22,795 Garden Web Discussions | Roses


Few of my roses get routinely fed every year, and I have quite a few of the closely spaced HTs that get pruned to the ground every spring that Michael mentions. I'm basically a lazy gardener, and while I have the intent of fertilizing my (now nearly) 1000 roses, by June I'm just too ready to sit back and enjoy the roses without a lot of work. What I definitely AM diligent about, though, is feeding the soil everywhere in the yard. I keep a layer about 3" thick of leaves on the beds all the time, which adds texture if not exactly a ton of nitrogen to the soil. I also distribute alfalfa hay around the rose beds once a year for a shot of nitrogen, but I'm not 100% systematic about even that. If I'm really diligent, I'll throw some 10-10-10 fertilizer and Ironite around the well-established roses once a year, but that maybe only happens every two years.
I do water once a week if it gets dry in August, though heaven help us I'd like to "un-water" the yard this spring (wettest May ever in recorded history here). I can get by without the fertilizing because I have good loamy soil that retains nutrients, and the newly planted roses are always supplemented with a handful or so of manure, compost, and alfalfa, so some of that probably supports the surrounding established roses everywhere. As others have mentioned, this all changes with sandy soils or very dry climates.
By all means, if the roses you have bloom well without feeding, it's not a necessity, but the usual rule of thumb for most roses is they'll bloom better if we add some nitrogen to them periodically during heavy bloom seasons. In many places, they'll also bloom fine without it just not perhaps as much, it all depends. In my world, the fewer "have-to" things I keep about my roses, the more fun they are. I "have to" get them planted, keep them watered and mulched, and cut out dead and diseased canes. Anything else is gravy for me.
Cynthia

You can probably get away with benign neglect in a place that gets regular rain but in arid places that's not going to work. Yes, there are roses growing all over the world in abandoned plots for centuries with no care but unless those types of roses are what you grow you're going to have to give them some minimal care at least. I think you'll find that with a little bit of watering and fertilizing your roses will bloom and grow even better!


What growing zone and state you in Gretchen Weaver? Thanks
Can you post clear pics of your problem?
Have you had a lot of rain recently?
Soil to dry?
Was anything sprayed on your rose leaves lately?
Anyone spray weed killer recently that may of drifted?

Thanks Beth, I had Pink Gruss but had to shovel prune. Couldn't keep her clean when I went no spray. At one time I had a good 600 roses but I wasn't getting any younger. RRD or the shovel for disease took out most of those. Lost some due to Dr. Huey root stock which won't grow for me. This rose and Rosarie d'hay are the last 2 left from the early days.
Much appreciated guess ozmelodye, but not a flower carpet. I have the flower carpet series.

I'm nearly positive it is a polyantha. At one time I had many of them, The flower is semi double but many singles at the end of the year, No sent, shiny foliage a mix of larger leaves and small. The color is variable from this lighter pink to much darker but always has some cream in the center. The flower matches La Marne perfectly but I'm not seeing any smaller leaves mixed in with the larger leaves on help me find. She grows up but very full so that you can not see the ground underneath.

Hi everyone! New to this forum but everyone seems so knowledgeable. Feel free to chime in on this one. Welltraveled-I am in zone 5 mid mich also and am trying to grow the eden rose for the first time. It's my first rose so all of this is new to me. Do you do anything to help it winter? Cover or mulch over? Haven't planted it yet, debating on a spot. Does it spread out much and how much climbing do you get?

There is a Pink Eden Climber just being introduced, and a thread recently discussed it with the man who discovered Pink Eden (patent name is Margaret Mae, or something similar; named for his mother). I don't think he hybridized this rose, so it may have been a sport. It's on HMF with a few recent photos. It's being sold by Meilland, and they are starting European sales and on to Japan, I guess. Diane


Easy elegance Roses are great. I have Centennial which is a bit hard to find. All of their roses are own root and have a two year guarantee. The Centennial Rose went through this brutal New England winter with literally no damage, even under five feet of heavy snow and cold temps and over wintered in a pot sunk in the ground. It has a ton of buds already and the flowers are gorgeous. The only drawback is lack of scent. I bought several different bands from Northland Rosarium who seemed to have the best variety. Macy's Pride is another which gets rave reviews as do others in the line bred by Pim Limg. I purchased Music Box, Sweet Fragrance, Champagne Wishes and others from NR, they were adequate size for bands and very healthy. These are breeder photos of Sweet Fragrance and Centennial Rose.


Sharon



Thanks Christopher, you are probably right. I looked at pictures of CdC rose on HMF, the rose bushes and flowers look the same. It is very fragrant. I got it at Menards 4 yrs ago when I was still new to rose gardening and identified roses by color only. Now I graduated and know roses by names.
Madri.

As Ann says, it's possible to have an outbreak of downy mildew at a garden center in cool weather, when plants are crowded and sprinkled too much. But you say you don't see any dark spots or disease symptoms. If the plant started shedding within a week of planting, maybe it is just transplant shock.
Also, for no apparent reason, RU can develop a scattering of leaves mottled yellow and green and then dropping.

It does looks like it. I start dropping and leaves turn yellow but otherwise the canes looks healthy. The lady at the nursery noticed it too and didn't know why since this is the only variety that did that. Now that you mentioned it, it did start dropping a few leaves when I left it in the pot for 2 weeks and continued when I planted it. I will wait and see what happened. Thanks for the info.

Thanks, Nick! We are warmer than you because of the big lakes. I'm on the water and that effects my weather a lot. We've had some day in the 80s already and this week will be steady in the 70s. Not saying we don't get our ups and downs, we do, but I think we're still a tad warmer than WI.


Apparently gardenweb was first registered on "Creation Date: 28-oct-1995"
http://www.whois.com/whois/gardenweb.com
The oldest message on the first web page saved is dated Jan 4, 1996 (at the bottom you have to do many "next 30 posts to reach the one below).
http://web.archive.org/web/19961205054355/http://gardenweb.com/forums/roses/nph-ind.cgi?n=781








It is not uncommon for hybrid teas to want to be 4, 5 or even 6 feet tall. That's a pretty normal growth habit.
Thank you both for your input!