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adam_harbeck

sullen Roseraie de L'Hay- hot climate

Adam Harbeck
9 years ago

So, I have a RdLH planted in my rose bed and it's just sitting there doing nothing and looking sullen. it did flower soon after planting, but then just stagnated from then on. It was getting shade from a tricolour Plumeria and the neighbours ghastly variegated Ficus which I since pruned so It doesn�t overhang my yard.
Does it hate warm climates? I have rugosa scabrosa out the front and it grows like a weed, but is very shy flowering I admit.
What could be its problem? Isn't it supposed to get big?

Comments (5)

  • rosefolly
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    It hates alkaline soils.

    I've planted and removed it twice. After a 7 or8 year gap I thought I'd try it again. It does get growing after a while, but never bloomed much for me.

    I do love rugosas, but I'm sad to say that they are not happy here.

    Folly

  • Tessiess, SoCal Inland, 9b, 1272' elev
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Adam, what other classes of roses, and plants besides plumeria do you have adjacent to Roseraie de L'Hay?

    What kind of care do you give the plants in this area throughout the year in terms of food and water? For instance when do you fertilize? Do you water year round?

    Melissa

  • mashamcl
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Rosefolly,

    I have a grafted Roseraie from David Austin (on Dr. Huey I presume). The website still lists the rose but does not say if it is grafted. Mine has no chlorosis and does not sucker. It is now over 6' high and blooms on and off all summer. I got mine at Regan's.

    Masha

  • Adam Harbeck
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Nearby I had some seedling pomegranates (since removed and replaced with tea roses). I have Jude the Obscure and Francois Dubreuil nearby which are growing very well, and a young Trachycarpus plam.

    The beds get supplementary watering all year and they get fed with pelletised organic fertiliser every season. I have just mulched with lupin mulch. Prior to that the beds were mulched with cypress mulch.

    I know its a bad spot because it's so close to that blasted fig tree. But I thought Rugosas were hardy.

  • Tessiess, SoCal Inland, 9b, 1272' elev
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I wondered if you were going to say tea roses because they don't generally like the same conditions as rugosas. Rugosas like a lean, sandy soil best, and are very drought tolerant. Not allowing them a dry period when they can rest may not produce the best results. Fertilizing too much or too often can easily be more than they like. Especially if fertilizing and watering for a class, such as teas, which like much more of both, are used as the guide. So the rugosa may not actually die from this kind of treatment, but it may not be at its best. Tea roses like much more food and water year round than rugosas, and their growth and bloom times aren't the same. Tea roses like being in moist conditions (whether with lots of soil water and/or high humidity in the air) year round, and richer soil, whereas rugosas are adapted to drought. Making one class happy can make the other less so. Some rugosas that are crossed with other classes may be able to take conditions those classes like better.

    I've been learning a lot more about plants that are adapted to drought and that actually go dormant during the heat of the summer by taking classes and going to lectures at my local botanic garden which specializes in California native plants. Our area has a mediterranean climate and many plants, including some roses, really like the natural seasons here (coolness and wetness (whether from rain or hose) in the winter and hot, dry summers). An extreme example of this is the very ancient rose, R. minutifolia which can be killed by too much watering (it looks very dry and crispy in the summer then flowers and greens up rapidly once the rains arrive).

    One thing I've been told repeatedly is that many California natives do not like to have warm, moist roots. That means very little, if any, summer water, and if some infrequent watering in summer is done it should be done late in the evening or very early in the morning when the soil is cooler. Moist, warm roots promote the growth of soil pathogens to which drought tolerant California natives are prone. One of the teachers stressed selecting plants with the same water needs near each other and to avoid placing plants with greatly different water requirements adjacent.

    Rugosas aren't native to California but I've found they like the same conditions as my drought tolerant CA natives including species roses, salvias, ceanothus, and grasses. The rugosas I grow are among the best performing roses I have, yet thrive on very little water and occasionally a light feeding of fish emulsion (Wild Edric gets zero fertilizer). Tea roses on the other hand, die here under these conditions. They may like heat, but they like a large amount of water--to much for my California native plants--year round. For someone who has a more traditional rose garden, and who frequently irrigates, feeds, and mulches, they will probably thrive. But in a very low water garden like mine, no.

    So for your Roseraie de l'Hay, you might want to move it to a part of your garden where its neighbors like less water and food.

    Melissa