22,795 Garden Web Discussions | Roses


Baltimore Belle grows later than most Ramblers and in my garden, preferred a little shade as the full sun bleaches out and also burns the thin petals. This rose has very flexible canes and although I kept mine as a 8 foot shrub, it still needed a lot of support. Darlows Enigma is another rose that doesn't like the full sun and the flowers stay longer plus look better in some afternoon shade.


Jim, I'll be crowing to the four points, LOL! I have some hope for it. Last season, I got five blooms, after two seasons of dwindling and only 2-3 flowers, and it had two canes instead of one shrinking stick. Cross your fingers!
Dan, the problem here is that the frozen days have been short term, and sporadic. The ground hasn't frozed, so I haven't added winter mulch. At this point, I'm going to rely on the own root CPM being buried correctly, and cross my fingers on the lavender. I couldn't find any burlap locally.
And spend the next month or two trying to figure out if I want to keep the KOs and move them, or just get rid of them.
LynnT



Just wanted to add my two cents. I live near Sacramento--pretty darned hot! I prefer floribundas but do have some HTs in pots. I ran out of ground a long time ago and have quite a few in pots. If it is a truly special rose, I do find a ground spot by removing a non-performer.
Always plastic pots or maybe foam, I like the big square ones but the round ones work too. I use redwood bark mulch in the pots, an absolute must for me. It really helps. My roses are in full sun. You must religiously water them each day in the hot weather. So my occasional dog sitter must and is willing to water my pots along with taking my dog out twice a day!
Some weaker roses have done better in pots than in the ground for me. Have fun with your potted roses!

I live in Selma (near Fresno, CA). Gets very hot here. I have roses growing in pots on my deck. Two big pots with Bolero (white romantica) rose - standard form. Great fragrance. Blooms all summer.
I like the standard form because when I sit in my chair on the deck, the roses are above my head and the fragrance is wonderful. Also, it is easier to arrange the furniture around the standard roses. I underplant them with a hardy geranium.
I have found Fame! to be a very heat tolerant HT, Its cerise, color doesn't fade and blooms all summer (no fragrance).
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Hope this helps.


If you know which ones of those main canes at the base are the oldest you can take out a few of those and it will supposedly encourage it to send up some new basal breaks. I would never take out more than about 1/3 of the canes at the base in any one year though.
As for shortening it, why? Does it need to be shortened? Is there any winter die back on the tips? If not, and you have no real need to make it shorter, I'd just leave it alone.
You may want to try and spread more sideways to encourage more laterals so you'll get more blooms. Otherwise, it looks happy and healthy! Show us a pic when it blooms!

That deep blanket of snow is the best insulation that rose can have so it should be fine. As a matter of fact, when you shovel go ahead and pile some on top of the roses. It's been an abnormally cold winter here this year so I'm sure you'll lose cane but the plant it's self should come back in the spring.

I, too, don't see any reason to caveat affection for KO roses. These roses can fill up a really difficult spot, and not everybody has the time, money, gardeners, and inclination to fuss over the roses that some of us do. There is a nursing home near my place that set out of KO roses, and I rolled my eyes...until I saw how beautifully the KO roses were doing with no spray and little fuss and how much the old dears enjoyed sitting in the front with the blooms instead of the bare dirt and scruffy grass that been there between them and the traffic. Some of us, like Vita Sackville-West, only like flowers that are "brown and difficult to grow." :-).
This post was edited by DrPekeMom on Fri, Jan 17, 14 at 17:46

The curled leaves are rose sawfly - a tortrix moth larva.....but yes, broadleaf weedkillers act systemically and work over a period of 6 weeks or so (although the initial dieback happens within 10 days). The leaves will yellow, then fall off and the canes will eventually blacken. There is not a great deal you can do apart from watering since this will have to work its way out of the plant system (it is not a given that all the roses will die - some plants take several applications). What weedkiller was it? Do you know if the active ingredients were trichlopyr? 2,4D?

