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| Hello everyone ! First time poster, though a regular visitor in this forum, always checking the Rose Gallery for any new pictures. This year decided to take the plunge, in other words, the Heirloom 50 % sale made me order 30 + rose plants, all of them own roots :-) and a few from Home Depot.
I planted them late in the season, towards the end of July, so now keeping my fingers crossed for them to survive the first winter. Now my questions :-
- I stopped fertilizing the plants , in fact the last one being last week . Do I still go on deadheading till the frost ? - The last question - I see thousands of blooms and buds in the pictures that you all post. How do you achieve this ? I mean what type of fertilizer do you use ? I know that the soil, the age of the plant, and sunlight matters, but there must be some secret formula that each one of you have .. or is just your magical touch ? I would love to hear your tips .. there are so many products in the market - rose tone, miracle gro rose food, alfalfa, horse manure, fist fertilizer .. the list is endless .. where to start ? also how often do you feed them ? All this planning in the hope that my plants will survive the winter :-) My rose list below, any inputs from your personal experience will be of great help ! I referred a lot to HMF before placing the order .. but nothing like the advice from the rose gurus ~ thanks in advance ! Walking on Sunshine
A few pics below:-
Thanks so much for your time .. all of you have a good day ! |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| I recommend that you continue deadheading into the fall, rather than waste plant energy making fruits. But it probably doesn't matter either way. There is no magic fertilizer. Get a soil test to learn what is needed and what is not. I use cheap 10-10-10 and alfalfa, which does seem to be an effective growth stimulant. Manufactured fertilizers may be applied every 6-8 weeks.Rose Tone is good if you want to go organic, 2 or 3 applications per season. It contains some alfalfa. I have stopped doing winter protection. For you I would suggest the traditional big shovelful of dirt. It transmits ground heat when the air is coldest and keeps the plant chilled during warm spells. Don't apply until cold weather approaches (10-12 degrees). The scheme you suggest sounds like it would encourage destructive fungi. Planting tiny roses in late summer in zone 5 is not the best strategy, but I hope most of your roses come through. |
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- Posted by flaurabunda 6a, Central IL (My Page) on Thu, Sep 13, 12 at 17:09
| Crozz-- Upstate or downstate? I & another Illinois forum member in zone 5b have chosen not to do any winter protection, but I think we both plant in spring. By late fall, shrubs are of adequate size to survive the winter. I'd rather not risk the canker problems by covering things up. I usually deadhead up until first frost, and then I do nothing, unless I have some long, floppy canes that might snap in winter winds. |
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| Z5 Chicagoland here. I do winter protect with a mound of dirt over and around each bush. I think doing this,especially the first winter that your late planted roses are in the ground would be beneficial. Many if not most of mine were started from own root bands as well. |
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| I'm from central Illinois around the Peoria area. I do absolutely no winter protection. The roses have a year-around layer of hardwood mulch in their beds, and come fall/winter, the surrounding trees drop their leaves and the winds blow in some stray oak leaves around the roses. I usually quit deadheading around the end of September; mainly because I'm tired of deadheading +275 roses. RoseTone is an excellent fertilizer; I've used it for many years with proven results. One caution, though...if you have dogs, they love to eat it. |
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| The local nursery recommends a shovelfull of topsoil mounded through the middle of the rose bush. Buy bags of topsoil now and store above the ground in a garage so they will not be frozen when you need to apply them (after the ground freezes). By trial and error and recommendations from this forum I have found roses that survive the winter without protection. Tender roses such as Liv Tyler will die without protection. Hardier Austin and Buck varieties will be fine. Prairie Star died on me but I bought it late in June on sale. Not all Buck roses are winter hardy. Also protect from rabbits with cylinders of hardware cloth or chickenwire. Animals get hungry over the winter. |
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- Posted by flaurabunda 6a, Central IL (My Page) on Fri, Sep 14, 12 at 9:18
| Oh yes; another important point is where in your yard you have located your roses. I have 3 main beds, and 2 of them are up against the house; on the south side and west side. The southerly bed lies in front of light-colored siding. The western bed is in front of our brick facade. The brick, more than anything, retains heat from the sunlight and I'm able to 'zone push' a tad bit there. Things to consider are wind patterns, elevation, etc....did you plant them on a hill, or at the base of a hill, between houses where there's a tunnel effect on the wind, etc. We usually get a bit of cane loss, but I've only had a few die all the way back to the ground. The roses that DID die all the way back were immature bands in the summer. They luckily bounced back. |
