22,795 Garden Web Discussions | Roses
Thanks Susan for the info. 'Sisters Fairytale' stays short in my garden about 3 feet. I have not been able to find a source for this one lately. I bought her about 5 years ago and managed to keep her alive in spite of my lack of rose gardening expertise, so yes she IS one rugged little rose. Not a super prolific bloomer but she puts out a nice display and has a very mild scent. Cinderella grows tall and has no scent. 'Caramella Fairytale' is the least hardy of the three but has such gorgeous blooms so the winter damage is worth it. I just bought 'Golden Fairytale' this year so she is still really tiny but I've read great things about her.
Peter Kukeilski is a huge fan of both Kordes and Easy Elegance roses. I used his book 'Roses without Chemicals' as a reference when choosing my later rose purchases. I wish I had had this info before I bought all of my roses since he is very strict and honest in his rose ratings. He gardens in Maine on the coast so a similar environment to mine except he's farther north and we're more inland (about 35 miles from the RI coast) but he has BS pressure and winter issues similar to ours.
My David Austins are not as disease free as I would like but his flowers are so "to die for" that I'm reluctant to part with them. Some that have been healthy though are 'Lady of Chalotte' 'Darcy Bussell' and 'Windermere' which is the most prolific of the 3. Sadly my favorite for scent, flower form and consistent bloom 'St. Cecelia' is a total mess this year. I just cut her almost to the ground to get rid of the BS. I love her scent so I might just have to coddle her some and try some organic preventatives. 'Heritage' thrives on no care and is still growing well in her overrun garden spot putting out 2-3 flushes a season. Our growing season is very erratic here. Some years spring comes in February others in May. This year I had 3 feet of snow in my garden till the 3rd week of April and had about 50 roses due to arrive the last week of April. It has been very cool this summer with temps hardly ever reaching 90 so I don't think I'll see 3 flushes this year unless we have a nice long fall.
Sharon
In Dallas, TX, it is getting quite large, also sideways >6 feet, blooms regularly and has fragrance. Very healthy with no spray, not much dieback with our relatively mild last winter/ice storms (its first). I'm hoping for a good fall bloom, once I actually get around to feeding it.
I didn't know Heritage had a climbing sport, but it sure does. After looking at some of the pics I think you've found your rose. Definitely looks like Heritage and it was a very popular rose at the time so even more evidence supporting that it is in fact Heritage. It's still available from David Austin. Good for you.
I wish we could trade! It's been hot and unusually dry here. I feel like I live in Phoenix. I also have sparse and tiny blooms. Anything that does bloom fries immediately. Hopefully with the weather changing, things will get better. I'm gearing up for the fall flush.
That looks like heat stress to me. When the rose doesn't get adequate water in high heat here, the new leaves form like that. Somewhat stiff and small and curled inward. I would keep it well watered and be sure the water is soaking in and not running off the sides. I like to make 10in holes around my newly planted rose bushes with a bamboo rod (or something similar), just to be sure the water reaches the roots as sometimes it's hard to get the water to go exactly where you want it.
Thanks, Christopher,
I am in south central PA. On another rose forum here, folks recommended organic Miracle grow + compost/manure. That mix is the last thing I have attempted with bands in pots. I fed with fish emulsion, kelp and tomato fertilizer. They died, too. I usually order bare root and have had great success. I lost one out of 24 roses this year which never broke dormancy. I very much wish I could grow bands though the outrageous price they charge for a twig is beyond me.
I have no idea where to get Bovung. I would like to try your mix next year. Maybe I will order one band from your list of roses and see if I can do it.
"Bovung" is the brand of dehydrated manure I find at Home Depot, sold in big yellow bags, near the 3-cubic-feet bags of peat moss. There's also "Black Kow" composted manure, which is cheaper per pound, but is also half as strong. In terms of nutrients, using twice as much "Black Kow" to equal what I use of "Bovung" makes them about equal in cost, but I'd rather carry less.
One thing I forgot to mention is the first soaking after potting up the bands. Rather than just watering from the hose, I actually put each pot into a 5-gal bucket to soak for a few minutes. I find that when peat-based potting mixes go dry, they don't get wet again easily, and the first soaking will just run through the drainage holes. Giving it some time submerged in a bucket of water will avoid that.
Finally, to make the mix, I use a 1-gal bucket to the scoop the individual components into a wheelbarrow for mixing. Thus one batch = 3 gallons peat moss, 1 gallon vermiculite, 1 gallon perlite, and 1 gallon Bovung. That equals six gallons of mix. For each gallon of mix, I add 1/2 cup fertilizer. So for one batch of six gallons, that equals 3 cups of Garden-Tone. I also put a bit of newspaper or used coffee filters in each container before adding mix to cover the drainage holes. It allows water to drain through, but not the potting mix.
:-)
~Christopher
I guess you can take advantage of the robber fly population and get some batting practice in.tennis rackets make good fly swatters to.maby a potatoes gun for the jb peach balls.get creative.I am learning weild ways to kill bugs that way.for instance,I just learned cooking oil,new or used,kills every bug I pour it on.like dish soap and water,it suffocated them.bakeing powder and yeast,with some suger,added to hot water,makes my fly bait.it ferments a day or two,then its sealed tight for two weeks.the end product is effective for all species of fly.after its in the trap a few days it ferments again,into vinegar. Now fruit flys die by large numbers.it just cycles over and over.flys ferment bringing in more flys.its nasty stuff! I'm still worried about the black widows, they are as bad as my flys but have no nateral preditor here.I want to get some chinise mantis eggs,and lady bugs,but I may have to wait til next year.we got a month or two befor winter starts in here.
meredith, I didn't know they would eat peaches! I was shocked to see them on the tree, there were a couple hundred peaches before the JBs got to them. They also ate our corn by going inside the husks and eating the kernels. then eating a hole at the bottom to get out. I had only seen them on roses before that. No I have no more peach tree and no vegetable garden. This year is the first year that I have seen them back in great number since I killed those thousands and thousands several years ago. I am going to be more observant next year.
The second edition of the Compendium of Rose Diseases by Horst and Cloyd, 2007 has a list, with varying descriptions. Horst has since retired and Cloyd is now in the midwest.
When it comes to diseases, the bigger economic impact (and louder constituency), the more that's known. The rose community has been pretty quiet for over a century.
Right now, the home horticulture side of research is suffering. Many, many of our state ag agencies are losing their home hort slots when it comes to funding.
Example: the first RRD paper came from Glenn Viehmeyer in Nebraska. He worked with flowers. He developed colder hardy mums and had embarked on a cold hardy breeding program for roses.
There is no comparable person now in Nebraska. The one worker at the same station around ten years ago had been half home hort and half agriculture and had been moved to dry beans when we visited there. As US dry bean production was being competed with by Canadian dry beans, he wasn't sure how or where his funding would come from in the future.
The current RRD research has funding, but is limited in what pathways they can follow.
Use Google Scholar to see what's funded and what's been written/published for the past three decades.
There are lots of "they say" beliefs in gardening that are just false. Seil has lots of zone 5 experience and is trustworthy. If you apply manufactured fertilizer in September, that may increase bloom in October, and there is no evidence that it increases winter damage to the main canes. But if you fertilize only with organic materials as Sam does, those will continue releasing nutrients for months, so late fertilizing may not add anything that the plants can use.
I wish mine looked like that. Mine is downright yellow.
Maybe when temps cool down mine will look better.