I commented on your "experiment" over on the Gallery. I think it is a good idea. Who wants a 10 ft skinny rose, after all?

Kate

Not me...lol..

Man our Mister Lincoln is so slowwww at blooming...
14 buds- First bloom opened and fell apart in 3 days.
Waited 2 days for second bloom to open it fell apart in 3 days...
Been waiting 4 days (yawn) for 3rd bloom to open it should open tomorrow as it is semi open now...
Gee what a slow poke...lol
I'm seriously thinking about replacing ML next year if he doesn't start picking up the pace...
ML been a major yawn since I planted him...lol

In the heat petals fall off within 24-48 hours... :(

Maybe I'll try Firefighter next year?
What-cha think?

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This post was edited by jim1961 on Sat, Jun 22, 13 at 19:34

Have you tried cutting the blooms at breakfast time and chilling them (in water) in the refrigerator? In Texas i could get a week of vase display that way, and the perfume is bliss.

Actually I do not vase cut...lol
Well twice I cut 2 ML roses for my wife.
I planted Lincoln close to our front porch steps to smell his blooms.
But he blooms way to slow for me...lol
Most roses we had on this bush at once was last year with 6 roses.
Problem I'm having is the blooms fall off within 24 hours on hot days... So all 6 blooms only gave us very little enjoyment.
Our Lincoln gets 10-12 hours of sun...
I will transplant him somewhere else this Spring to see how he grows & blooms.

I shoveled old Abe because he was a rather wimpy grower and rarely bloomed for me...and that was grafted! I don't have any idea how he'd be own root here if he didn't grow grafted.

Blooms on this guy are averaging around 3 inches..
90 degrees blooms are falling off within 24-48 hours...

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I had to prune all of my roses to the ground this year. You ought to see them now. I have a lot of 6' tall ht's and nice good sized plants of other types of roses with over a thousand blooms! Because we had such a early and hot year last year I only had to prune 4" off the tops o find green wood. This year I found good green wood at the ground. I hit them with nitrogen and they jumped out of the ground when it finally warmed up!

This ML own-root so far has been slowwwww...
He gets blooms but they are so slowww to open and
they fall off the bush way to quickly...

Sadly all these blooms will all fall off by tomorrow or Friday...

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My Mr. Lincoln is in his second year. I love him. The fragrance is wonderful, and he never drops his pedals.

He gets 6 to 8 hours of sun per day (morning through early afternoon).

He loves when he's fed with Rose Tone too.

Perhaps a move to a less sunny location would afford you more enjoyable blooms.

Scott in PA

PS: I will say, I like the outcome of the drastic hair cut you gave him.

DNTQuilter,

Is your ML grafted or own-root??? Thanks

I will check tomorrow. My gut tells me that it is grafted.

Scott

Jim,

My ML appears to be own root.

Scott

Ok Thanks DNTQuilter!

Update On Mister Lincoln:

Well to sum things up I cut our own-root Mister to the ground in late March...

Mister Lincoln had roughly 12 flower buds. Each opened from time to time but only lasted 24-48 hours then petals fell off so not much excitement in that area...

Our own root Mister Lincoln is still roughly at the 2ft mark
with no growth sprurts to brag about at all...

Rebloom has not happened yet but I see buds forming...

(on a good note) Blackspot resistance has been excellent so far since being planted in Nov of 2010...

Here's a pic I took today...

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A follow up on this 2.5 year old discussion... Jim, it looks like you had 4 or so canes come up from the crown of this Mister Lincoln. Is that correct? We all know ML is the king of the one cane wonders. My grafted MLs (I have two of them) both just have two canes above ground, with the grafts buried about 3" into the dirt. I'm still patiently waiting for some basal breaks...

Oh and how old was this ML when you did all this (so in spring of 2013) and how tall did it reach at the end of the season?

I'm seriously contemplating getting an ML own root if it will look more like a bush with multiple canes than just having two canes coming up from the ground.

Our own-root ML had 4-5 canes... Grew to about 4 ft high and 2-2.5ft wide...

I bought our ML in 2010 and had it until 2014. It grew fast so second season it was already 4ft high...

