What is the rose? And is it budded, or on its own roots. What time of the year have you purchased roses from Reagans?

Jeri

Thanks for answering Jeri.

I made a mistake in my original post. The rose is Carding Mill and is grafted - Dr. Huey.

I normally purchase roses in the spring. The latest bed was built and roses planted on 5/16/13, As I said, the blooms were already normal sized or at least close. The Carding Mill blooms are only 1/3 of the normal size.

Thanks again,

andrea

Thanks for answering Jeri.
I made a mistake in my original post. The rose is Carding Mill and is grafted - Dr. Huey.

I normally purchase roses in the spring. The latest bed was built and roses planted on 5/16/13, As I said, the blooms were already normal sized or at least close. The Carding Mill blooms are only 1/3 of the normal size.

Thanks again,

andrea

Andrea, where did they come from? If they were shipped from somewhere where the weather has been bad, like extremely hot, that could account for smaller blooms. I don't think a few days in shipping would make them smaller and those blooms were probably set way before they were sent to you anyway. Probably once you've planted it and it's settled in it will give you those bigger blooms.

Seil,

It was a David Austin shipped from Texas. I'm sure that it's been hot there, and I hope that is the only reason for the small size.

I have already repotted it into a new (huge) planter. I thought that if I potted in a planter large enough for it to live 'forever', I could just leave it there forever.....Not so.
The folks at David Austin told me that it should be repotted maybe every 4 years or so. I'm not looking forward to this. The planter required 4 1/2 cubic yds of soil. (Three 40 pound bags for one planter!!!) I guess I will have to ask you'all how to do this. I am NOT young and I have no one to help me. Planting this one, plus 3 minis today has just about wrecked my back.

Thanks for your help,

andrea

I know the experts tell me I must root prune my potted roses, but I have not done that yet and they are fine at the 5 year mark. I have lots of roses of all different sizes including tree roses. As long as they are healthy they should develop just fine and give u normal size blooms. As for back pain, I recently planted a rose with the error of using a layer of turface in the bottom of a huge pot,. The draiange was bad so I had to remove the rose, rinse off the gunk, clean out the pot and replace the rose into a new planting medium. Talk about back pain.! It was Just Joey and he d$&m well better appreciate it and live! Lol.

This post was edited by susan4952 on Sun, Aug 11, 13 at 1:04

I have been ordering from them
for years. With the exception of one dead rose, they are quite reputable.

Andrea,

Here in Texas we have been pummeled by the heat. All of my normally vigorous roses are putting out blooms that are any of the following: smaller than normal, devoid of color and scent, deformed, have a lower petal count than normal, or the whole plant has simply shut down.

I imagine the small bloom size may be a result of the heat, if not a result of a young plant. I would take care of the plant, and when it matures a year it should be perfectly fine. For instance, my Ambridge Rose bands have successively bloomed larger and deeper apricot than when I first potted them up. And that is only in one season.

p.s. I do not envy you having to repot that beast of a planter.

Josh

Jeri, Seil, Susan, and Josh, thanks for your help. I am sure that what you say is correct. I feel much more optimistic now about the future size and health of my new Austin. This is my first English type and I was so looking forward to it. just like a child before Christmas.

andrea

Andrea, you will love Carding Mill. I plan to order another one for my spring David Austin order. I have ordered alot of bands - there were some great summer sales plus Vintage Gardens going out of business - and just got in some great 4" pots from Northland Rosarium. Some have blooms but they will be small. My band roses [when I let them bloom which isnt often, I disbud to promote root growth, like Kim said] always have small blooms. Even my well established roses in the ground have small blooms this time of year in this miserable heat. I wouldnt worry. Let your rose get established and expect lovely blooms in the spring. After listening to the real experts on this forum like Jeri and Kim and many others, I realized that I must be patient and allow the rose to grow a good root system before it begins to show off. Good luck, Carding Mill was a great choice.
Judith

Thanks Judith.

Did you read Josh's post? Well that's where my new babie is from. I assume that if the heat made Josh's blossoms small, then it did the same for the David Austin roses. Thanks for telling me that you like this rose. I am already finding out that every new rose is an adventure, (or misadventure). One of my first, Oregold, was for the first 14 months stagnant. In the last month, she has decided to be the champion that she is. And First Prize, was anything but! (small, disease ridden, and weird blooms.) But also in the month, has decided to grow a little. And the last bloom, 6 days ago, had probably the most perfect form possible for a HT.

Have a great day, I will, playing with my new (and older) babies.

andrea

I'm glad your container rose arrived in good shape! I ordered a MunsteadWood for my stepmom a few months ago and UPS really did a number on it. It had broken canes and the dirt was dry and coming out of the pot...just terrible. It's finally coming around after my dad pruned and babied it.

Good luck with Carding Mill! I have several Austins in pots and they do great for me.

Thanks a bunch for the encouragement. Carding Mill and the 3 miniatures are all doing beautifully. They have even made some new babies (sorry, I'm mushy) since I put them into their new homes.

Since you already have experience with potted roses, can you tell me how much work it is to repot them when they need it? The miniatures don't worry me, but the Carding Mill is in a container that took 3 bags of E.B. Stone Edna's Best. (1.5 cu feet apiece). That's a lot of dirt to wrestle with. I understand that it should be done about every 3 or 4 years.

Do you do this?

thanks again,

andrea

Well...to be honest I haven't had mine 3-4 years...but as big as your pot is, I would treat it like a rose in the ground. I would prune it, shovel it along the dripline to a manageable root ball, and re-pot. If you think about transplanting a mature plant that's been in the ground, we are able to really cut through the roots and after a break the plant bounces right back.

Your container seems huge, I wouldn't really anticipate having to re-pot it. The only issue of concern to me is that over the course of several years the soil will degrade to the point where you'd almost be growing the rose hydroponically because you'd have to provide everything for it.

I've read up on this quite a bit, and it seems to me that most people only observe that container growing limits the overall size of the plant, and binding of the roots can be a concern after several years in a pot. I have noticed that miniatures outgrow their containers very quickly!

I'm putting up a greenhouse and doing a long-term study on growing roses in "smart pots" or "grow bags" instead of non-porous containers. In theory, they should never require re-potting because of the air pruning effect of these containers. We shall see...

I'm hoping some experts can give you better insight into this.