22,795 Garden Web Discussions | Roses

Oh, that's wonderful, Steve! Congrats!

Ours is in bloom too and looking thankful for a new location

This cracks me up. Not only is your life filled with roses, you want to talk about your life being filled with roses -- and now, I am talking about you talking about your life being filled with roses. . .of course, I do not stand in judgment whatsoever. I have chosen a life focused on roses as well. Have tried to find a Roseaholics Anonymous -- to no avail!

Ah, Patty - thanks for clarifying, though I wish your arthritis weren't the tricky kind that leaves deposits. Still, I expect that some motion is better than none on your joints, and gardening is definitely good for the spirit regardless. Life's always about a balance, isn't it?

Ha, Kentucky rose - I appreciate the encouragement to do a video or something, but I'm very glad Paul Zimmerman has done such terrific ones since I'd never really make the time. One thing I'm planning for this week is to work on getting my kids' baby pictures actually into albums. That doesn't sound too bad, but I have 12-year-old twins. Can we say procrastination? Well, at least I can rope them into helping, and they might enjoy it.

That's a hoot, cjrosaphile. I expect I'm even worse since I'm on my fourth posting in this thread. That means I'm talking about you talking about me talking about me talking about you talking about me talking about roses (I've probably missed a few). Regardless, that's what GW does for us - no one on this forum thinks endless talking about roses is weird at all!

Cynthia

Thanks so much for your help

I agree it looks like damage from the pesticide spray hitting the new baby leaves. Approx where are you gardening? Do you really have to spray poisons once a week? Can create all sorts of other bug problems by killing the beneficial insects, as well as damaging the roses you are trying to protect.

Definitely not rust - we get that here and it looks completely different.

Jackie

My Belinda's Dream is also quite fragrant but the leaves burned terribly last summer (of course we've been in a severe drought). I'm now mulching it much more and we've had rain so I'm hoping it won't do the same thing this summer.

newby here but interested in the beinda's dream rose for South MS. Does this rose require deadheading? I'm also looking at the knockouts which I know don't.

I love the joining hands!!! :-) In our last home I had all Earthkind roses in beds around the house that were already there when we moved in. I was pruning everything back in February. The spacing between the roses was irregular and I was grumbling about it. Two of the Sunny Knockouts were planted too close together and my granddaughter who was 3 at the time said "it's okay Grandma, they are hugging each other"

What beautiful roses! All the shades of yellow are so appealing. They are indeed reaching for each other. Thanks so much for sharing. I'd hate to cut them back and yes I think my SIL would complain too.

Mine came from Palatine so it is on multiflora. Check RU for own root. This rose has a slight fragrance to me. I have never had blackspot or thrips on it. It grows large 5 ft by 3 ft. Never without a bloom. I use Rose tone or Holly tone and I spray with Monty`s Joy Juice for foliar feed. Hope you order one...I believe it will bring you joy! Lesley

have e-mailed RU and asked to notify me when one is available. Thanks. Pembroke

My Coastal SoCal attempts at growing alfalfa has been that it mildews wonderfully

Thanks for the fertilizer tip Kippy.

Appreciate the creative suggestions. I think Alfalfa would fit aesthetically and it is a Mediterranean native, but I also agree with fduk that it would be competitive. As a crop it is about 2' tall in Pennsylvania, which would be a bit too tall but I don't know if there are short varieties. Dry gardeners in soCal and South Australia who want to use alfalfa may want to get the Dormancy 9 varieties which are very winter-active and would go dormant in summer. Maybe thereby mildew could be avoided because of the seasonal differences from conventional alfalfa. Don't know.

Seil, I wondered about that. I have a few red HTs that I was trying to figure out which one was which. I thought petal count would be able to help tell me, but I also wondered if petal count was always the same.

Many of my old tea roses have blooms with different petal counts (50-100% different!) at different times of the year - I assume it is weather related.

Jackie

Depends on what roses you are growing. Modern roses like HTs like a lot of chemical food. Once bloomers prefer something like an annual dose of compost. Species roses don't get fed at all.

A gal I used to work with never fertilized her roses and brought in gorgeous bouquets all summer long. Go figure. I think roses are remarkably tolerant of many conditions. Jackie, I am in a similar climate to yours. Your method sounds nice and easy--I like it!

I hope it's okay to post this for the sake of comparison, but here's a photo of WS from Paul Barden's website. It looks pretty similar to my shot. Thoughts?

shot:

I feel fairly confident in saying it is NOT Will2000. I don't know enough about the original to say--but I still think it looks more and more like Dark Lady.

You might send the pics to David Austin and see if they can tell which is which. If you do that, definitely let us know the answer.

Kate