22,153 Garden Web Discussions | Roses

Dragon's Blood is actually more red than brown, so plan accordingly. Also, it blooms in great big flushes where no one will notice what is "next" to it when it's blooming. And then it takes a long sleep. So I don't think it matters what you put in the bed with it. Just put something -- anything -- that blooms when Dragon's Blood is in "rest" mode.

As is often the case, plans changed when the bed getting a face lift was actually dug out. We ended up putting a Correa Pulchella out front, with various salvias, lavender and Sydonie in the intervening space. A pink, blue, purple, white, and yellow (Tagetes Lemonii) scheme up front with cream and white accents was a bit more harmonious it seemed.
I think the likelihood that the mystery rose from Rogue Valley she has is pink is high enough that it will probably end up in the pink bed which made it easy to put Sydonie out front. It also seemed most logical to simply situate Dragon's Blood near Hot Cocoa and Cinco de Mayo. Aggressively self-sowing Borage is the only thing stopping that as of now, but I'll be fixing that tomorrow.
Jay


"Sticky notes" are placed by moderators to pass on whatever information they wish provided. They remain there until thought to no longer be necessary. It all depends upon how important they feel it is to be there. Once it's served its intended purpose, someone will likely remove it. I just ignore them once I've read them. Kim



bebba, that's one of the reasons I don't use bark mulch any more. Whatever I have left is under the leaves that I use now. The idea is for the roses and companion plants to be close enough to each other that you don't really notice what's underneath. When there are blooms the eye naturally gravitates upward anyway. The leaves and other things, like rose clippings when I prune which I also leave under the roses, except for the thick branches, all take on the same grayish-beige tones which just sort of blend in. I don't like a "manicured" look to my garden beds so it all works quite well.
Ingrid

It depends on the type of rose. A band of an HT is going to be good in 2-3 years. An OGR or Tea will take longer.
If you can, I would move the roses now while they are dormant. As long as your ground isn't frozen, you can replant them. If you wait until they start coming out of dormancy, they might lag a bit more for the first flush. Also, you will want to trim them back to about the size of the root ball so they will thrive in their new spot. Since these roses already have a large root system, I usually just make the hole big enough to fit the existing root ball.

I'd wait until March, possibly April. You do want to wait until chances of the ground being frozen more than a couple of inches are gone. Newly transplanted plants and frozen ground around their roots are not a good combination. It will also give you a chance to see how much winterkill is happening, and possibly readjust your expectations accordingly.
Bands of hardy roses usually mature in about 3 to 5 years. These are the ones that seem to be making progress. Roses that aren't hardy enough will never mature from a band.


hi Karen, interesting that your posting should come up now. I live in a condo and on my porch I have 3 pots next to each other. The first one is Julia, next to that is the climber , dublin Bay, on the other side of that is
Honey Perfume. I hope as they continue to grow against a white porch railing that the red dublin bay will grow along the top to the railing and the 2 yellow roses on either side will look good against the red climber. good luck, Judith

Yep, that definitely is a spider mite problem.
When I moved into my new place, I kept my Miniature rose home cause I was way too busy with unpacking, settling and all and within that time span, Spider mites ravaged my plant. When I put it outside, under the rain, it came back :)
Thou, spraying the plant with water regularly (sometimes, daily) will help keep the mites off. I grew a Patio rose in my home and got it to bloom, all the while avoiding spider mite infestations by misting the plant with water.

Spider mites. They make me crazy. To break the reproductive cycle, stiff stream of water as suggested above and try to get the underside of leaves as well. See if you can see very subtle webbing along the leaf underside. Sometimes I use a miticide....but I try not to.


Patience is the key to all gardening really, not just roses. When you plant something it's an investment in the future and you can't expect instant gratification. I'm like Kate and the others here. A rose gets a good 3 years to strut it's stuff. Sometimes that goes even long in the case of climbers or a special rose I really had high hopes for. I kept a Cl. Peace 6 years when it NEVER gave me a bloom because I was so hoping it would be gorgeous. My brother finally helped me dig out the 8 ft. flowerless thing one fall. I've had Candy Land in it's place for 3 years now and while it blooms like mad it's still only 2 ft tall, lol! You can't win!



I'll be interested to see how your experiment turns out. I don't really know anything about growing DA roses in the tropics, but based on my experiences in the summer heat of the Midwestern USA, I would think that all your rain and humidity (plus limited sunlight) means that you will have major blackspot problems and have to spray a good fungicide a lot to try to keep ahead of those problems. Most of the rose-growers I know are trying to find ways to cut back on or even eliminate their use of fungicides--which may not be good for you or your environment.
I hope you selected DA roses that are listed as "very" or "exceptionally" healthy. Even they will have BS problems, I'd guess, in a very wet environment, but they are still better than the DA roses that are disease magnets.
I hate to discourage you--and I hope you report back next year that I was completely wrong--but I know how much trouble BS is in my drier, sunshiny region, so I can't help but think those may be major problems for you.
Good luck, and let us know how your experiment progresses.
Kate

Hello Kate, don't worry. You're not discouraging me :) I have been hearing the same from many different people and also have been reading a lot. I'm just very curious how the DA's will react to this weather and hopefully they will grow into healthy large plants. So far I've tried to focus on good air circulation to prevent BS and I have used Bayer Advanced Control but I'm looking for an organic alternative.
I will post some pictures about my DA project after a couple of months. I noticed that there are hardly any postings about DA roses in the Tropics. I'm located at I'm at latitudes 1ð and 6ðN, and longitudes 54ð and 58ðW and only 2 to 5 degrees north of the equator which is very very tropical. Basically similar to Malaysia but less high elevations.
BTW I'd accidentally posted this thread in the General Rose Forum after I discovered the Antique Rose Forum for DA roses. I have posted the same thread in the Antique Forum. If anyone would like to share their experiences or have some great tips please go to http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/rosesant/msg0122043413265.html?2
Thanks again Kate.





I'm a bit late to this one, but the Princess in Crown Princess Margareta is part of the reason I chose her for my first "real" rose. I just love referring to the Princess and how she's doing. :)
LynnT
Ahh . . . 'Benson & Hedges Gold'. It's been years since I had the pleasure, but one can hope that the rose is/was as pleasurable as its namesake.