22,152 Garden Web Discussions | Roses
Thanks to everyone for all of the wise advice! I'm happy to see that last post by professorroush especially (thank you!) because I have decided to go ahead with the planting of the rugosas. At the very worst, I'll end up with a good post for the "worst gardening mistakes ever" forum ;)
I do have a little bit of time to try and amend the area a little bit in the hope that I can add enough material to get the pH down a little bit at least. Do you all think I should mix in some peat? Or something else? Is there an acidic bagged soil widely available that is marketed for things like azaleas or anything like that? I love digging in the dirt so I'm not opposed to making it a bit of a raised/mounded bed either...
I have seen bagged soil for azaleas so you could try adding that to your soil instead of regular planting mix. I don't see how it could hurt anything and it just might help.
I grow a rose called Wild Edric which is either a rugosa or a rugosa hybrid in my alkaline soil and the leaves are as green as can be.
St. Patrick (yello with green tinges in cooler weather. Cajun Moon (white with pink edge). Crystalline or Randy Scott are pure white. Gemini is cream with a coral edge (sometimes pink). Marlyn Monroe is apricot. There are nice photos of many of these at the Santa Clarita Valley RS page (link below).
Here is a link that might be useful: SCVRS Hybrid Tea Page
It isn't the fault of the nursery, some plants just do this. I have a love song that I am dealing witht the same issue on. It threw up a sucker last summer I didn't notice until this spring when it threw up several more. Thankfully it appears I avoided any permanent damage.
Much of what I could say about the subject red roses has already been said. However I would add this about Crimson Glory. I used to have this rose many years ago, but haven't had it for a while. Its growth habit is relatively short and sprawls. It also usually has weak neck and needs to be grown disbudded if you want one flower per stem. It clusters much of the time. A fertilizer higher in phosphorus and potassium will help alleviate the weak necks. Another fertilizer issue is Crimson Glory's sensitivity to high nitrogen fertilizers. It will suffer foliage burn if you dump too much nitrogen on it more than most other varieties. If you don't use it already, I would suggest using a little blood meal added to a low nitrogen fertilizer for this rose. Blood meal is higher in nitrogen, but it is organic and breaks down slowly. It also has iron which is great for color development especially for anything based on red. Put that on all of the roses and watch the colors light up. You don't need much, maybe a half teaspoon per plant. Good luck.
Thanks Bustopher for the fertilizing info on Crimson Glory - just the sort of advice I need. I don't mind Mr. Lincoln getting big, I knew he likes to grow that way - saw one my friend has yesterday - he prunes, but lets it get big and it is a good bloomer for him. I just bought the Mirandy from Lowes in a big pot last weekend......haven't planted it yet, but it looks like it will really be a healthy bush. From what has been said, I think I will plant all these in an area that gets sun all day until about 2 or 3pm, then my horse barn will shade them. I am interested in growing all these and comparing them - plan to put them in the same area and intersperse with white euphorbia, white marigolds with some blue salvia [my son is in the Navy, and have a stone with the Navy insignia on it I will put in the middle of the semi-circle of these roses for a patriotic theme].
Judith
I,m not the expert that so many of you are and I don't have many to choose from; but my favorite is Mardi Gras. It isn't supposed to be hardy here, but this will be the fourth year and it appears to have come through this brutal winter. It's a mixture of rose, yellow, and orange. It has such a long bloom period and stands about 4 to 5 feet tall. It has heavy bloom for 2 to 3 weeks and then take a rest period. Then it starts all over again. This goes on all summer. It was getting ready for another bloom period last Oct and it had over 70 buds and flowers on it when frost finally came. Nothing else really compares to it.
I happen to live in Central Alabama, so I will try to tell you my favorite climbers and I have had about 30 in the past few years, perhaps more if some of the tea/noisettes are climbers. I love New Dawn (may repeat, may not if reverts to its Dr Van Fleet self), Crepuscule (reliable repeat), American Pillar (once bloomer), Mermaid (monster, repeat), Reve d'Or (reliable repeat), Devoniensis (reliable repeat), Juane Desprez (reliable repeat and wonderful smell). There are many others, but these are my favorites. Also don't forget Alberic Barbier if you have room and patience with an impatient monster that is lovely and hard to beat once a year in any tree that your neighbor does not covet because I am paying $100 this year to save a couple of my neighbor trees from this one and Devoniensis. Had to pay landscape guy to cut them out of their trees. ;-) Nothing prettier in spring than to see your roses climbing up in trees and making a beautiful nuisance of themselves.
Hi lilamy,
I'm in North Alabama...about 50 miles north of B'ham. It's been a long time since I grew New Dawn...it wasn't a good repeater for me, but was in too much shade which I'm sure contributed to that. It's a very thorny rose for a climber, too. I have its offspring, Blossomtime, now. It's almost as thorny, but a much better rose for me overall. I'm not growing it as an actual climber, though, so not sure how easily it can be trained to climb...it's marketed as a climber, but canes are fairly stiff on it. The climbing version of Clotilde Soupert or almost any of the noisettes would also be good choices here. Petals from the Past, just south of B'ham in Jemison, carries Blossomtime, Clotilde Soupert Cl, a good selection of noisettes and other climbers (they have a wider selection of roses than their website shows).
