I originally planted Budateteny in the ground. While it failed to grow or bloom, it didn't actually die. I retired it to a pot where it has stubbornly remained small and one-caned. Now Lulu has arrived looking less than robust. I potted her up.

As an experiment and a challenge, I want to try to raise these two softies and see them bloom, but I actually don't know how best to coax them along. Do I keep them in pots? What should I feed them? Full sun, or morning only?

Grateful for suggestions,

Colleen

Give the plants morning sun, which is cooler without the cooking heat of afternoon sun, unless the fog prevents this, then afternoon is what you have to use. Ideally, you give them the best of everything, including good growth light without the heat stress of being cooked by the hottest sun. That is very climate dependent. If you don't get sun until afternoon, that's what you have to use. You just don't want to bake them with extreme heat.

Once they begin pushing growth, do not let them flower. The plants will either flower or grow. It's your choice which you prefer them to do. Preventing them from setting and maturing flowers will stimulate them to push new growth in an effort to flower again.

If it's necessary for you to spray in your climate/garden to maintain healthy, unmolested foliage, then you have to spray. If you're fortunate not to have to, great.

As they increase in plant and root size, pot them in the next appropriate can size as required. Your goal is to give them everything they require to start a steady rate of growth and maintain it, putting all of their energy into plant development instead of flowering. The more wood and foliage they generate, the faster they will begin to grow. Depending upon their genetics, the conditions under which you can grow them and the resources you provide, you might have the maturity and size plants you desire in the first year. Any reduction in the quality or quantity of those variables can increase the time required for the results desired. But, this works consistently with all types of roses, and is often the only way to push really obstinate, weak growers into developing into acceptable (or as acceptable as possible) specimen of their type. Good luck! Kim

Thanks, Kim, for the clear, precise instructions. Your wisdom will guide me not only with these two, but with other reluctant types in the future.

Colleen

I've previously taken three and five gallon climbing Teas, Noisettes and yellow Tea-Noisettes, all types which are very often glacially slow to develop, and pushed them into fifteen gallon size specimen in one summer (of course, MY summer, not yours). I think you'll be quite surprised at the results! Have fun! Kim

They stay in those until we can see roots out the bottom, then they go up to 5-G. When they're bursting the seams in a 5-G, we figger they're ready for the ground.

My only caution is that 1-G plants are very vulnerable in hot weather in particular. We have been gone for 4 days. Before we left, we set up a sprinkler to "rain" on the 1-G plants for a minute each day. We've started yet another heatwave here, but the pots came through in great shape.

And given the predicted temps, we'll be watering them daily for the next few days.

Jeri

As long as the temps remain lower than high nineties, I fertilize the canned roses, but with COPIOUS water before, after and regularly. I'll water them VERY well after the sun moves away from them, let them absorb it a while, then lightly fertilize them. An hour or so after fertilizing them, I hit them with water again. They grow like weeds with no disease due to the high heat here. I know your conditions are quite different, and I'm not suggesting you follow my exact method for fertilizing. I simply want to give you an idea of what has been working quite well here so you can modify it for your situation. Good luck! Kim

And how big of a clay pot should I get for the next size up? 10, 12, 14 inch, or? I don't know how much each size holds, and I've got some of each size.

I am definitely going to do this with some of my bands...and yes to the nighttime watering for the mo'. It's nasty hot, and the winds are starting...so it will be lots of root watering for now.

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The best would be wood, foam, concrete, something either dense enough to insulate or which contains enough air spaces in it to insulate.

If you have a band, you want a one gallon can. If you have a one gallon can, you want a two gallon. Once the one gallon outgrows that size, you put it up into a two. You up size a two to a three; a three to a five; a five to a seven; a seven to a ten or fifteen gallon. How far you do depends upon the results you desire.

Whatever you currently have in clay pots, cluster them somehow to shield them from direct sun shine on their sides. It is like putting a frying pan on an electric or gas burner. If you have plants in plastic pots, cluster them around the clay ones to use them as shade for the clay pot sides. It will make a huge difference in nasty hot weather. They won't dry out as quickly and the plants will
actually begin to show some development rather than sitting looking stressed, or actually shrinking due to their root system (digestive tract) being destroyed by the extreme heat.

