22,151 Garden Web Discussions | Roses
Thanks everyone. Diane, love your picture of Love Song, it's gorgeous! Love Song is a remarkable rose, IMHO. When I look at Melpdee Parfumme, it seems to look more purple as it ages, but then when I photograph it, it still looks magenta! I still think it is a lovely rose and has a nice fragrance, just want the purple to be more prominent.
Got in from picking all the rust leaves I could find & cutting just a few branches off. Looked pretty good, better than I thought. Plus the other bushes look really nice today. I then gently raked all the maple seeds that fell onto the rosebeds & put cedar mulch down. Hopefully they will continue to get happier since the weather is supposed to warm up & stay nicer.
Thanks for the suggestions and for sharing the beautiful picture! Actually I'm looking at Austins now and I have my eye on Colette and also Graham Thomas but he looks like he can get big. But now that I see your picture of Colette, wow and also she seems to be a tough cookie based on your description! I will look into Above and Beyond as well :)
You do get SOME winter in the San Gabriel Valley (as opposed to the coast, where I am). I know your climate, because I grew up in El Monte. Your summers get HOT. And dry, as well. And you are being asked to use less water. That's why I would advise you to wait until after Thanksgiving to transplant your roses.
When you DO move them, keep the root ball as intact as possible. Cut them back some -- but not radically. In fact, if it was ME, I've found that if you can give them enough water for a week or two after transplanting, you really may not have to cut back much at all. (Cut off what wilts.)
Are your white roses 'Iceberg'? Because, if so, they really don't much mind being grown quite close to each other ... almost like a hedge. In fact, 'Iceberg' can make a lovely hedge, and does not really much like hard pruning.
Gardenias ... I would think they would not like to be moved in hot, dry weather. You might try acidifying your conditions some, either with soil sulfur, or fertilizer for azaleas/camellias. And they would like more water as well, I betcha.
Thanks for the input, jerijen. You're so right about the water issue! I'm in Arcadia, and we're in a tie with Beverly Hills for the largest percentage we're expected to cut back on water, 36%. I'm doing my best, and have actually reduced my usage since one year and two years ago this time, by being creative and figuring out other ways to save water. My yard/plants/landscaping are really important to me, and I'm going to do everything I can to keep them going.
I need to look up the variety my white roses are. (I keep a gardening journal.) Iceberg doesn't ring a bell, but I don't want to say for sure that that's not it.
So I should probably wait a few months and then do the transplanting. Meanwhile, I think I should get some azalea/camellia fertilizer and give it to the gardenias!
Oh, regarding 'winter' here in the SGV: this was the hottest winter on record! I had to run the AC numerous times throughout our winter. As for heat? I ran that precisely three times--and two of those times I was battling a systemic infection and had REALLY BAD chills! :)
I would say that container is way too narrow. Get yourself a REALLY big container -- Biggest one you can find. Think about the size of the TOP of the plant, and consider that it needs nearly that much root, to support it. Roses don't grow a long, narrow "taproot." They grow a network of spreading roots, so a pot shaped like that is not ideal.
Also, one of those molded plastic pots is better than ceramic. (Yeah, I like ceramic pots too. But roses don't much like them.)
Also, I recommend that you get a pot with many drainage holes. Then, set it up on three bricks (or fancy "pot feet") so that water can drain freely out of it. (Do NOT set it in a saucer.) If that is open dirt with mulch, next to the pot, you'd be better to set it there, than on concrete.
Jim, it might be that marigolds repel the adult sawflies, and they don't lay their eggs near the roses, thus no larvae hatch to eat the leaves. I'd be interested to see if planting marigolds after the larvae appeared have an effect.
:-)
~Christopher
Even though I don't get any arctic chill here I do hack my Fred M down to less than 2 feet every year as if I don't he will reach the sky. He needs a fair bit of warmth to flower I find. We don't get frost here even in winter but he stops flowering when the lower temps are less than 10 degrees C, whereas something like Felicia and Sonia Rykiel are still throwing basal canes at this temperature!
Frankly, I can do without the cold weather, and I am jealous of you, fragrance. This chill was the worst in twenty some years of rose growing because it came on Nov 15, 2014, when all the roses were not dormant, and things still looked quite nice. Temps hit about zero for three days and just messed up the roses. Didn't trouble much else. It's always the roses--what prima donnas. Anyway, there was a clear demarcation between which plants can take the cold and had no damage, or very little, and those that don't do well at all dealing with this strange, unexpected kind of cold. I've concluded that it's genetics, pure and simple. Didn't matter what part of the garden they were located in, or even how young they were. I hope this doesn't happen again, but two years ago, we had something similar, too, so an awful pattern may be emerging. Diane
I'm not on LI anymore, but I'm nearby. This year, aphids came a bit later than I expected, but were mostly gone by the time the first blooms opened. I've also been seeing LOTS of baby ladybugs in and around the garden, so perhaps it was a bumper-crop year for them, and that's why I actually have trouble finding aphids now.
:-)
~Christopher
My wabbits love phlox when planted by roses they eat the phlox instead. Once the veggie gardens get started in the neighborhood they leave not to return till late fall.
Wirosarian, What do you use for baits? I have a live trap. I tried with an apple, I got a ground hog....hate that rabbit around my heart twice!