22,152 Garden Web Discussions | Roses
Miracid contains lots of available iron and nitrogen. It doesn't do much to acidify the soil. 1/2 cup of plain sulfur per square yard will (after some months) lower the pH by one point. Nik recommends punching three holes 6" deep and filling with a mixture of iron sulfate granules and plain sulfur. He is a knowledgeable poster here.
Check your local Home Depot for tall metal trellises. They aren't real fancy, but are fairly sturdy, and once the climber covers it, it won't matter if the trellis is fancy or not.
The Home Depot ones are cheaper than most of the ones I've seen advertised in various kinds of gardening catalogs. However, I have also bought 8 ft obelisks from a couple different places--they are all right, but do tend to start disintegrating after about 5 years. I've had to replace two of them.
Kate
Evie, be very careful with Neem Oil or any king of oil. NEVER spray oil on your roses if the temps are going to be any higher than about 75 degrees. The leaves will cook like they're in a deep fryer! Neem Oil should only be used in the very early spring or late fall when temps are cool.
Besides aphids early in the season, which were easy to remove, I hadn't spotted bugs. I'm used to looking for bugs under leaves, but I must have missed them thinking it was fungus or disease. I looked carefully at both plants and did not spot bugs yesterday or this morning. Hopefully their time is over for the year. Thanks all for the responses. I will keep an eye out for insects, keep the plant watered, and hope to see new healthy leaves start to fill the plants.
The story on "Happy Butt" was that the hybridizer wanted to name it after a dear friend named Gladys. Gladys said "Oh no, please do not!" So the hybridizer named the rose "Happy Butt". Repeat the name Gladys a few different ways to see why.
thonotorose, I have that rose also. I call it 'Jacsegra', which is the hybridizer's name for it.
My grandmother revered Hoover, because before he was a below-average President, he was head of a US agency that sent food to people in dire straits in Belgium at the end of WWI. My grandmother was close to the front lines and nearly stared to death. The food that Hoover had sent saved her life, or so she always said.
I have to say, that at least here, 'Fabulous!' deserves its exclamation mark.
This is the second year for my Falstaff, and so far I'm loving it. It's not pink, but deep magenta, fading to purple (and a nice purple, not a sickly one). The flowers are durable in rain, the flowers nod, which I like (and which might help them from collecting water). So far, not much frying in the sun (although smaller flowers with the 90F heat). Biggest disappointment: almost no fragrance, but when detectable, it is old rose. First flush flowers were about 3". Flowers don't flatten out but keep this cupped form. It's starting to put out a second flush now when WS2K is busily frying its first flush in the sun and mildewing. Most remontant roses (i.e. hybrid teas) here put out a nice first flush, then a few miserable looking flowers in the heat if any, then another nice flush in the fall. Falstaff mildewed a bit this year. We don't get blackspot here. Photo bloom color is accurate.
In my tough climate, it takes a while for plants to grow. Planted in the spring of last year, it did nothing the rest of the year. This year the bush is very vigorous (like climber vigorous), upright, but
not stiff, and the new basals are almost as tall as the bush now. The leaves are matte and nicely formed, very old rose. Here's the first flush. I hope it gets all big and gangly.
Just needs more water -- on a regular basis.
Red growth is normal--means its healthy. The brown stuff could be from lack of water or too much fertilizer (more water to "cure" that). I'm serious--just water it more often and in a few weeks there should be some nice growth apparent.
Kate
And water deep, not just a surface wetting. Roses like at least and inch of water per week. So water it slowly for a long period of time about twice a week. In very hot, dry weather you will need to water even more often. If you water early in the morning you can hose them off too, leaves will have plenty of time to dry off during the day, but if you're watering in the evening then try not to get the leaves wet.
Epsom salts is rarely needed or useful. If there is magnesium deficiency, it shows in a particular pattern of yellowing, not in weak canes.
Many rose varieties are inherently floppy. They may outgrow it partly or completely. Stake the floppy canes and cut them back a bit, maybe 1/3, after blooming. They will grow thicker and stronger in a year.
We've had a lot of rain lately and that doesn't help because it adds a lot of weight to the blooms pulling them down. I have several that were covered in beautiful buds but as they opened and it kept raining they since laid down on the ground. Stake them up and leave them staked even after you dead head so the next batch of blooms will be better supported. There really isn't anything you can do until the plants grow and mature some more.
My guess is that that is former rose slug damage, but that the good predator bugs have already come along and finished them off for you. (I usually squish for a couple weeks before the good predator bugs show up.)
All I'd do now is pluck off the worst/ugliest of the damaged leaves and wait for the new leaves to show (because you are watering it better).
Don't worry--just get this poor plant all cleaned up and wait patiently for new growth. : )
Kate
Thank you so much! I can't wait to get my garden all cleaned up!