My neighbor bought the Bing Crosby last year and planted it in June; it was in bloom and looked gorgeous at the time. To date, she hasn't cut it back or done anything except feed and water it. We have just gone through a lovely bloom period for all our roses, but this one hasn't done a thing! It hasn't bloomed or grown an inch. I told her the old saying, "The first year it sleeps, the second year it creeps, and the third year it leaps." But this rose is still sleeping. Is it in its first year, or its second?

My neighbor asked me if she should cut it back. I considered telling her to try tip-pruning it, but didn't. Instead, I said to just keep feeding and watering it and see what happens.

I'd really like to know what you rose growers think about it. And has anyone grown this rose? Thanks so much,

Carolyn

I had 'Bing Crosby' about 30 years ago. It was an average or worse performer, but it did grow and bloom. If your neighbor bought a large garden center plant in June 2011 which bloomed then but isn't growing or blooming now, I'd suspect all the canes were damaged by winter. Did you have temperatures below zero? Hybrid tea roses are normally injured or killed down nearly to the ground by true zone 6 winters. We protect the base (especially the graft swelling), prune severely in early spring, and the plant regrows at the rate of about 10" per month, blooming every 6 weeks.

Normally the only reason a healthy rose stops growing during the growing season is that it ran short of water.

That old saw about the sleep, creep, leap thing is really more for climbers than regular roses anyway. The reason is that it takes a nice big root ball for the rose to be able to send food and water all the way up to the top of those long canes on climbers. So they spend the first few years growing that root ball before they send up those canes. Regular roses don't need the extra time to build a big root ball because they don't have to send nutrients up so high.