22,153 Garden Web Discussions | Roses

Okay - TOTALLY different zone - but I can add relevance to fragrance.

Paradise Found flowers last a long time, the stems are thick, the flowers are many and the scent is unique. I just can't describe it - but it's wonderful. I love smelling this rose.

Paradise (here) has no smell.

Elle smells like candy. So sweet. Love the smell of this rose.

New Zealand is only in its 2nd year; but so far, I'm not impressed. Smallish flowers that take a l o n g time to come back. And there is no scent. But I'm sure that will improve.

Lucky you!! New roses for your birthday. Have fun picking them out. :)
Carol

I saw Rainbow Sorbet at a nursery here locally and almost bought it. That is one flashy, flashy rose.

And, I posted in the other thread about rose selection because I didn't see it listed, but it's mentioned here...

I went to a local nursery that has a broad selection of roses, but hasn't been caring for them lately. They pruned them but REALLY need to water. It's been a bad season for mildew, and BS is back.

By far, the biggest standout for vigor and gorgeous foliage after all the neglect:

Beverly.

This post was edited by racin_rose on Sat, Aug 31, 13 at 4:07

There are two plants of Renae on that arbor. They're planted diagonally across the arbor from one another. Renae IS a "big girl" once she gets pumping! At Sequoia, she threw herself fifteen feet into the trees by the office and kept creeping through the limbs in all directions. Of course, the only portions ever pruned were those which fell out of the canopy or threw themselves out into where you'd walk under it.

Whether to keep pinching yours or not is up to you. "Hot" is relative. She was born and raised in Visalia where triple digits were often the summer "norm". If she's already root bound in the pot size you have her in, slowing the growth may help. If not, or if you're ready to up size her pot and want her bigger, sooner, I doubt the heat you're enduring is too much for her. Kim

Kim, she is in the ground and is actually getting a bit of extra water since we added the sod, guessing that is part of why she stopped sulking about the pinching, took off and now wants to try blooming again. I have not seen any sign of the heat bugging her at all, lots of happy but bright green growth.

I am going to work on the sprinklers for the sod this next week and then mulch (okay manure)

Silly Mother Nature, strewing all those uncomposted leaves all over the forest floor.

I use shredded wood chips about 2.5" - 3" deep and we get a lot of rain...
Like I said I've never seen any rose or shrub that's mulched get PM here.
Blackspot & similar looking fungal diseases now that's a different story... lol

With conditions totally different from situation to situation/climate to climate how can even scientific research always be correct?
In other words if the scientific research wasn't done in my own backyard how accurate is it really?

I fervently believed it was simply not possible to kill a rose in the UK so I was horrified to find Paul's Scarlet Climber (practically a weed) growing backwards and finally vanishing, leaving a smidgeon of dried stick. Less horrified (or just getting immunity) by the sad (but rapid) demise of Hot Chocolate. Finally, although Summer Song is not actually dead, it may as well be (and no doubt will be in a season or 2) as it is a 2 cane nuisance with a few puny blooms right at the very ends of long thorny whips. Oh yeah, the Renaissance roses - unfortunately immortal....but horrible - will deliver the coup de grace when I feel particularly peed off with Mr.Campanula or any of the ingrates (offspring) and I have a suitable weapon to hand..

My iceberg is half way there and the knockout is almost there! I am almost done with killing the unkillables! What a waste of Florida sunshine.....

Thanks Michael! I will look for the sawfly larvae

Here that would be Katydid. I've stood and watched one do that one early evening, after dark, with a flashlight in one of my hands and Felcos in the other. I wanted to see what was doing that. Then it got its head cut off.

Early evening, right after dark you can find them. They are easy to Felco.

Of course, your climate and pests are different...

I always prune in the spring too,but the bottom of all the canes are completely bare and way too tall will it help or hurt to prune in the fall??????

I don't think it will help to prune in the fall. I prune in spring when the rose is most energetic, as I think this maximizes blooming.

Andrea, at the time in spring when you would hard prune an HT is the time to thin out small canes on most Austins to open up the bush. For young plants like yours just snap off the old blooms when they are done and you will have done all you need to do. And don't worry, after you prune out the old canes the bush will grow new canes and fill back in but look nicer during the first main flush. I normally only cut back the main canes by a third unless they are old ones.