Jim you got rid of it? I love my grafted ML atleast that is what I believe it is. It generally have two tall canes but has had 3-4. Blooms don't last long, but that scent! Give it some afternoon shade, and enjoy. Loved reading about yours. Afternoon shade does help the blooms some, but they do go fast....

At Least the experiment went well Jim.

Alana8aSC, I put it back into a large container around the 4th year to experiment. While trying to over-winter ML in a large container outside ML died...

Our ML was getting to much sun in the location I had him in the ground so blooms blew real fast...

When I placed ML back into a large container I gave him lots of sun up to the point where bud/s were close to opening. At that point I gave him more shade which prolonged the blooms... They lasted 2-3+ days longer...

I have no experience with a grafted ML what-so-ever so can not comment on that to much...

Has anyone tried giving grafted ML alfalfa meal or tea or similar to get more basal breaks???

I have a first year, own root Oklahoma with one cane. I will try giving it alfalfa meal. Did you replace your Mister Lincoln with another rose, Jim? What is your favorite red rose?

Here roses blackspot badly except for resistant ones. Oddly ML did very well here no spray those 4 years. So for that reason ML was a favorite red even though he did not bloom as much as we wanted him too...etc. I have not replaced ML as most HT's I've tried have done poorly here no spray...

I fed all my roses alfalfa tea since July, I only got to see new basal breaks on own root ones for some reason. Will see what happens this year but I surely am gravitating towards getting an own root ML.

Indeed the blooms are not very frequent and blow fast, but I grow my ML bushes for enjoying inside in bouquets, so I just keep an eye on them and cut them just as the blooms are opening, I get up to 5 days in the vase that way and that length of time is quite typical for our garden roses. And this is so cool - one day my wife put just one bloom in each bedroom, closed the doors and after a few hours upon opening each room door all you could smell was that heavenly scent of ML! Very few of my roses can perfume the air that strongly.

I think I remember reading in the organic forum about ML in the pot now. I'm sorry yours died in the pot. How did you winterize? I fixing to have me some permanent pot pets and would love some pointer's. Although I know mine winter's won't be near as cold. :)

When I first started growing roses Mr Lincoln was the first one I planted. It bloomed one day, petals fell off the next, and I shovel pruned it the following day. Then Dr. Huey came up in it's place and to this day is still allowed to grow.

My father has Dr. Huey growing over his tool room. It is beautiful when it blooms. No doubt it is root stock from a previous rose that died. All but one of my roses are own root.

Alana8aSC,

I winterized ML by putting his large container inside a half barrel. ML was on our mostly open front porch area... I got lazy and instead of using leaves I stuffed cloth rags between the container and half barrel. Placed snow on top of ML throughout the winter. Hand watered alittle once a month even though snow was melting and keeping it watered also....

braverichard (6a, North MO),

So Alfala Tea did very little for basal breaks on your grafted ML...

toolbelt68(7),

Yep I know what you mean by petals falling off quickly...lol

I planted this ML in May of 2010 as a baby own root from Heirloom roses so you can see I actually got a decent amount of blooms that year in September from a first season plant. I can still remember how strong the scent was waffling off them...lol... Then my wife started sneezing badly so I gave to our neighbor to enjoy...

Hi noseometer...7A...ABQ, never seen or tried to grow a Mister Lincoln such as you speak about. Sounds like a cool way to grow ML!

Indeed Jim, feeding with alfalfa tea earned me zero basal breaks on not just my grafted ML but on all my grafted roses. Some of my own root roses did show basals at the very end of the season. In fact I'm beginning to question how quickly that alfalfa tea works on generating basal breaks in roses - if it is true at all. And I made my teas pretty concentrated from alfalfa hay that is 90% pure alfalfa straight from a horse farm. Beats me.

Yes I can understand why you would question alfalfa tea's ability to help create new basal breaks in your grafted roses after that experience

braverichard (6a, North MO)

I never grew a grafted rose yet so have 0 experience...

Yeah well, the way I see it, alfalfa has that alcohol, triacontanol which is a plant growth hormone, and also has an almost perfect balance of carbon and nitrogen so it is a great organic fertilizer. I just don't think triacontanol triggers the basal breaks so many claim.

