22,795 Garden Web Discussions | Roses
This might all be moot. A day of rose shopping netted nothing much that might work. I think I should have tackled this project a month ago. And the narrow space and the tracking of petals is a valid concern. I am thinking it ove. Meanwhile, I do thank everyone for the good advice.
You have the most important thing Morning Sun. This is good (so the Rose leaves don't get wet for too long, to fend off diseases.). Alnwick Castle is the greatest smelling rose. Mayflower smells good and is very cold hardy. both are very upright, so try to prune to just above an outward facing bud eye ( set of five leaves pointing away from center of plant.) to get them to spread out.
Sam
The other thing you can do as you plant roses, and obviously plan for more roses in the future (as you'll be hooked), is to prepare the soil across that bed as well as possible. In many places, simply amending the planting hole with compost and manure can encourage the rose to hunker down in that small amended space and not really expand to the real soil where it needs to be. If you have time to spade in some compost into the whole bed, that's a quicker solution. The lazy solution (obviously my way) is to add a lot or compost, leaves, grass clippings, wood chips to the top of the soil across the bed and let the worms do your work for you. In Virginia, you have to watch not keeping too much moisture near the rose, since you're in a prime area where blackspot and other diseases can get particularly annoying. Some folks like to pot up their bands from places like Heirloom in a gallon pot till they get a few more roots on them before planting in the ground, and that might give you a chance to add some good stuff to the soil. None of this is probably absolutely necessary, but since you're asking ahead of time what everyone is suggesting are some ideas to boost your chances for these roses.
Oh, and don't forget to be patient with these roses. They may sit there and look like nothing much all this year, bloom a little here and there next year, and you'll think - what a dud! Roses take at least 3 years to really get settled in, and the more they grow good roots, the stronger the plant will be in the long run.
Cynthia
Beautiful garden Cynthia!
I actually "broke" the rule and has been growing climbers close to each other. Then again, in my zone, most climbers don't really climb as I've found out this spring. I was hoping that if they climb to eventually train their canes crossing each other. I don't really like roses to be "visually segregated" unless they are mass planted.
Thanks for the comments folks - I like this view and wish it would stay like this longer in the year! It's a little hard to tell exactly which roses are which summersrhythm, since I let everything mix up together. I don't like visual segregation either, as JJpeace says - give me "rose chaos" every time!
At a guess, from the left I think I see Compassion (light pink), Bonica (medium pink) and maybe a little Caldwell Pink from the far side of the fence, mixed with Madame Bovary climber (also medium pink), with Laguna (dark pink), Red Riding Hood at the feet (red), Ghislaine de Feligonde (cream/apricot small flowers), Elina (light yellow) mixing with Frau Eva Schubert (light pink) and Larry Daniels poking over the fence (pink), blending into some of the hybrid musks cream/apricot to the right, probably Cornelia and Felicia, but one could be Guirlande d'Amour.
The nice thing about all this is they seem to do this reasonably happily in part sun under limbed up pine trees. The edge of the fence you see stretches out into some sun, but you can see the lamium is quite happy at the feet (groundcover) as are multiple hostas and other shade plants. Climbers are great because they can reach up for some sun, but they don't rebloom as often as in more intense sun conditions. Ah well, I have a lot of fence to fill, so I'm not complaining.
Anyway, Gibsongirl - feel free to keep us posted on progress and have fun with your plans.
Cynthia
It looks like RRD to me. Not just because of the funky leaf growth. The strange bend in the cane with some weird thorns near the bend looks suspicious too. RRD can make one side of a cane grow faster than the other.
I hope I'm wrong and I would follow ann's advice and cut off the cane at least below the bend and see what happens later.
Today I will purchase horticultural oil and chop off the abnormal looking growth. My neighbors to the west began the landscaping process for their yard this week, but a small amount of hardscape only ( little doggie areas:). When I spoke with them, they had not determined exactly what they were going to do with their property yet, and because HOA approval will be required etc., my YL is isolated, I probably have time to really see what is going on. I do not know if this D.A. rose came from TX or from what I have heard, possibly AZ.
As Anne-Cecilia says, botrytis petal blight causes pink spots and brown rotten spots in mild, wet weather.. If you are in a dry, warm area, it will go away soon. If you are in a cool, drippy area this variety may be unsuitable for you. Fungicides like Bayer don't control it.
We can't tell from here whether all the brown flowers have botrytis or whether some are just old spent flowers. On an ideal landscape rose, the old spent flowers will drop petals rather than wither on the bush. But botrytis can cause them to hang on and rot.
Personally I don't try to practice sanitation with outdoor plants. The air is full of spores whatever you do.
Wow, what a dramatic change. I like the "clean" look. I would probably add low growing companion plants. Not too much, just some to add to the fuller look.
I agree. I'm sure the weeds were smothering the roses. Now the roses can flourish.