Water! And then more water and then water again. You need to flush their systems and they need a lot of water to do that. Don't be surprised if in the near future you see some very distorted looking growth on them. That is a symptom of herbicide damage. There may be some very reddish growth that resembles a witches broom and the leaves will be crinkled and distorted in shape. These are often signs of the Rose Rosette Disease but are also caused by herbicide spray. Just cut them off and let the plant regrow from there. It may take a couple of times but it should eventually clear up as the plant gets the toxins out of its system.
As for the sawfly larvae, there are insecticides for it BUT at this point I would not suggest using any kind of chemicals on your roses because of the weed killer issue. That also includes fertilizers. They need time to recover before you do anything else to them. The saw fly won't do as much damage as adding a new chemical to the mix at this point. Don't remove any leaves either. They need the leaves to feed and shade the plant.
You may not be able to save all of them but there is a good chance you can save some of them. I had a neighbor who sprayed RoundUp willy nilly around his yard and got my roses. It took a lot of time and patience and water but they did eventually come back. And please, make sure your husband can't get his hands on any more weed killer, lol!

I'd suggest getting several plants and growing them in different locations at the same time.
I did this with camellias--I purchased eight plants and put them in different microclimates, then I moved the survivors to the best spot in our yard. I also did a field trip to DC and the National Arboretum. I determined that they need far sunnier spots to grow when they up here in Connecticut, compared to locations further south. I also noticed this with roses--they do better in partly sunny locations the further south you go.

You're right on target, Ingrid. I don't think you'd have the same results in a coastal climate.
Henry, one of my husband's expressed objections to Hybrid Tea Roses was that they were, in his opinion " . . . ugly plants with bare bottoms."
In my conditions, to be honest, I'd say the same about many Hybrid Perpetuals.
Jeri

I previously pruned roses in January as usual, but with this years higher than normal heat waves, I'm wondering if the roses are dormant yet. I see a lot of growth and even flowers. Is waiting until February out of the question. I have been told in the past that sudden temperature changes can cause blind shoots. I see quite a lot of shoots that suddenly just quit growing. These hot days are confusing the plants and gardeners. Any thoughts out there?

I'm in Phoenix, AZ. I need to fill the hole with something and don't mind using some of the cleaner clay, but most was pretty dirty from construction debris. I'm going to the nursery tomorrow to by the 3 roses I want so I'll be asking them what they suggest to fill it with. I was thinking of getting some top soil and then mixing in some organic matter and clean clay.
Thanks for the responses.


Thank you for the timely reminder, I went out and gave mine all a good watering yesterday. They were definitely ready for it.
With respect to the garage temperature question, that will depend on a number of factors. Is the garage attached, or detached, does it have an attic, or insulation of any kind, etc. Mine is attached with 3 uninsulated walls, but an insulated appartment overhead. Outside temperatures have gone as low as -29 C / -20 F so far this season and the lowest tempeature indoors has been -6 C / 21 F.
If you have a detached uninsulated garage, then the ambient temperature inside will likely reach nearly the same temperature as the outside during extended cold spells. -20 F is almost certainly cold enough to kill a potted knock out rose. If you're garage is insulated the temperature swings should be less. You might try building an insulated box large enough to put you potted rose in, keep it in the garage and put a small 40 watt incadecent light bulb inside that you could turn on when the temperature is forecast to go below about -5 F.
Cheers, Rick



bartleby1, I live in Brooklyn which as you know is not far from nyc. The USDA has revised its zone hardiness map so that we are now both in zone 7. It's too soon to prune now, so hold off until end of March/early April. Once you prune the rose will want to start growing so it's best to do that when the outside temps are warm enough.
Are there any rose nurseries near you that you can recommend? I'm looking for a new source as the choices in my neck of the woods are disappointing.
This is from someone who knows zip about roses sooooo, anyhow, may I suggest you take a few post-it notes, number them and stick them on the branches, then retake your pictures. That way Camp and others can direct you to the correct cane to cut. ie. above # 6 about 2 inches cut at a slant so etc etc.....