in order to control the suckers.

    Have you ever heard of rugosas trained as standards?
    I read somewhere that they used the rugosa(they used the term briar) stems to graft other roses onto because the rugosa suckers/stems grow tall & straight(isn). Found that interesting & it makes sense to me.

    Here's how it looks. I used the ugly backdrop to show the shape of the plant better. The leaves are just unfolding but I don't expect it will bloom after the shock of being dug up. I do hope it lives however!

    {{gwi:247257}}

  • the_morden_man
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Kanuk,

    It is entirely feasible to do this with Rugosa's and other hardy roses. I do it all the time and currently have standards of Henry Hudson, Cinderella Fairytale, Morden Snowbeauty and Cuthbert Grant.

    I would suggest you prune back some of the longer branching growth to 2 or 3 bud eyes however after transplant. And you will need to break off any emerging buds from the main cane (trunk) of the tree rose or prune any new growth it sends up from the graft or roots. Speaking of which, it is a lot easier to make tree roses from grafted rugosa's than own-root, only because it can be difficult to prevent additional root suckering from some varieties. In any case, best of luck with this, it should work out well.

  • kanuk
    Original Author
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    To follow up I've decided that this one roque stem shooting up has become a prime candidate for 'pegging'.

    About 4 days ago it came over me to 'peg' this cane in a low, horizontal arch away from the centre of the plant to the ground.
    The cane was pliable enough to accomplish this without any fear of the cane breaking.

    From what I've read & seen online this should induce more flowers along the length of this cane... and who could ever have too many RDLH roses to enjoy.

    I'll hope for the best & let you know how this works out as the season progresses.

    If anyone has pegging experience I'd love to hear about it. Was it successful? Best method of attachment/pegs etc?

    KanuK

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