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| First off your roses look beautiful! So you must be doing it right. I don't recommend covering them. Covers, in my opinion, just ask for things to mold inside. In particular in the spring when the weather fluctuates so much and it's usually rainy. The roses get damp and the temps go up and, bingo, you've got mold in there because the covering holds the moisture in so the roses can't dry off. Just a good thick layer of mulch at the base should be enough. Even with coverings you're going to get winter die back. It can't be helped. But by leaving the canes open to the air they'll be able to fight off fungus and mold better. Good air circulation around and through your roses is important year round to keep diseases at bay. As far as fertilizing and dead heading, if you're using a fast acting water soluble fertilizer like Miracle Grow you can continue to fertilize them. You don't want to put down a heavy dose of organics or any kind of slow release fertilizer though. And go ahead and deadhead right up until they go dormant. I assure you that even if you stopped doing so in August they wouldn't go dormant. The roses will continue to grow and bloom until the first hard freeze anyway. As long as the weather is good and there is sufficient daylight they'll grow. Yes, you may lose some of that new growth over the winter but I feel it's more important that they go into winter healthy and growing than half starved and covered in hips that they're trying to ripen but never will. Something I think is important too is water. We sometimes slack off on watering in the fall but that can be a big mistake. The roses need to be well hydrated going into winter. So if the weather is good keep watering them right up to the time you put them to bed. And don't rush into doing that too soon. You have to wait for Mother Nature to make the first move and she doesn't always read the dates on the calendar. Wait until you've had several hard frosts and the ground is beginning to freeze before you do any winter protection. Putting winter mulch on too early can cause several types of problems from inviting critters to nest in it (and munch on them all winter like the rabbits did to mine one year) to cases of rose canker or gall. I used to put mine down around Halloween. Then it moved back to right around Thanksgiving. Now I'm not doing it until the first week of December. The weather has been changing and has pushed back my winterizing time significantly. And that last question is easy to answer. I used to beat myself up about those huge, bloomiforous bushes too. Why don't mine look like that? Until I finally realized that a lot of those gorgeous pictures you see are from wonderful rose growers who live in WARM climates! Their growing season is much longer than ours, some of them year round, and they don't suffer winter cane die back every year. The roses get much bigger and fuller and bloom more. But they have their down times too. Not from cold but from heat! A lot of the really warm climate growers have no roses in June/July/ August (when our roses are at their best) because it's too scorching hot and the roses shut down and go dormant then. But their plants do always get taller, bushier and have abundant blooms when the weather is good. The biggest advice I can give you is relax! Enjoy your roses and don't fret so much about them. You'll be surprised how resilient and forgiving they are. Besides being gorgeous! |
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| Aha, I feel so better reading all your valuable inputs, thanks a ton ! michaelg - I've been always an impulsive shopper, and with that 50 % sale just couldn't stop myself.. keeping my fingers crossed for the best :-) flaurabunda - Upstate, I think I might need to do some winter protection since I planted so late, that way I will not feel that I dint care enough, if they don't come up next spring . After reading all your comments, I think the diy lawn bags are not a good idea t-bred - thanks for this input, looks like this is the way to go and sounds very doable too .. terryjean - OMG ! 275 roses ? now please don't give me ideas ! I used the Miracle Gro Rose food, will try RoseTone too .. anything to get those wonderful blooms predfern - Good point, I need to stock them now itself Also was not aware that rabbits attack rose plants .. with all the thorns and all ? seil - thanks for your kind words ! Good point on the water too .. in fact I've already slowed down ! You kind of opened my eyes, mentioning about the warmer climates now I know why those plants are covered with more number of blooms than leaves .. and yes I'm going to take it easy :-) |
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| I have used miscanthus grass to cover tender roses their first year out and it works well. Since I grow alot of grasses, I cut it down after in November and toss it over some of the newbies. It is unbelievable how green the roses look in the Spring; it's like they have their own little greenhouse. 'Maria Peral' came through looking quite green and had absolutely no cane dieback. |
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- Posted by prairielaura 6b NC mtns (My Page) on Thu, Sep 20, 12 at 9:33
| What a valuable thread! Information i really needed. Michael G, do you think roses planted late in the summer ought to be mounded with mulch? You said you don't...but there was a tragic misadventure with a Roundup-Remedy mixture at my house which necessitated a major replanting. (drawing a curtain over that disaster.) So next year i will gratefully leave the roses on their own for the winter, but i need more counselling for this year. Crozz, i don't mean to hijack your post; i'm very glad you wrote it. Laura, who does not miss the sunbaked prairie |
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| You asked: "Chicago Peace - Very beautiful .. but seeing lot of blackspots . is that normal ?" The answer is yes, unfortunately. Same is true for the Peace rose, the most beautiful rose in rosedom, in my opinion, but a disease-magnet. Chicago Peace is gorgeous. You will have to decide whether that compensates adequately for having to spray every couple weeks, probably all season. Kate |
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| Laura, if new roses are very small, with canes less than 1/4" diameter, you might consider temporary protection during temperatures below 10 degrees. Here in Asheville, we haven't had subzero temperatures in a long time. I haven't had much experience overwintering very small plants, but when I did so, I buried them for the worst of winter. |
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- Posted by prairielaura 6b NC mtns (My Page) on Thu, Sep 20, 12 at 14:08
| Thank you Michael, that helps. And thanks again to Crozz for asking good questions. |
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