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| Are you able to keep your hy. teas heathy looking all summer? If so, how, please? If not, do you grit your teeth , sacrifice the continuing blooms, and chop 'em down, remove the ugly leaves and wait for a glorious autumn- winter flush or two, or live with the unattractive bush? Would love to hear hoovb's and other's experiences. Marti |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| The first question that comes to mind is: how come your leaves are ugly by mid-Summer? Mildew? Are you giving them enough N? As to a summer-cut back, the issue here is height, not foliage. Now that the roses here are thoroughly established, the tall growers get "hard dead-heads" rather than a summer cut-back. After every flush the roses that get really tall ('Peter Mayle', 'Firefigher', 'Golden Celebration', etc, etc) get 2 or 3 feet of cane removed when deadheading--whatever it takes so that then next round of bloom is eye-level or below, not up in the sky. Roses that stay relatively petite (not many of them, but there are some) get "normal" deadheading of 2-6" or a snap-off at the abscission layer. The result is a garden that looks pretty consistently good through December. By adjusting pruning to each rose, they repeat at slightly different times so there is something blooming all the time. Letting them get really tall, they just don't look as good: the flowers are way up where they are hard to see, and spread out so one doesn't get much of a color effect. |
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| If you water enough they will all look good all summer. You simply have to water. Even now it can take a lot of water to keep them fresh if it gets too hot. Back east I cut them down because of the insect pests primarily oriental beetles that destroyed everything anyway. |
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| Thamk you both! As for water, perhaps I rely too much on the auto watering thats's for grass , trees, etc. I will be vigilant this season to hand water root area daily, along with a good spray for any diseases. I only have twelve (thus far!), so easy to do. As for nutrients, I've only used Bayer and Miracle Grow. Adding small bit of coffee grounds this year. My only really tall bush is Gene Bourner...a 7-8 footer. Oh! I once read ( here?) that cutting long stems ( at the 3 leaf juncture) delays blooms. True? Again, TIA !! P.s. all my roses are rated excellent for disease resistance. |
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