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Lots of issues with my David Austins

thehauteblogger
9 years ago

Where do I even begin? (I have images from all of the issues, I'll be uploading separately.)

1. The flower above seems to be rotting or something? Not quite sure. I don't know if it fried in the sun and then got wet from the thunder storm. It didn't look like that this morning.

2. Most of my plants are leaning, and that might be my fault for not planting them level.

3. Lastly, lots of the stems are falling over, like they can't support themselves. Is this normal?

There is a lot of clay in the ground, which I mixed with garden soil, clay breaker, manure and compost. Could that be an issue?

Okay, I think that's it. : /

Comments (19)

  • thehauteblogger
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    The stem to the left is about to hit the ground (In fact, I have about 5 or 6 other stems that are doing this) and the rose plant has started leaning a lot.

  • thehauteblogger
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Lots of blooms looking bad.

  • thehauteblogger
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    To the left, the flowers are falling all over the place.

  • Kippy
    9 years ago

    Hi

    What Austins did you buy and what zone are you in?

    Is that your native soil or some kind of planting mix you used?

    Has it rained a lot?

    The blooms look like rain(balling), transplant shock or just old. But the leaning makes me think that maybe the soil you planted them in is not heavy enough or meant for garden uses.

  • seil zone 6b MI
    9 years ago

    How long have the blooms been open? Are these just old blooms that need to be dead headed? Have you had severe heat lately? Or excessive rain? Any extremes in weather can cause blooms to deteriorate quickly.

    Did you just purchase these and plant them or have they been in the ground for a while? If they are new plants you might be able to carefully dig them back up and straighten them. They do look like they're falling over. Are you sure you packed the soil all around them so there are no air pockets in it. Or, like Kippy suggests, is the soil too light weight, like a soil-less mix, to be used in the ground?

    As for the weak stems there could be a couple of reasons. If these are new young plants they may need more time to mature before the canes will harden off enough to hold up those large, heavy blooms. But there are also some roses that do tend to have weak necks or blooms that "nod" downward. And many of those happen to be Austins. You can stake and tie them up or put a short trellis behind them to tie the canes unto if you'd like. Some Austins tend to get quite tall anyway and end up needing to be trellissed.

  • cecily
    9 years ago

    When a bloom with a high petal count (like an Austin) gets wet from rain, sprinklers or even very high humidity in spring, the outer petals contract (shrink) and the bloom doesn't open properly. Rosarians call that balling. Peeling away the outer layer of petals may help a balled bloom open. Some roses just don't open well until mid-summer.
    After a bloom does open, it may only last a day or two during periods of intense heat. This past weekend was unseasonably hot in the DC area and my roses opened & blew quickly.

  • cecily
    9 years ago

    PS: your foliage looks very nice!!!

  • michaelg
    9 years ago

    They are doing fine. Stake up floppy stems. They will thicken and become able to support themselves. Next spring, prune back to a self-supporting framework. Remove the faded or spoiled blooms by snapping the necks..

  • hoovb zone 9 sunset 23
    9 years ago

    They look to be planted kind of high. How far off the ground is the bud union? The bud union is the rounded fist-like thing where the canes (stems) are coming out from.

    Over-amending the soil is not a good idea. Most soil is good enough to grow good roses.

    Weather affects flower life. They only last so long. Then you cut them off and new ones grow.

  • kingcobbtx7b
    9 years ago

    Its wet petals that are balling up and wet petals that are weighed down by the water and are pulling the stem down.

    There really isn't anything wrong with the roses. As they get bigger the canes will be able to take the weight.,

  • nickjoseph Milwaukee, WI
    9 years ago

    I have four David Austins. One is about ready to be dug out (if I didn't hate killing live plants so much)--the Orthello. The Orthello gets about 5 blooms, beautiful hot deep pink color, then stops blooming the rest of the season except for maybe one or two blooms. The thorns would take an adult hand off. Never again.... Then there is the Pat Austin. Pretty blooms regularly--but necks always, always droop, and petals don't take long to splatter everywhere. Never again.... Heritage, gorgeous medium-pale pink petals. Always been extremely healthy, constantly full of beautiful blooms all season. Love it. Takes a lot of room though--gets wide & high. Fair Bianca, white, tons of blooms, pretty all season. Very happy with it. Two out of four........ Foliage on all our David Austin has been healthy all the time. Certain David Austins flop over as soon as they get a bloom.

