22,795 Garden Web Discussions | Roses
29 should be a yawner. Like Kate says, it only matters when a really hard frost is predicted - 25F or so. Warmer temperatures aren't a problem. These are roses not tomatoes. (repeat that until it sinks in. Seriously)
Now this always does surprise me. The forsythia has just started blooming here, and most roses have barely broken dormancy. You people are so far ahead of us. Damaging hard frosts just aren't a problem we have.
It depends on how much colder than 32F it's going to be and for how long.
In my part of the world, Remay is a floating cover that's used to protect early crops. It's light weight, comes in two choices of how much cold it will repel and it may not be enough for zones to the north. But it may be worth your talking to local professionals to see what they use and when.
I use a lot of peat moss, but I don't mix it with a lot of organic stuff that also holds moisture (it depends on the mix for that). It can promote drainage, but it stays moist pretty long, too. Your mix may hold too much. Does the surface ever dry mostly out? I like mine to lose enough water over the days that you can tell it's definitely happening. Stop watering them and see how long it takes to notice them getting any drier at all.
I'm not quite understanding what you mean by packing them in compost fertilizer and peat moss? Is that what you planted them in? I live in 7b, so I don't worry about winter protection so much, but my soil is clay so water can retain in a hole if I don't plant them correctly. First when I dig my hole I dig it very big, normally 2 feet 6 inches deep by 2 feet 6 inches wide. I discard the soil from the bottom of the hole, as it has less nutrients, then in a wheel barrow I combine 1/3 soil from the hole, 1/3 peat moss and 1/3 organic mix. mix it all together to go back in the hole. We get very heavy rains here and I find they drain nicely.
Watering every other day is likely too much right now, as its not hot out, so like Meredith recommended I would cut down on the watering.
I didn't hear you mention putting the original soil back in the mix, to me that would be important, and make sure when you amend you soil its combined well before putting it back.
My next recommendation that likely has nothing to do with you water problem is don't fertilize your rose when planting it. Wait for your rose to get established and start showing new growth that wasn't there when you planted it that would be the best time to start fertilizing. Liquid fertilizer at half strength is what I use the first year, or if you use fish fertilizer full strength. I want my roses to work on building a good root system this year, not give me lots of growth above the soil.
Wonderful!!!! I love Oklahoma, but mine has no fragrance. Four years in a pot, and no fragrance. Some of my roses just don't get fragrance and I wonder if they need more heat than we get.
So I'll live vicariously through your wonderful smelling Oklahoma. Sigh.
Don't you just love red roses!!
Carol
Thanks jacqueline9CA & seil zone 6b MI. Greatly appreciate the advice. Have a good day.
Lisa ...
I inherited my 'Tiffany' when I bought my house. The rose had been deer-pruned for about a decade and was sited in a bed that was far too small for the plant. It survived both the neglect and poor siting and is now thriving in my garden. It is one of my favorite roses in this climate.
I hope you enjoy your new hobby.
Smiles,
Lyn
Hi Lyn,
Oh wow, amazing that the rose did so well! I planted this about a month and a half ago and am thrilled with the first blooms, hopefully they will keep getting better and better.
I do like my new hobby, there is a lot to learn and I am still on Roses 101 but taking notes :)
All the best,
Lisa
Hi Carol
I tried googling the poster you mentioned and nothing came up - in fact, nothing remotely rose related came up, though there were some fun family dinner table conversations to state your "rose" of the day and "thorn" of the day. If you can find a link, you might want to start a new thread on this topic, since people might not find it at the bottom of this one.
Resurrecting this one gives the chance to respond to some responses I'd missed back when. Yep, thorns wedged under nails are a nightmare, and once sent me to the urgent care center to get it removed when it got full of pus and infected. My twins were little at the time, so I got to prep them for how mommy had to have the doctor do something owie and she was going to be brave and not even cry (much). They seemed impressed, but it doesn't take much when you're two.
All of you that garden in protective gear are of course wise, though I've found that rose thorns can slash you through most clothing if persistent. I remember a rose cane getting stuck under my shirt at pruning time (probably the sneaky octopus Teasing Georgia). THOSE were scratches I was glad not to have to explain to folks at work. Littlelizzy - if anyone asks about the scar, you can say it wasn't suicide but cold-hearted murder attempts by a rose - hey, they're living creatures too! I envy those of you who are careful enough to hold roses barehanded without mishap. I can do it for a few moments, but I'm easily distracted when gardening, and disaster is always looming.
And Beth, that brings up an interesting point about rose thorns - sympathies on all the blood, BTW. Have any of you found that rose thorn punctures seem to bleed a lot longer than other types of pokes and injuries? I'll have a rose cane thwack me in the arm and wipe away blood from what seems like a small injury. Then a few moments later, there'll be a pea-sized swelling of blood that trails down my arm. Wipe that away, and it's back a minute later. This can go on for 10 minutes or more at times. I wonder if it's something related to the wedge shape of the thorns, that something that looks relatively innocuous is much deeper or wider than it looks. Regardless, it's one of the necessary hazards of rose gardening.
Seil - it's both encouraging and discouraging that these hazards are of my own doing. The positive is that I choose to rejoice that thorns have roses and put up with them for the flowers' sakes. The negative is that I'm doomed once the roses grow up to full height, since I plant everything much closer than custom or common sense would dictate, and I am reduced to a weird weaving stepping around the few tiny open spaces available come fall. No wonder the thorns are out to get me - I've asked for it.
Cynthia
My worst spot seemed like a normal, fine place to get one embedded: above the middle finger joint on the side, mostly. I thought I was lucky, because it didn't hit the joint. But it must have hit a blood vessel, because it turned purple quickly and swelled up. That ended up needing surgical intervention! I couldn't believe it. I get stuck in the fingers all the time, so it seemed like nothing.
I still don't wear gloves like I should, lol.
Lovely! Your striped rose is especially appealing -- would love to design a garden based on those! Many of the roses I've gotten from Burling came with blooms as well. The bands have been much smaller than Heirloom's, and much slower to grow, but they've otherwise all done well, and her communication is excellent.
jannike
Looks like chilli thrips to me. You'll have to remove and bag (don't compost!) all of the damages areas and hope that contains the problem. I'm no expert, but the only chemical that I know of that works is spinosad. You could try spraying Monterey Garden Insect Spray for something cheap (and low on chemicals). It seemed to give some short term relief in my garden.
Don't know how fancy a tag you prefer, but I like the Amekron aluminum tags. About 3" x .75". If you order direct, the minimum order is 500 & runs 11 cents each, but I've ordered them off of e-bay in boxes of 100 for ~.16 each, IIRC.
They "emboss" by writing on them with a pencil or pen. I've got perfectly legible ones 15 years old. Big enough to write lots of info on, pre-punched for wires. Nice utility tags.
I only need about 50 tags onto which they (or me) can add the rose's variety and maybe the date to rose was planted. It doesn't need to be too large -- less than 4" X 2").
The tags must be pre-punched so they can be tied (with a wire) to one of the rose canes -- I don't want a label that gets stuck into the soil.
I had new canes coming out almost horizontally at the ground level from my KO rose also. They did turn out to be the correct KO rose. As the rose matured, they spread out and sent up laterals. So, I would WAIT until they bloom before you panic and start ripping them off. It might just be what KO roses do - many "ground cover roses" and even some of the old teas do the same thing - grow horizontally prior to getting more vertical. Patience is a virtue.
Jackie
Are these KO roses on Fortuniana rootstock?