22,153 Garden Web Discussions | Roses
Kim,
I didn't really make myself clear....I was only asking if deadheading in this heat was good for the roses. I'm afraid that I fall into your friend's category. I make goals for myself and generally complete them.
No problem deadheading early in day when it's not so hot. Now, putting up the shade cloth was a chore!
In the middle of this reply, I just ran out and deadheaded the babies. Also, remember that I have only 13 bushes, so it's not really a big deal.
Thanks and have a lovely 4th.
andrea
Thank you, Michael and Tom! I am at a stage that I know RRD exits, but don not know nearly enough to tell what's normal and what's not. Being a newbie to roses does not help either.... Thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge here and elsewhere on this forum. I personally have learned a great deal from both of you.
It's really important to be vigilant about RRD. You SHOULD be suspicious. This one was worth asking about because of the multiple shoots.
Generally very vigorous but healthy growth will start looking more normal within a few days, while RRD growth becomes weirder.
Shoots go blind because they run short of water or chemical energy. Chemical energy is sugars and starches stored in the tissues below. Sugars and starches are manufactured by leaves in sunlight. The blind shoot now consists of leaves in sunlight, producing food energy for the plant.
A clump of blind shoots on an established plant usually means something is wrong with the underlying cane (canker or winter damage). These canes should be removed as they will never support strong growth and good flowering. Meanwhile they may be casting shade on healthier foliage.
However, blind shoots on a young or weak plant are normal. They are beneficial and should be left alone. The only thing that can build strength for growth in a plant is leaves in sunlight.
In greenhouse rose production, there is a technique called "bent canopy." They break the blind shoots over and let them hang in the aisle to catch sunlight and feed energy into the plant. This maximizes the amount of photosynthesis and increases cut rose production.
No need to wait until they bloom... You can post clear closeup pics of any spotted leaves etc.
So the problem can be positively ID-ed...
If you want to know the name of your rose bushes then you would need clear pics of the entire rose bush, blooms, leaves, branching, etc.
Of the four roses I planted, DD is doing the poorest. It was a young plant and got sprayed with a lot of deer repellant when it was young. If it doesn't shape up by the end of the season, I will replace it with another DD next winter. I've had excellent luck with DD in the past in the same garden.
There are many reasons a bloom may pancake. It's just that at this time of year, heat is the most likely suspect. The growth and nourishment normally required for the bloom is short-circuited by the tremendous pressure on the bud to open. Lack of water can excerbate this, too.
St. Patrick is known for being hugely heat-tolerant, but under the right conditions during high-heat, its blooms will pancake with consistency. Double Delight is another one I've seen do this. Mister Lincoln will do it, too.
Some roses get smaller under heat stress, some pancake, some do both.
I'll bet you dollars to donuts it's Fragrant Lavender Simplicity. Kim
Here is a link that might be useful: Fragrant Lavender Simplicity
Nickl's advice is a good rule of thumb for gauging your preferences for how your garden looks. Another thing to consider is competition for water resources, and how much water your rose and companion plants want. A well-established rose might be able to share water with a perennial where a new planting might be happier with more space around it. If water is a low commodity (as in California), I'd think folks would keep the perennials farther away and save the water for the roses. In VT, you probably have enough water to go around.
You also want to consider the water conditions each plant wants, which is why lavender may be a poor companion for roses in some places, since they want it drier than roses do. Coreopsis is pretty adaptable so it should be fine if the rose is fine. I'm definitely on the cottage garden side of things, so there are perennials or other plants bumping up against virtually all my roses, or at least within the drip lines, and they're usually fine with that. The only thing I have to watch is to make sure the mulch doesn't gather up too much around the woody base of the rose, or it'll encourage canker.
If you like the look of the coreopsis under the rose, and the threadlead variety should stay low enough not to compete for vertical space, then you could try letting it share the space for a while and watch the roses for signs of water stress (or canker). If they seem happy, then you can suit yourself as fits your style.
Cynthia
Thanks. Right now, in Vermont, we're drowning in rain, but even under normal conditions, water isn't an issue. I guess I was more concerned about the coreopsis shading the bottom of the rose and hurting it that way. It is certainly within the drip line of the rose. It's not really an esthetic issue, but canker might be a possibility with the rain we've had. Thanks for the responses.
Hi Zaphod
First, to be perfectly honest, I'm an unrepentant zone pusher and I don't mind trying roses that aren't supposed to be hardy in my zone only to find that they are. There may be some roses that'll survive in MY zone 5 (but not other zone 5 areas) because we have really hot dry summers, which may give them a stronger start to survive the winters. Also, I do winter protect the roses with leaves around their bases, though I've been getting slacker about that in the past few years.
Having said that, I grow Peggy Rockefeller in the ground, an own root from Roses Unlimited. She's on the side of my house that's a zone 4 pocket, so that speaks well to her winter survival odds. As I recall, I think she's one of the roses that appreciates having the winter protection and I usually remove most of her cane that's above the protection (in that case, it's an intact bag of leaves rolled up against her side for the winter). Still, I think she's at least root hardy in my zone, and I'd definitely give her a try. She has a great dark red color and grows at least 3 feet for me, probably average on the blackspot resistance. By now, the BS sensitive roses have defoliated for a while, but she's OK (I'm also pretty tolerant of BS, though).
Cynthia
Thanks, should I take any action to get the pH to 6.5 or so?
If you have typical roses from the garden center, these are usually grafted on Dr. Huey rootstock that is fine at pH 7. If you have roses on their own roots, some varieties will develop iron deficiency at around pH 6.8.. The new leaves will be pale with greener veins. Other varieties will be able to take up enough iron.
To lower pH of heavy soil, add 1/2 cup of plain sulfur per square yard and wait six months for it to work. Use less in light, sandy soil. At pH 7, treatment is optional.