Fabulous! I was wondering - do the buds actually fall off, or do they just sort of droop over and not open? (If the latter, here I would suspect rose curculio beetles, which poke holes in the buds & lay there eggs there - horrid things!).

Jackie

Luscious whether it's dropping buds or not. If they're actually falling off, is something chewing through the stems?

Gee, I thought MN was supposed to be a wimp on its own roots -- or is yours grafted, Daisy? What a beautiful baby!! Better not stand close to him for very long, or you will get engulfed. I have no legitimate answers to your question, but I would guess either chewing bugs or chewing squirrels. I have no clue about any diseases that would do this. Birds? Can you imagine the flowers it would have without the loss of those buds??? Wow! Maybe a deficiency of some sort that prevents the bush from supporting/feeding that much "fruit". Or maybe its youth.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Wow in just one year!!

What are you feeding it. I have had climbers in the ground 4 or 5 years that are not this big! No clue as to why it is dropping buds. I have roses that do it upon occasion with no obvious explanation.

Mine does the same thing, but it's nowhere that size.

To be fair, there is one plant each side of the arbor and they were in pots for a year, before I planted them.
We have got a lot of Egyptian grasshoppers this year, more than I have seen before and at first, I thought it was them, biting through the stems. But when I sit in the arbor, and the buds fall, I can see that there is nothing there at all.
When I examine the stems, there are no marks, no clues.
Besides, it is only Marechal Neil that is dropping it's buds.
Here is Sombrieul, planted about the same time. Same amount of watering and feeding as Marechal Neil, but it is holding all of it's buds.

{{gwi:263989}}

Sherry,They are grafted, but I have no idea which rootstock was used. They came from Peter Beales in England.
Collinw, These were planted the same as most of my roses.
I dig a large hole and mix a load of donkey manure in the bottom of the hole. Then I put a large cardboard box in the hole and plant the rose in that. It works very well. This year, I was in a hurry, and just planted my new roses in a hastily dug hole. I am really annoyed with myself now because, the new roses have leafed out, but have not as yet made any growth at all. The difference is very telling.
Jerome, I am really glad you told me that yours does the same. It makes me feel a lot better!
Daisy

My Marechal Niel has done that. No sign of insects, so I thought it was something about the weather, or maybe because it was a young plant with too much canopy (it grew very quickly the year after planting, less since then) compared to its roots. It is on its own roots.

Debbie

Daisy, it seems to be the nature of the beast. Mine stops doing it in the dry warmer weather of summer. Right now, it balls and drops buds. Yours is the best Marechal Niel I've ever seen. I almost shovel pruned ours (Own root...) it was so puny. I re-potted it after 3 years in a horrible place and about 12" high. It grew in the pot and I forgot about it for a year, just watering and feeding. It got bigger so I decided to plant it out in a place as a (I hoped) very large shrub. When I slid it out of the large (5 gallon?) pot, the roots filled the pot! Great stuff. It has been much better in the ground now. It is about 5'x7'...but I have shaped it so it doesn't have long canes. The flushes are massive, and I would disbud it to add to vigor and bushy shape if I had the time, but that would be lots of buds. Plus the flowers are so beautiful. I think in about 3-4 years it will be a heart stopper of a plant. So glad I potted it up again after the first fizzle. I would think it would be amazing grafted.

Daisy: As one who has coddled and cajoled 'Marechal Niel' for years, I think your plants would be truly amazing regardless of age -- but considering that they're hardly a year old, they are absolutely jaw-dropping!

Based on my experience with MN, I think the answer to the problem may be contained in your statement that the dropping of buds began after the first flush and is continuing. I've come to believe that bud drop on my plant is related to an especially heavy spring flush. It's as tho the plant expends a tremendous amount of stored energy on a spring growth spurt, the first flush, then a heavy production of "second wave" buds, but just can't muster the wherewithal to bring all those buds into full flower. I now think of the bud drop as the rose's way of "stopping to catch its breath." If MN performs in your locale the way mine does, bloom production will slow during the summer months and the bud drop will stop altogether or become negligible. Perhaps a timely dose of nutrients would lessen the drop, but I've never tried that for fear of exacerbating the problem.

Jerome: Your experience with the re-potted MN serves to validate my belief that too many gardeners fail to appreciate the value of good root systems. I try always to purchase my ownroots in early spring, grow them in pots for at least a season, and disbud them with a vengeance until I plant them in the garden. There's hardly anything quite so gratifying as removing a rose from its pot and finding a large tangled mass of healthy roots! I marvel at the reports here of folks who plant small bands directly in the garden, allow them to bloom with abandon straight away, and, after a single season, enjoy robust plants. Either they're much more proficient gardeners than I'll ever be, or they garden in climates that are far more benign than mine.

Oh, Daisy, that is GORGEOUS! I think Jaxondel's idea makes sense, and Father Jerome's "the nature of the beast", too. Your 'Sombrueil' photo is wonderful, too - your whole garden looks like paradise, and it seems to be just yesterday that you were starting it!

Laura

I am stunned :) so pretty!

I have MN here (zone 7) up next to the house, and it is happy but not nearly as large as yours. Yours is glorious!