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| My grafted Duchess which I planted bare root a couple of months ago, has grown a few shoots (having a very wet winter and an exceptionally mild January has helped) and now wants to flower! It only has a few inches worth of new shoots but I have already pinched 2 or 3 buds. I now see she's coming up with more. Should I continue pinching them off or should I just let her do her thing? Is this normal for this rose? Nik |
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| We are having a strange winter, aren't we. Snowdrops in bloom already and tulips foliage poking up through the soil, a good 6 weeks early. So, pinching buds? I believe this is often done with young own root plants to encourage the rose to put effort into roots rather than top growth....but it has always seemed far less necessary with bare-root plants. However, if we are attempting to keep a rose in some sort of dormancy because of the likelihood of later freezing weather, I must confess to having no luck at all doing this. At present, Madame Gregoire is thrusting out a multitude of new leaves from every bud....and obviously, I am just going to ignore it because there is no way I can maintain a growth stopping momentum over the next 3 months. To be honest, Nik, I am less than scrupulous with my pruning regimes, doing it when it is handy....and I hardy ever wait till forsythia is in bloom. None of my roses ever seem to resent late cold, although the incipient growth does get blackened and frost-killed....in other words, nature does the pinching for me. I am aware I have not really answered and it might be that it matters little in a temperate climate (I would expect those in those freezy zones have to be more careful) but for you and I, I would just leave it alone because even if you pinch them off, another lot will be along in a week or so. |
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| You probably don't HAVE to keep pinching the buds, Nik, but it can only help push the plant to mature faster. It's up to you. Either way, the plant is going to grow. Preventing it from flowering will simply speed it along faster. If you are trying to encourage it to grow to a larger size, faster, say, before the extreme heat arrives, keeping the flowers pinched would help. If it makes no difference to you, leave it alone. It's up to you. If it was an own root plant, it wouldn't be pushing as quickly. Keeping it pinched would definitely encourage it to mature much faster. The artificial vigor supplied by the root stock is the equalizer here. Kim |
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- Posted by nikthegreek 9b/10a E of Athens (My Page) on Tue, Jan 21, 14 at 12:53
| Thanks for your input both. I think I'll keep on pinching for the time being until I get bored. First time I see a rose doing this though.. Camps, yes the weather has been VERY strange. I had high hopes for my few once blooming Europeans with winter coming early this season, but January has been spring like. I don't remember another January like this. I've just pruned most of my roses, discarding many a flower and bud, and they have already sprouted within a week or two... All kinds of insects good and bad are out and about also. I noticed mosquitos in my home and med fruit fly on my citrus, both horrible, horrible pests. Have never seen that in late January which is supposed to be our coldest period. |
This post was edited by nikthegreek on Tue, Jan 21, 14 at 12:54
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| Nik, I got an own root band of DdB last June. It was barely six inches tall when I got it but it had a bloom on it and it never stopped blooming all season. It was three feet tall and wide by September. I think she's just a very vigorous grower! |
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