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Question About Graham Thomas
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Posted by
alameda 8 - East Texas (
My Page) on
Sun, May 13, 12 at 1:44
I have a 3-4 yr. old Graham Thomas. Its very healthy, gets plenty of water from all our rain. It is sending out long stems everywhere, but no buds or blooms. It doesnt seem inclined to bloom, just grow tenacles. Should I trim it back? Let it grow? What is the best way to treat this rose to encourage blooms? Thanks...
Judith |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Question About Graham Thomas
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| Mine blooms like mad -- it does grow longish canes, and I've trained mine to a rebar teepee. So, the canes are pulled down from straight to 45 degrees. Is your rose own root or grafted? I've found that the own root roses can take several years longer to mature (longer than I expected). Maybe too much nitrogen? |
RE: Question About Graham Thomas
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| I've seen Graham act like this, growth and no blooms, and my best guess is that it is overfertilized. He's a sparse repeat bloomer here in Kansas anyway, so I think it works best to treat him a little roughly, use only organic fertilizers (no high nitrogen) and keep him trimmed around 5-6 feet. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Musings blog
RE: Question About Graham Thomas
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| It took mine almost three years to bloom. I was ready to get rid of it and threatened it with the shovel. Now it blooms very well in spring, with some repeat bloom later, and is about twelve feet tall. I agree that you can skip the chemical fertilizer on this one -- mine seems to like compost mulch and kelp meal. |
RE: Question About Graham Thomas
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- Posted by alameda 8 - East Texas (My Page) on
Sun, May 13, 12 at 11:30
I have only fertilized mine with Mills Magic Rose Mix and Texas Tee, a good all around organic fertilizer - no chemicals. I dont know if its own root or not, but probably not - I got it from a local nursery on sale in the fall several years ago as a very healthy bush. I seem to remember it bloomed better last year but not that much. This year, I have seen one, maybe two blooms, but the bush is really healthy. These longer canes come to a fine point at the end - I keep looking for buds but there are none. I cannot imagine why this rose was picked to be the best rose ever by some survery - its a pretty yellow, but if the thing doesnt bloom, whats the point? And even if rebloom is infrequent, why would this be touted as a great rose? I am certainly not going to shovel prune a perfectly healthy rose.....but would sure like to hear some success stories on it. Its placed next to a long fence along with other shrub type roses in full sun, prime real estate, and I dont want to make it a pillar rose. Would it help to prune off these longish tendrils? We are having lots of rain and coolish [for Texas] temperatures and this is wonderful blooming weather - my other roses are doing great. This one laggard is frustrating! Thanks for any advice.....
Judith |
RE: Question About Graham Thomas
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| I have never managed to grow GT as a bush whatever Mr.Austin claims - it really performs best trained and treated as a climber - which means a good bit of pulling those long canes as horizontal as you can. I have 2 of these and will try to get a picture posted to illustrate a well grown GT and, right next to it, a bizarre and oddly shaped disaster which blooms still, but at a height of around 8 feet in the air. Luckily, both these roses are grown side by side so I can cover the bare legged disaster zone of one with the long canes of its neighbour. |
RE: Question About Graham Thomas
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| I'm an amateur rose grower, so I cannot give advice. I do understand what Campanula is suggesting though, to treat it as a climber. My courageous gives more blooms when treated as a climber than a shrub. If you didn't have room to try treating it as a climber would the long branches be limber enough to be pegged? I watched a video on pegging recently which I found very interesting. |
RE: Question About Graham Thomas
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- Posted by seil z6b MI (My Page) on
Sun, May 13, 12 at 15:19
| I grow mine on a stand alone trellis and wrap the 8 foot canes down to encourage more bloom. |
RE: Question About Graham Thomas
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| Mine blooms like crazy and maybe this is pure laziness on my part. If it gets fertilizer at all it is as for this weekend, when I tossed a couple of scoopfuls of milorganite in the general direction of that bed. As others have said, for me it behaves best when treated as a short climber and tying the canes to the trellis (in a more horizontal position) induces a lot more side branching and blooms. If they go straight up, they bloom on the end only, out of reach/nose range, and that is no fun. |
RE: Question About Graham Thomas
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Mine is planted next to a fence - guess I could let the tendrils get long enough to attach to the fence and try that. Its such a healthy rose, and large - would really like to see some blooms out of it so will try this method. Apparently it doesnt want to be a blooming bush. Does anyone have any photos of GT in bloom? Would love to see some! Thanks!
Judith |
RE: Question About Graham Thomas
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| I have one in full, great sun, great bed, etc. And it blooms consistently. I don't do alot of special treatment, other than prune a foot or so off of it after a bloom cycle, as it is so leggy. I got mine own root from ARE. |
RE: Question About Graham Thomas
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| The Graham Thomas out front receives sun 90% of the day. It has been in place for over fifteen years (unfortunately) and receives no fertilizer at all because the toy fox terrier gets into that terrace, she's omnivorous and a real FOODIE! I do my best to keep the plant to eight feet (zone 10), hacking yards of thorny tentacles from it frequently. The ONLY time it is inclined to flower is when it receives tons of water. I mean TONS. Nothing else on this hill is as water demanding as GT is, which has been my experience with it in several gardens in three zones. If your climate controls its growth and you receive good rainfall with good ground water, it's going to flower more as expected. If you're hot, dry, with little ground water and don't flood it frequently, it is going to tend to grow more with less color. If I could get the blamed thing out of where it is, it would be GONE, but the access is too tight and I'm increasingly less inclined to climb up into that tangle of thorns and likely kill myself hacking it out. No, given the chance, I would never plant another, but this was inherited and had been installed by a landscraper. I'm sure it's good elsewhere, but not in a savannah type of environment. Kim |
RE: Question About Graham Thomas
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- Posted by seil z6b MI (My Page) on
Tue, May 15, 12 at 18:02
Here's mine in bloom last spring.
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RE: Question About Graham Thomas
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| I tried it years ago and when after a year it hadn't bloomed I took it back to where I got it, ARE here in San Antonio. They said theirs didn't bloom either and took it in trade for another rose. |
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