I agree that it is a great organic fertilizer. In all the years that I did the tea I never saw an increase in basal breaks or increased bloom. I have been tempted too brew again this coming year. Mostly because mixing the dry fertilizers is so messy. Hauling the tea is not very easy either. A local nursery here Hornbakers carries large bags of a fertilizer that contains every thing that I use. All I need too do is open the bag and spread or brew If one wants to. It has alfalfa meal, cotton meal, fish meal epsom salts ect. It not that much more expensive that what I use anyway. Guess thats what I'll do this year and check for organic liquid hose end feeds.

Well your alfalfa tea is much easier to make than mine Patty! lol I literally went to a horse farm, got 5 huge bales of the richest alfalfa they had (90%, last cutting from the field for the year so very few weeds), got several 55 gallon containers, rigged up with an old, unused sump pump, a contraption that allows me to sink the pump into the barrel, fill the barrel with hay and water and let it sit for 2 weeks, stirring every day or so. When done I would have a supremely stinky brew, hook up my water hose with a shut off valve at the end to the pump, start it and then just walk around the yard watering roses (and other perennials) with this tea. Then repeat. Usually takes about 300 gallons as I ensure every rose gets nearly 2 gallons so this is done over two different Saturdays/Sundays per month. While alfalfa has a near perfect balance of carbon and nitrogen, its typically 2-1-2 analysis means it really does not contain that much nitrogen per unit, so I compensate by applying more - at least that's what I think I am doing. :)

I still have two bales left but it is harder for me to keep going this route as I'd like to know exactly how much nutrients I am feeding. The engineer I am just can't keep pouring a higher concentration of this 2-1-2 fertilizer without knowing what the end result is due to the higher concentration (is it 20-10-20? Or 4-2-4? Or 10-5-10??). Oh also, not trying to start a long winding discussion of what is the best fertilizer lol!

Otherwise, definitely great for the bank. All 5 bales cost me $20 and a 1 hour round trip to the farm in my truck! The barrels cost me $100 and it is a one time cost, and I already had the pump.

Here is my own-root Mister Lincoln I took from a cutting that is a few years old. I only feed him bagged steer manure I get from Lowes.

Wow that ML looks great dan8_gw! Nice job! :-)

My Mr.L had always been a one cane wonder. So I shovel pruned him. Even on Fortuniana he was a one cane wonder. I've never understood the fascination with this rose in my area. Its almost always one the few reds available. It does have a wonderful scent, so I used to grow it for my husband who likes fragrant roses, but I got tired of looking at his thorny canes. Now I grow Olympiad and Europeana and they are much better bloomers for me.

Oh, and Veteran's Honor is also amazing for me. None of these have scent though :( But I'll take more blooms over scent any day. (I know, I know, blasphemy!)

LOL SoFL.... Glad to hear those roses do well for you SoFL!

Based on the info discussed here, it looks like ML is better off on its own roots. I don't buy any pre-2000 roses on their own roots unless I have proof that they do well own root because prior to that year pretty much every rose was hybridized to perform well grafted on some vigorous root stock.

If you decide to get a own root ML hopefully it works out for you braverichard!

Yes indeed, I'm actually in the process of finding one own root, only Heirloom Roses since to have it in stock and all they have is the 1 gallon for $37 ouch! Jim, wasn't yours a band when you got it? I need to find it in a band size.

Yeppers braverichard ours was a band sized ML...

Rogue Valley has it as a band, for some reason when I searched earlier it didn't show up and now it just did, will probably buy it from there and see what happens come May.

Rogue valley is expensive for me, it might be better to get the gallon size. Shipping is a killer, but you are closer...so maybe for you it won't be so bad for you. I never ordered less than four, shipping was better that way and I got a free rose! Good luck with your ownroot ML!

I think the $37 Heirloom Roses price for one gallon includes the shipping costs...

Yes I am ordering 4 actually as I already had 3 plants to order from them before this discussion, then I am adding the one free rose and one mystery rose, so in total 6 roses, with shipping everything comes to $27.50 per rose if you only count the 4 roses I actually wanted, it becomes $18.33 per rose if you count the two freebies as well. Truth is, the free rose, Royal William, is a rose I have had an eye on ordering for a while, so it works out quite well.