21,400 Garden Web Discussions | Roses



If you can find them locally they are available at Mills Mix with free shipping after a certain amount. Prices are higher locally than what those in southern areas seem to pay at that time it was $25 to $30 for a 50lb. bag. I used to get mine from a place called Country Brothers Supply Store. They did not stock it but would order it for me. Did a lot of calling before finding a place to get the supplies.


If they're on the underside edges of leaves they might also be rose sawfly larvae, don't know what the local name is, but they're a pest. I have the kind locally that lay their eggs into the cane, and they are a tremendous nuisance. The caterpillars are ok, although left unchecked they can defoliate a small bush, but I can mostly let the bluetits and finches deal with them. Generally, I find that bugs that appear in multiples are pests and bugs that appear as singletons are predators.

I am in Southern California -- where the weather is growing hotter and drier.
I grow principally Old Roses, and I have grown many roses up against a south-facing retaining wall, and the only ones that handle it well are very heavily-foliaged. I've had several things cane-burned so badly they gave up and died. We do better with trellissing up against the wall, behind the roses, but it is "iffy." You may do better if you have afternoon shade, but walls are tricky in hot climates.
With the weather getting so much hotter, and watering restrictions coming in, I think we will be growning mostly salvias, along those beds. If anything.

Brightstar, Thinking some more about your plans, I feel your best option might be to contact Heritage Roses in Australia Inc., who have groups all over Australia with a number of regional groups around NSW, including one in Sydney.
Because this is such a challenging/borderline possible situation, I feel what you need is some very specialised advice from locals with both expertise in the sort of roses you want to grow, and the local climate/conditions. From there, you could discuss the microclimate of your particular location and those spots you're planning to put your roses. I would think they would be able to tell you more reliably than we can how they would be likely to do, and/or suggest more suitable alternatives.
I'm not sure if there are any Antique Roses forum members here from NSW - is billyteabag from there maybe, and some others? There may also be a few in Victoria around, and we have Adam in WA, but they may not have detailed knowledge of your sub-tropical Sydney conditions. And a lot of people do 'lurk' without participating much. There may well be many in areas of the US whose conditions would be fairly similar to yours, but since you're planning on quite a large investment here, of time and effort as well as just financial, I think you need to be very sure before you plunge in.
The website for Heritage Roses in Australia is: heritage.rose.org.au and I see there that the co-ordinator for the Sydney group is a lady called Glennis... can't remember her last name.
Please do let us know how you get on, and don't hesitate to pick our brains again here or on the ARF. I hope you'll find some great solutions for your garden, and be able to post us some gorgeous pictures one day!
Comtesse :¬)


I cut mine back in April to about 18-24" inches and then fertilize when I feel fairly certain a killing frost is behind us. I deadhead daily - cutting back to an outward facing stem of 5 leaves as taught to me by my father - it opens up the growth which should help eliminate disease. Cutting that much back when deadheading keeps growth in check but I do let them get to about 4' high. I don't like them to grow into each other (I have two sets of three along a fence outside a pool) as I want to be able to get around them to deadhead. I also don't like them coming through the wrought iron fence - just a visual preference. Deadheading daily doesn't take much time and is kind of Zen, plus it keeps the blooming going without too much down time after the initial blast of blooms. I fertilize with Root Tone every 6 weeks until August 1st. I don't water them, other than when applying fertilizer and rarely have Blackspot problems. I do hang a Japanese beetle trap in a discreet location nearby.


I ordered a few roses in December. I'm in Zone 6. I was told that the roses I ordered would ship the week of April 27th. I'm hoping it's not much later, because I ordered a rose for my mom's birthday. The original ship date is already a week beyond her birthday, so I hope it isn't pushed back much further. You would think they would notify customers of a later ship date if a later ship date was in fact the case.



I pruned mine back to almost 4 foot canes.... I think it would easy make 8 feet wide of floppy canes with giant blooms and wilty looking leaves. But boy is she pretty right now!

Lynn, my YL has 8 - 10 feet tall canes that arch over. It's free-standing, and about 5 feet wide. For the first 4 years, it was a sprawling, messy plant and the pencil-thin canes couldn't support the blooms. The canes are still thin but now grow upright until they arch over, particularly with the weight of the big blooms. I think this rose would be great tied to a pillar or obelisk.
Mine is a grafted plant starting it's 6th year. I have never pruned it.
Jo


Mine didn't bloom last year after dying back really badly because of the cold :( That is, unless what I have is now Dr Huey, lol! We'll see this year. Mine never got very tall, even with non-extreme winters, but it had a bad graft. So I transplanted it in a new spot and buried the graft well. That made it very happy after a while, until those new canes got zapped by a sudden huge freeze! But it grew great last year. I could see it getting quite tall in the right spot :)









Well my Abe Lincoln is on the opposite end of the spectrum coming from the not so elite Walmart. It did produce 3 beautiful red roses last yr here in zone 5 which was more than I expected for first year purchase. If it recovers from the severe pruning then I plan to regularly spray hot pepper juice around it that hopefully deters the rabbits. I grow hot peppers so supply won't be a problem.
Well, if you wanted to try and save the cane I would recommend taping the wound with some floral tape. That should help protect it. But if you see it's not doing very well then take it off right away to save the plant from the stress of trying to keep it going.