21,402 Garden Web Discussions | Roses


I don't get the slamming of Knockout either. Do people refer only to the original or to all of the sports and follow-ons? I had plenty of teas and other roses when I planted Blush Knockout, including some with very simple blooms like Lyda Rose and Darwin's Enigma and Pleasantrie and I was quite happy with the Blush KO. Matter of fact, of that particular group, it's the only one I still have.
As to what's available in stores, I don't shop in stores for roses, so I have no idea. However, I would think it's better to have those available than most of the hybrid teas and floribundas that have been sold over the years that require constant spraying.
Actually, I do have a single nomination for most overrated rose - Peace. Grows well in dry desert. Otherwise defoliates within hours. Chicago Peace has the same problem but on top of that it's ugly. I made the mistake of planting those a number of years ago.
Gone.

bluegirl,
You said:
"Unamended, the clay dried to brick-hard texture but gypsum made it much more crumbly & compost & leaf mold added regularly eventually converted it into a rich friable soil."
Did you add compost and leaf mold regularly or did you add Gypsum, Compost, and Leaf Mold regularly?
The reason I ask is that one marketer of the pelletized gypsum said that it shouldn't be added regularly, just once or maybe twice....And NO!, I don't know why.
andrea

I don't want to misinform you, so I'd go by the label instructions, but...
As I recall things: we added it as needed to break up the soil enough to do planting, then improved the soil itself with constantly added organic amendments like cow manure, rotted oak leaves, rotten hay, etc. I remember using it quite a bit initially, much less in later years. Once the top soil had improved, I added gypsum only occasionally as needed, like at the bottom of holes, where the heavy clay was still evident.
I *think* gypsum itself affects soil pH little (or only slightly acidifies--an advantage to me, as our clay was alkaline). I think as it reacts in the soil it leaves available Ca to plants. I don't recall the negatives of using too much. We used it a lot initially, less so later, but always used it whenever we thought the soil texture warranted it. It was a fine product that worked well in our situation.
If you can talk to local gardeners or nurserymen, they could give you better advice for your soil/climate.

What a gorgeous picture! Of the old roses, polyanthas (at least some of them) do stay small and can easily be grown in pots. Little White Pet is an excellent one, but there are many others. Their flowers are also on the small side, but there will be many of them. Some of the early hybrid teas are also smaller plants (La France being a lovely and very fragrant example) that you might try in pots.
Ingrid

Elina (yellow), older HT loves the heat, Pink Pet, White Pet, Clotilde Soupert, and Leonie Lamesch. Ducher (white) has stayed relatively small for me. Elina is on Fortuniana, but the others are own-root. Red cascade does as the name suggests, but it will spill out of the pot and then start crawling across the ground unless you keep it pruned. All of these are very healthy here.

My sister's HOA in Santa Clarita has kept both white and yellow Banksiae machetted into shrubs for over thirty years. They pave' themselves with flowers every spring, but require being hacked several times annually to maintain the size and shape. I've seen walls planted with Banksiae in Pacific Palisades where the Banksiae have been maintained for many years only two feet thick and manicured to fit the angles of the house walls. It CAN be done, but it requires vigilance to maintain it. Once it gets away from you, it's difficult to regain the density of "green", with woody holes replacing it. It's honestly more maintenance than I would care to provide it. But, it CAN be done. Kim

Kim describes it perfectly. You see it around here frequently, but usually in locations where paid landscapers stay on top of it.
I wouldn't do it because:
1. I am a lazy gardener, and I avoid all that work like the plague; and . . .
2. I really do prefer them looking wild.
As we age, the garden becomes less-disciplined with every passing year, so it's probably a good thing that I like "un-restrained" plants. :-)
Jeri


" Once the weather cools down we will transplant it. We're in a heat wave right now."
Wait a minute. You probably won't NEED to move it. I asked about increased heat and sun. Now, you make that statement above. Once your temps cool down to "normal", you'll very likely have your yellow flowers. Build shade; plant shade; buy a new one for a shadier spot or even a yellow rose, but yours will be yellow again when your weather gets back to "normal". Kim


Thanks for getting back to me. I wasn't sure anyone would see this since it wasn't a new post.
I'm happy for the good news especially since I lost some more roses over the winter. As hard as it is, I'm trying to be smarter in my choices.
Thanks for your help,
kitty

Hi sunflowers, I'd give your Peace two cups of alfalfa horse pellets (not the alfalfa pellets intended for rabbits/guinea pigs, those contain salt -- go to a feed store and get horse pellets) and water, water, water. The combination of alfalfa and LOTS of water should produce some new canes from the base. Next spring, you can shorted everything to about three feet and your bush will look 'bushier'. HTs tend to be lanky, but you want to encourage new basal canes each year.
Then you're left with about twenty pounds of alfalfa horse pellets in the bag (twenty pounds minus two cups). You can use the alfalfa to fertilize your lawn, veggies, flower beds, etc. Scatter it to lightly cover the soil surface, don't get too generous or you can burn plants. Good luck!

Thank you so much everyone. I really appreciate it. Going to make a trip to the feed store for some alfalfa horse pellets and then get something for the fungus. Yes I do get a lot of black spots on the leaves. None of my other rose bushes get them. Just this peace rose. I just checked it a bit ago and 2 of the 3 canes are dead. Just nearly black so I cut them all the way down. The center of those canes were brown. Don't know what happened but only one of the canes looks good now. That one cane is still nice and green like a green apple and is as thick as my thumb. This one rose bush has always baffled me. Thanks for all of your help everyone. Again I appreciate it.


Depends on when your first frost date is. You want to get them in the ground a good 6 to 8 weeks before first frost so they can get established before winter. And when you do so you need to keep the root balls intact as much as possible. You don't want to lose any small feeder roots so the plants can be well hydrated and fed going into winter. Plant them deep and mulch them well for the first winter too.

Thank you. I know from reading the forum that you grow a lot of container roses. I put the bare roots into 2 gallon pots and just regular soil because that is all I had on hand. I'm not holding out a lot of hope for these because digging them up bare root would have been a shock to the plants. I will keep them watered and see what happens.



Well, that's a relief -- that the photos are of two different roses. Whew! I know roses can "look different" after opening fully, but that transition was boggling my brain...
Duchesse de Brabant does have orderly circles of petals and is the essence of pink.
Yes, Steve, too bad you can't invite that lion over for a few deers (sorry, couldn't resist).
The police also thought maybe the lion lying under the bush on the hill in my backyard a few years ago was a kitty-cat, until they caught the amount of space between its eyes with a flashlight and the size of the body via infra-red imaging. He was apparently working his way across town and was seen later that night about two miles away. So, yeah, two miles isn't far for a lion.






Prospero?
The Prince really is a great color! I used to grow him.
I still grow Othello, and he gets really purple later in the bloom stage. He starts out more red at first, at least for me. I love the later color, and he grows better for me than The Prince did.
The Prince didn't like me very much. He wouldn't get bigger, ever.