22,795 Garden Web Discussions | Roses
Better Homes and Gardens makes a nice, general book about roses that helps you identify diseases and pests and provides solutions. They also have a nice little guide suggesting roses for specific areas of the country and a good little section on growth habit etc as well as a brief history. You can find it here: http://www.amazon.com/Better-Homes-Gardens-Rose-Gardening/dp/0470878452
There's a good new rose book called Roses Without Chemicals that goes into the more modern roses that are bred to resist disease and perform well on their own roots. I found it enjoyable, although it mostly reads like a Kordes catalog (almost all the roses he recommends are from Kordes). I do wish he would have spread out to other breeders a bit. But overall its a good book with good suggestions especially for beginners or people who want to make the switch to an organic garden.
I also recently got a new book called Foolproof Guide to Growing Roses.
I enjoyed this one, even though it was also very general. But they had a great guide on growth habit and a neat little section on how to make rose supports that I thought was really great. They even had a few pages on how to make a support to grow a rose to the side of a house and how to attach it to the wall. As of yet I've never seen a rose book address this kind of information. I thought it was neat.
Another thing I really liked about this book is that it showed microscopic photos of what black spot spores looked like as well as nematodes (both good and bad) and all sorts of other neat things. Overall out of all the rose books I've read, this one was my favorite.
David Austin makes some beautiful books about roses if you like to just have books with pretty rose pictures in them (I do). They can be pricey but you can get them used on Amazon for fraction of the price. (Sometimes even for $.01 and you just pay $3.99 shipping.)
There is also a good OGR book called Antique Roses For The South if you live in the south or like Old Garden Roses.
The Botanica books on roses (Encyclopedias) are popular, but they are somewhat useless as they just list varieties and a short (tiny actually) description of each rose. You can get much better info on any rose in question by looking online. And alot of the roses they feature are no longer in the market, so they are pretty much impossible to find.
But my best advice is to be sure you don't go ordering old rose books. These old books are outdated in both their information and in the roses they recommend. Some of the old roses that were popular in the 60s and 70s (even 80's) can't even be found now (although some of the really good ones are still around). And pesticide use was not as well regulated back then so they sometimes recommend things that are down-right dangerous.
I bought an old rose book from the 70's about growing roses in Florida (not a lot of books available on rose gardening in Fl) and they recommended spraying Nemagone in the ground. Well guess what? Nemagone was pulled from the shelves in the early 80's because it was found to cause men to become sterile. A ton of young men working banana fields in the tropics lost their ability to have children because of it. That's what I mean by dangerous.
Stick to books from the millennium and you should be able to find some great roses and some good advice.
And don't forget to ask us here at Garden Web, we love to share our rose knowledge too.
Put an umbrella over her. That's what I do to mine when I move them. It worked wonders. I just bought a cheap light weight umbrella and popped it right on top (a hand held umbrella) and it perked right up. Also keep it well watered and poke some holes around the base when you water it, to be sure it soaks into the ground right around the roots. And LOTS of mulch, it keeps the roots cool and does wonders.
We have too much rain/snow here, almost every the other day. Rain is coming again tonight plus a whole day tomorrow. I guess this is why I don't have big mites problem here. Just need to spray for bs and pm. I always have 3-4 different colors umbrellas in my car. The best places to buy umbrellas: TJ maxx and Marshalls. :-)
Oh, it's not a problem to dig the hole. I have an area for it to hang out over winter. I just didn't know what the best way would be.
The bed I want will be in the middle of the back yard and so I can't just plop in out there. Well, I could but it would tick off the Mister-With-The-Mower. :)
I think it is beautiful too and the smell was amazing. It is putting on new growth and buds!
Kach, I had to chuckle at your 42 days without rain. If it rained here every 42 days we wouldn't be in a drought! Roses are tough. I had to replace my Ambridge and Evelyn (both reverted to rootstock). I moved my Sequoia (any of the Ralph Moore roses would do very well where you live--his roses are great!), I took out my Jude the Obscure, my Peach Blossom as she had another tree growing in the middle of her (thank you blue jays), my Sharifa Asma (I LOVED that rose but she does need a bit of shade) and about 6 or 7 Brother Cadfael's that I grew on their own roots. I also moved Emily (another DA rose I don't think you can get here in the US any longer--she also doesn't like heat). I replaced those roses with the following;
on my arch--Flamingo Dancer
She started off gangbusters and in the dry heat, she has just stopped growing and blooming. She is getting a lot of leeway from me as she is only one year old. Hoping for better things from her when it cools down.