Blossomtime:
Clotilde Soupert (mine is the bush form, but Petals from the Past highly recommends the climber for our area, too)
Natchitoches Noisette
This post was edited by pat_bamaZ7 on Wed, Apr 2, 14 at 15:24
Here in Sunset 23 'Rozanne' is best in a lot of sun. In morning sun/afternoon shade not so good--sparse of leaf and bloom. In mostly shade, it gives up.
HOWEVER, the first year, the plant can struggle with hot days in summer and needs extra water. After it establishes it seems to take hot days just fine, and blooms away. Farther away from the coast probably a little more shade, in Sunset 24 probably all day sun is best.
Oh yes, lavender blue clematis, great idea. I'm going to add a 'Perle d'Azur' to my climbing Iceberg. That will screech some brakes.
If I have significant losses I might buy a few new ones but I have a lot of potted ones that I can put in the ground to fill spots. So I don't really have to buy more. If I do decide to buy some it might not be until next season since there isn't a big choice locally. I can pick and choose online for next year.
I think that I will be more conscientious of finding out how well a rose handles temperature extremes. That has always been important but now it will be a top consideration. I don't think that this was the coldest winter on record for my area but it was cold enough and I expect that sooner or later we'll see another winter this cold again. I know that summer heat and humidity can be brutal, also and have lost more roses from that than I have from the cold. I have no problem choosing the tried and true Southern antiques. Most of them will came back eventually and will still be able to handle the heat. Some of the Buck roses do well for me, too. Most of the roses that I think I may have lost are relatively modern. I will have a "check twice and plant once" policy with them.
So, would you all say that Awakening is every bit as vigorous as New Dawn? I had the latter, and it was a good rose, but I had it in the wrong spot,in a very central area of my garden, on a path, with no real rigorous support, and it was a nightmare to prune. I moved it, but didn't keep up with the watering enough (it was a huge, mature plant, and I moved it too late in the season really). I want to replace it, but this time, put it in a more appropriate spot! I'd also like to get Awakening, but if it's habit is exactly like that of ND,I must choose it's spot with care...
Save that Peace! A lot of people say that it has changed over time and is not the rose it once was because of over cloning, merely a pale imitation. I had a Double Delight that was my Mom's. I thought it was dead one spring. It had no new growth on it. 5 or 6 weeks later when I went to dig it out to plant the replacement I had bought it had one lowly sprout on it so I potted it up. It's now twice the size of the replacement DD! They can and do come back.
Years ago I had a Midas Touch and Spice Twice that weren't doing much where they were planted. My DH dug them up and put the roots in a bucket of water for what I think was well over a month, then planted them in a different spot, they both thrived after being transplanted.
I just received a plant from David Austin--moistened plant wrapped loosely several times in a somewhat heavy plastic. The instructions were to not soak the plant. Leave it wrapped in plastic in a place where it wouldn't freeze (the garage, in my case) and check occasionally to see that it is still moist. It recommended planting the rose fairly soon--though I've forgotten if that was within a few hours or a few days.
However, most of the other places I've ordered from in the past have said to soak the plant at least overnight to several days or a week--which is what I usually do. However, I can remember a couple times in the past--for one reason or another--having to leave the rose soaking for nearly a month. I planted those plants and they grew, but they never were the strongest plants--kinda weakly. I probably should have been more careful about changing the water (and/or adding a drop of bleach) if I had to keep them soaking that long.
My advice: try to plant the rose within a couple day, or at least no longer than a week, if at all possible, but if life interferes (or Mother Nature decides to send a rip-roaring storm for a couple weeks), don't panic--the roses will probably survive even if they have to soak for several weeks.
I only soak up to the graft, but I have sometimes sprayed the top canes so they wouldn't dry out too badly.
Kate
What a great thread! So much being said that I can relate to.I'm 81 and live on 2 1/2 acres. With the help of my daughter we have18 flower beds ranging in size from small 5X10 beds up to one of 5000 sq, ft. To save costs I originally bought a lot through mail order. Now, as I realize I never know how long I will be around, I buy larger plants so I can enjoy them now. We have over 100 different perennials and a lot of trees and shrubs. Sure, I have a few aches, but I'm too busy to worry about that. This has been such a long winter and things are really slow to get started. The daffodils aren't even showing yet. That is really late for them. Some of the tulips are up and buds are showing on some shrubs. Have most of my spring clean-up done Anxious to see how many plants we lost to the cold.
Thank you all for your comments about my "senior attitude" I was pleased that so many agreed with me regardless if you are a senior or not. The world is a crazy place now so i would like to tell congress stop making life more difficult and go plant roses!!! My barefoot roses in the containers are loaded with buds and several, Mardi Gras and French Lace are ready to open and share their color for us. I check up on them every morning when I have coffee with my dogs on the porch. Maggie and jake are 2 Shitz Zoe rescue dogs who know when I say "Lets go and check out the roses"--they both run to the door and shake their fluffy little tails and can't wait until we go out. (Could it possibly be they know there is a cookie waiting out there for them and it not the roses themselves that attract them?)
Living in a senior condo development built around a 40 year old golf course is not so bad. I get to garden the things that I want, like roses and nasturtiums, and not have to worry about who will mow the grass and clip the
shrubs.
I will take pictures of my lovely ladies when they are all blooming. I just have to figure how to add the pictures.
In my next post I will include the names of these newly planted lovelies. Most are floribundas.
I wish you all either a good planting week or at least a peaceful time checking out rose books and planning your garden so you will be ready when spring finally arrives in your area. Judith