If you must use clay, you may use bubble wrap inside the pots against the sides to insulate against them cooking the roots. Line the inside sides with the bubble wrap, not the bottom, then pot the plant inside the opening. It will work for a while, though the bougainvillea in the clay pot on my rear southern facing deck has been in its clay pot, insulated with bubble wrap, for the past three years and it's doing great. Kim

I did cluster the pots, but exactly opposite from what you suggest...I put the clay outside so it would shield the black cans. I had the idea, lol, just backwards.

I do have an Eden climber who is brilliantly happy in a huge clay pot...but it's not new. It's older (I bought it older, and have had it for about 2 years now).

I will make my adjustments this morning, before the heat, and give some extra water this morning. Once it cools down, I'll start the 1/2 strength, continual feeding you've suggested...

Thanks so much.

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Herding Cats

It all depends upon your climate. I can't put pots on hardscape here without cooking them to death, unless they are huge pots, where the sheer size of the damp soil ball insulates, protecting the roots. On wood or the ground, it works OK. At the beach, I frequently had to put these types of pots on hardscape to get the plants warm enough to push flowers and ripen fruit. Tomatoes, oranges and strawberries usually tasted like crap there because there wasn't enough heat to induce them to form the sugars to ripen. Clay pots on concrete patios, and against stucco or block walls "cooked" them enough to form the sugars needed to generate the tastes expected. Move inland just a few miles and that extra heat collection and radiation can flat out kill the same plants in the same pots. So, adjust that to your conditions and climate, too. Most plants will respond well to warmer roots, growing, maturing and performing much more to your expectations, unless that heat level approaches the threshold where the heat over stresses them and eventually cooks them. Kim

My new Granada and Angel Face bands from Vintage will arrive early next week, and I plan to put them in 1-gal black plastic pots. I'll be sure to pinch off any buds. My favorite fertilizer for containers is Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 from Dyna-Gro. I've noticed a big difference in our other container plants since I began using it, at half-strength 1-2 times/week. Would you suggest mixing some homemade compost with the potting mix as a slower-acting organic boost?

We also have a weak "dawg" Angel Face in the garden that needs an extra boost -- would you suggest I move it to a large pot, or just give it the 5-star treatment where it is, as you recommend for Peace and Sterling Silver?

I'd leave the planted Angel Face in the ground. Why set it back anymore by chopping off any of its roots? Mulch, feed and water it well (or appropriate to its drainage), disbud it and pray for the best. It can't hurt it. Digging it up, can. Good luck! Kim

I have a question about an own root Royal Highness. This was a band 3 years ago and has since been planted out. It does nada. No growth, no blooms- As if it was plastic. It was making slow growth in a pot but has now decided it will have 2 canes and no more. Is this a weakling own root or should it be given more time. I had a grafted one years ago and loved it. I just ordered a brides dream from Rosemania to see if I liked it more. My Royal Highness has a great spot and the Oklahoma and Johann Stauss nearby are going to town. Is that rose better off back in a pot?

Potted, even the weakest will perform better because the drainage is usually quite good; the soil is nicely balanced and nutrients much more readily available because of soil composition as well as warmer temps compared to the ground. Putting that plant into the ground can set it back, which is why I suggest growing it to nearly the size you desire before planting it. Of course, for rather vigorous types which grow larger, faster, that isn't usually necessary, but if you have one (or several) which just want to sit and take their own sweet time, keeping them potted until they are about the size you want before planting is usually a whole lot more satisfactory.

If it's already in the ground and you feel you can repot it without disturbing the roots significantly and setting it even further back, go for it. Otherwise, just do the best you can to push it in place and hope for the best.

You'll hear some say they have the rose in question and it's done just fine, and that's likely so. But, unless they have the identical site, soil, drainage, heat, water, climate, etc. as yours, it doesn't compare. Perhaps their soil is more potting soil like, where yours is more clay? Or, yours receives hotter sun, maybe in a hotter situation or climate? There are just too many variables to consider, all of which can easily explain why yours isn't doing as well as someone elses' might be. Ki