  • cjrosaphile
    9 years ago

    So much depends on which ones you have. For instance, if you have William Shakespeare, you get some perpendicular shoots and the shrub is strange, not attractive -- so I have planted other things around it to support it and so that it looks better in the garden becuz the blooms are heavenly and worth it. Definitely need to plant them level. Some Austins have drooping heads, that's just how they are and rain does not help, so. My best ones are Mary Rose, Crown Princess Margareta (pictured). I also have and love Sharifa Asma, Christopher Marlowe, Heritage (blooms shatter too quickly) and just bought Jubilee Celebration. Such full blooms will sometimes need support (in rain especially) until the plant gets larger and stabilizes. I have owned but got rid of Jayne Austin, Sophie's Rose, Tamora and am proofing LD Braithwaite (not vigorous so far), and Golden Celebration. I would put up with a lot to have these glorious blooms and fragrances. Jubilee has an out of this world fragrance. . .I'm addicted.

  • thehauteblogger
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Kippy-the-Hippy, I'm in zone 7. I bought Tranquility (but those are in a raised bed in a different part of the garden, not having issues with them), generous gardener, boscobel (2 of these), heathcliff and strawberry hill. The native soil is 90% clay. I tried to amend it with the compost, manure and clay breaker. It has been raining a lot lately, and it will rain for the next three days!

  • thehauteblogger
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Seil,

    Some of the blooms have been open since Sunday/Monday. However, I bought a few of those plants on Saturday, and they were already blooming in their pots.
    But now that I think of it, there has been lots of rain lately and the days are between 80-90 degrees.

    How long have the blooms been open? Are these just old blooms that need to be dead headed? Have you had severe heat lately? Or excessive rain? Any extremes in weather can cause blooms to deteriorate quickly.

    You and Kippy brought up great points about the soil, I didn't pack it down! Since the plants are fairly new, I can pull them out and try again this weekend.

    I'll go ahead and get them trellised. Good thinking. Thanks for everything!

  • thehauteblogger
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Cecily and MichaelG, thanks for your input! Since I'm new to gardening, I'm getting nervous about issues that (I'm now realizing) are just part of garden life.

  • thehauteblogger
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Hoovb,

    You're right, they are planted pretty high. I dug as far down as I could, but the clay and large rocks halted the process. I figured I would just cover the roots as best as I could. I'm not totally sure if that will work. Now I'm a little nervous about the soil. There was mostly dense clay where I planted them, that's why I added all the amendments.

    KingCobb: Thanks so much for your input. That makes me feel a lot better.

    NickJoseph: Very interesting. Thanks for sharing that! I didn't really think about it that way. Ideally I'd want them all to be successful (of course), but I guess if I have a few that make it, I can be happy with that.

    cjrosaphile: Your rose is beautiful! Okay, I see this will be purely a trial and error issue. I'll see how this Summer goes!

    This post was edited by thehauteblogger on Wed, May 28, 14 at 23:43

  • thehauteblogger
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    KingCobb: Thanks so much for your input. That makes me feel a lot better.

    NickJoseph: Very interesting. Thanks for sharing that! I didn't really think about it that way. Ideally I'd want them all to be successful (of course), but I guess if I have a few that make it, I can be happy with that.

  • ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
    9 years ago

    Try to plant them deeper next time. I have a feeling they were planted more deeply in the pot, right about where the first leaves start. After they're planted, step down lightly on the soil all around the rose to make sure the plant is anchored securely in the soil.

  • Zyperiris
    9 years ago

    My Lady Emma did this alot when she was a baby. Also..in my opinion too much nitrogen makes them grow too fast and the stems can't hold the flower up