22,152 Garden Web Discussions | Roses
My recommendation is, if you have never tested your soils, you should at least once take a soil sample & send it off to a professional lab for testing. Have them test for N-P-K & pH (usually the basic test) and add on the secondary nutrients Ca-Mg-S. I think the main thing you should pay attention to is pH since pH imbalance can cause certain nutrients to be unavailable in your soil even if they are present. A too high or low pH causes some nutrients to be in insoluble in water & therefore unavailable to your roses (see chart scan below). I'm not a fan of home test kits because the reagents (test chemicals) in them are easily degraded by many environmental conditions...aging, high & low temps, sunlight, humidity. I remember a "Fine Gardening" article & "The Victory Garden" TV show both gave them a thumbs down. I'm also adding a scan of an "chlorosis" chart that will help you look at your plants to see if they are showing signs of a nutrient deficiency.
This post was edited by wirosarian on Tue, Dec 31, 13 at 22:38
redwolfdoc, I'm going to add one other thing that makes me suspicious of the results from your home test kit. You said the results showed you were "low to adequate" in phosphorous (P). Most of the info I have come across says that northern soils (since you are in z5, I would consider you on the lower end of northern) have high to excessive levels of P. My own professional soil tests in z4b show high to excessive levels of P.
Ah, Ballin' Auguste! as he was known around here long ago. I didn't think that one was available any more. Dozens upon dozens upon dozens of buds that never opened, no matter what the weather. Had a heavenly scent and a s--tload of rust. May you have much better luck than I did.
'Francois Rabelais' is a winner, though. Most excellent disease resistance and never stingy, stays a reasonable size.
Thanks to FarmerD for answering the fragrance ? on CPM - and I totally agree. Very fruity, but a bit of musk also. I should say that I have a very hard time describing rose fragrances, but I do know what smells really, really nice and CPM has IT! At least, for me it does. I can't wait for spring here so I can see what she's going to do.
LynnT
Diane, that's what I've been trying to figure out and is my main concern. Some gardening sites say she is hardy in Zone 6, but I wanted to see if there was anybody here if they or someone they knew of growing a Lady Banks in zone 6.
Brad AKA Moonwolf
I've seen Lady Banks in zone 6 - zone 6 Arizona. Its not at all like an eastern zone 6. It gets cold at night, but then warms up a lot during the day. Snow doesn't melt so much as disappear.
If the real question is whether or not it will survive, of course I don't think it will. Maybe it could make it through a mild winter or two, but it blooms on old wood, and isn't going to be more than a curiosity. However, there are more than enough people who have to see that for themselves.
Wow it must be the different areas we all grow roses in. Some of my best roses are on the evil list. Tournament of Roses and Just Joey, which would not stop blooming. One of my favorites is not on the not so great list, Gertrude Jeckell. Her color and scent are wonderful; but too many thorns to deal with any more. I am not as patient as I become older!
OSH is a big box home and hardware store that used to be all over California, but which has been shrinking of late so it seems to have most of its stores in Northern California. My store in Laguna Hills closed a few years ago. I think there are only a couple of them left in SoCal. Competes (apparently not very well) with Home Depot and Lowes.
I live in the East Bay and there are three OSH stores that I shop at; two near where I live and one where I work. The closest location to me is in Moraga and was opened the most recently. I would consider it a poor location, but I guess they did their market research to locate there. independently. OSH stores are a lot smaller than Loews or
Loews supposedly bought them and say they will be run Home Depot. There customer service Is better.
Just a foot note, but my two Coiner $8 roses are in bloom today. Not my favorite and planted where I might need access in a hurry and would not hesitate to remove, but they are happy and busy blooming away.
Irony is the cutting that I have spent about a year babying to first root, then sprout and finally it bloomed......I think is the wrong rose. Mom wanted a cutting from her favorite from her friend, I think I have something in a blah tone of yellow. At best it might be Peace (which I already have)
Swung by both Home Despot and Lowe's today. The most interesting rose at either store was the "Raspberry Kiss" at the Lowe's store. It's a new -- just imported from Europe -- hulthemia that Certified Roses has seen fit to market under a new name in the U.S. I suspect it's going to be a terrific rose. The European name that some may recognize is "Eyes on Me," of the getting-better-known "Eyes" series from Chris Warner. Gots me one.
At Home Depot, the most unusual roses were "Hailstorm," "Super Gold" (an older Joe Winchel Hybrid Tea bred from Gold Medal) and a tree-grafted "Perfume Tiger." I'm a big fan of Perfume Tiger, but I didn't need another one, so the only rose that actually jumped in my cart today was the Raspberry Kiss. Otherwise, both stores just had the same old usuals.
rose_toes - yes, that is all one bush - we couldn't fit two on the house! The wall it is growing on is 3 stories tall. It has a full Southern exposure. It gets full sun after about the first 10 feet from the ground, which only get about 2 hours of sun. In this picture you can see the base of it (behind the green short bush, which is another rose not blooming when this pic was taken).
You should be able to grow it well in your zone - just plant it where it is as sheltered as you can, with as much sun as you can. It will grow up a tree or a building. As I said, you need to be willing to wait 1-2 years for it to start to take off.
Jackie
Rosetoes, Lady Banks grows well in Tehachapi, Ca, up in the mountains between Mojave and Bakersfield where there is plenty of winter chill for stone fruit. The area ranges from zones 8a to 8b, with probably many other modified versions of each due to the mountainous terrain. She may not attain the massive proportions of Jackie's nor the monstrous ones here, but she's definitely "hardy" enough for those types of climates. Give her time and room and she'll probably displace the rest of the garden! Kim
The photo in the initial post is - I guarantee you - a Photoshop manipulation; the person simply selected the red channel and did a 100% desaturate. Its the easiest thing in the world to do, if you have any experience with Photoshop at all. See?...
Yes, I'm also glad your power is up and running, but my, was your house cold! How did the pipes survive it? I wish one of our trees would have an "accident" so some of my roses in too much shade would have more sun. Looks like you might have some firewood, too. Diane
Diane, once it hit 4C (39F) indoors we drained the pipes and shut the water off and ran to my husbands' folks' place, cat and all. The worst that happened was that the pilot light on the hot water tank went out, which isn't a big deal at all. When the tree broke it tore down our phone/internet/cable wire, but my hubby is very handy and he was able to MacGyver it back together until the servicemen can get here (which hasn't happened yet). And yes, we now have bountiful firewood!
BTW, my hubby thought I was nuts when "Hey, I can plant more roses now!" was the first thing out of my mouth after that branch came down! lol
About chickens - who woulda thunk they'd munch roses! I've been a city slicker my whole life and so never had any of my own, but I've been privileged to work in the company of many different types of animals, and I find it special no matter how 'mundane' the critters. Although now that I think of it, I could probably live without so many urban squirrels... talk about garden-destroying thugs!
Happy New Year! We've got 7.25 hours to go, and all the roses are covered in a thick blanket of snow! :)
Happy New Year to everyone here at Garden Web! I hope we all have beautiful roses in 2014!