Occhi di Fata
She is starting to take off a bit and seems to be doing OK in this heat and filthy smoke driven air we have (lots of fires still going around here). Love the color variations on her. Each flower is different.
Lady of Shalott
Lordy is she orange! I am hoping she tones down a bit. She is staying much smaller than I thought she would. I am looking forward to the spring with her and seeing how she does.
Maroon Eight
Also seems to be sulking a bit in the heat. That is unusual for a rose from this breeder. Looking forward to the late fall and spring with this rose.
Vick's Caprice
Vick is an old rose. Bred in the 1800's. He is hanging in there in the heat. At first, I thought I might lose him, but he seems to be adapting well. He has beautiful subtly striped flowers and a great fragrance. He also makes a great cut flower unlike the Austins. I am looking forward to late fall and spring with him.
Lady Emma Hamilton
No pictures of her. She didn't make it in the heat. Will either be replacing her with Mary Magdelene (if she makes it through this current string of 100 plus degrees every day), or Kordes pompomela fairy tale or another Kordes pompomela rose whose name I can't seem to remember but is gorgeous with cream outer petals and peachy on the inside.
I also planted Alnwick rose. Shatters quickly in the heat if he even blooms at all, but again, this is his first year, so he will get better with age.
Oh Kachana, you are going to LOVE Tamora. That is an excellent choice. I have her in a hot hot spot and she blooms like crazy. I have to say, she has to be the most abundant bloomer I own next to Dick Clark and Easy Does It, but the shocker is she puts out about as many blooms as the latter two, but is only like 2 feet tall. I absolutely ADORE her. And she's fragrant to boot.
I also have Princess Alexandra Of Kent and even though she's new (and on Dr. Huey, which doesn't do so well here) she's never really shown any signs of heat stress. She gets mid day sun and then a bit of late afternoon shade (but with plenty of reflective sun).
Thanks, I did prune it quite hard. First I sprayed with lime sulphur, then I took it out of the pot and planted it in the front garden where it gets more sun. It's just started sprouting leaves. The ones on the right got mauled by a caterpillar. SHould I fertilise it now, cow manure??
Also, when I pruned it I took some cuttings, dipped them in root hormone and put together in a pot. Sone of them have sprouted leaves but I don't want to disturb them to see if they have roots. They have been sitting outside, I didn't put plastic over the top as I didn't really think they would grow, it was a week since I pruned the parent. Should I cover them with plastic now or just leave alone?
I would not fertilize the one in the ground until it has grown more. The ones in the pot could be growing leaves from left over energy in the cuttings. New leaves are not always a sign of roots. Are they in the shade? I don't like covering them with plastic, but that is just me.
Roses Unlimited would be a nice day trip. All of their roses have had all summer to REALLY get a good root system built up. Also you can hand pick which ones you like. They can go straight into the garden with no worries. If it gets really cold, you can buy a bail or two of pine needles from Low's and cover them up this winter.
In Mobile, roses will grow and bloom into December, so it's OK to prune them hard now. Because of the ugly bare legs, I would cut back to 2' and examine each cut end to see if it is alive. If so it will have a thin ring of green inner bark. Keep cutting the canes that are dead until you find healthy wood. Remove any twiggy branches, especially if dead.
A rose can use at least 5 gallons of water per week in hot weather, or one inch of rain.. You may be watering enough to keep the grass green but not enough for the rose--or maybe the previous owners failed to water enough.
When the rose starts growing out after pruning, fertilize it every two months. On the coast you may have sandy soil that doesn't hold water and nutrients well.
If your area has root-knot nematodes, that can cause decline of roses unless grafted on Fortuniana rootstock.
Don't your roses put out Fortuniana suckers? That's where I get my cuttings to attempt rooting. Next time I find one in my garden I'll let you know.
Sometimes they do. I haven't had luck rooting them though. I thought maybe they were too young to root or something. But I'll keep trying. Of course now that I want them to sucker, they wont. LOL