Andrea, at the time in spring when you would hard prune an HT is the time to thin out small canes on most Austins to open up the bush. For young plants like yours just snap off the old blooms when they are done and you will have done all you need to do. And don't worry, after you prune out the old canes the bush will grow new canes and fill back in but look nicer during the first main flush. I normally only cut back the main canes by a third unless they are old ones.

In Zone 6 (at least in my region in Kansas) , it is best if you put the graft at soil level or a couple inches below. If it is at soil level, just provide some winter cover to help protect it. Apply the winter mulch after freezing weather arrives.

Of course if you have a winter like we had this past year, protection probably is not needed at all. Warmest winter I remember in this region.

Burying the graft 1-2 inches is the usual winter protection, but no, at this point I wouldn't dig up the whole plant in order to plant it deeper. Give it some winter protection and in the spring, when it blooms, see what you have. If Dr. Huey is all you have left, well, that tells you what to do, doesn't it!

Kate

Thanks to all. Lots of good info. Pembroke

Florida has the issue with nematodes attacking the roots. Can anyone explain how that manifests itself? Do the canes blacken from top down?

Good comments by Lyn.

Looking back, I need to say that my comment about drainage-not-a-problem was over-stated. I grew up on the Florida Ridge, and I tend to forget that so many people live in what used to be pine flat-woods, where the water table can rise to near the surface during the rainy season or after a hurricane, even when the topsoil is sandy. But the symptoms described by the OP don't sound like water-logging to me.

I, too, have heard that aphids get rid of thrips. My sad tale is that I used to have tons of aphids,but no thrips; I started spraying (my main hope was to get rid of beetles). It did nothing to the beetles, got rid of aphids , and now I'm pretty sure I have thrips (regular kind),since some "invisible bug" chews up the blooms so badly! So my new thing is : do NOT spray against insects! and hopefully Nature will balance things out again,and the aphids will come back...a sadder but wiser bart

Some thrips have a problem with high summer temps. Chilli thrips do not. I know they're still active because they're heavily damaging knockout roses that are used in the landscape around my neighborhood and town, and occasionally attacking other plants that I'm not spraying (papaya, hawthorne, hardy hibiscus, jasmine).

As for the actual products I'm using, I've used many - and haven't seen a huge variation in performance. The ultrarefined mineral oils (summer horticultural oil) are by far the least phytotoxic. In any case, I use them at night *after* the leaves have had a chance to cool down. As long as the leaf surface temperature is cool to the touch, and won't rise significantly in the next couple of hours, I don't see leaf damage. I've also used "Organocide". Finally, I've mixed plant oils directly with a surfactant (either soap or a non-ionic surfactant, sold as spreader-sticker). I've used canola, sesame, neem, karanja, mustard, as well as these oils infused with insecticidal spices/herbs. If there was any difference, I didn't see it. When used at less than ideal conditions, I did see light phytotoxicity when using plant oils.

I've used both Safer Insecticidal Soap (potassium salts of fatty acids) and Murphy Oil Soap (potassium salts of fatty acids, plus an amine oxide surfactant). Both work. Safer is slightly more expensive and easier on plants. When used in optimal conditions (low leaf surface temperature), I haven't seen any phytotoxicity from either product on roses. I have not tried using dish soap.

Hi Donald,

"Shrubblers?" Can you use such expressions on a public forum? Of course gardeners are a rugged lot, so are probably hardened to it.

I'll let you know which form of unmentionables we settle on.

Pauline

I have Nahema and it is proving to be a bit of a miff in that the amount of dieback this winter was astonishing. It is also a very stiff rose which is not amenable to training. On the other hand, it has a wonderful fragrance and the silvery pink blooms are classically elegant, lasting well in a vase. Put it in your warmest spot (it really doesn't appreciate cold winds). Vancouver Island sounds as if it has a climate very comparable to England.

Absolutely.

I posted a picture of my Sharifa Asma's first spring flush a few months back. Big, beautiful, palm sized, amber and blush colored, intoxicatingly fragrant blooms.

The bloom that just opened on Sharifa today was a singlet, nearly white, and lacked fragrance.

The heat does awful things to roses...awful things.

Josh

Which is probably why here in the cooler zone 3 (close to the mountains), my roses' blooms can get huge! The colors are usually intense. So, I guess a shade net here would be a bad idea. :)
Carol