22,153 Garden Web Discussions | Roses

Kim,

I know that I didn't say anything to have hit a nerve with you, but this article certainly did.

I would never have read as many word as you wrote (said with a smile) unless I was already of a mind that you certainly know 'of what you speak'.

This is a written forum, but if I had my choice, I would like to 'pick your brain' in person, i.e, by telephone or in person.

I listen to several experienced voices on this forum. Yours, of course, is one. Because of the 'good' information on it, I believe that I am nurturing 2 small but beautiful rose beds. My babies are all being handled just as several of you have suggested. And they are already thriving.

Please hang in there for novices like me.

I don't believe that a perfunctory thank you is necessary. I am sure that you already know that I appreciate all you write. If you ever get a chance to
visit, I would love to meet you.

andrea

Thank you, Andrea. Much appreciated. Should I make out of this basin, north, I'll keep the invitation in mind! Kim

Congratulations Zack! Nice looking specimen!

Congratulations! That is fantastic! She's really a looker.

I haven't added any mini's to my arsenal yet but plan on it this year.
They were SO cute at the Seattle show last weekend.

Can Manzate be mixed in the same tank as Honor Guard?

Of billjoebob's list, I have Scentimental & Cinco de Mayo and both do pretty well with regular spraying.

It's funny what you say about Scentimental's weak stems, because I had a Scentimental a few years ago that was weak and floppy. I lost it to an accident and replaced it last year. Even though it wasn't the greatest plant I loved the stripes and there aren't many substitutes so I gave it another try. The new plant is strong and vigorous.

Moondance, another AARS winner, is unquestionably my best floribunda and always has clean foliage.

The AARS winners were never promoted as disease resistant To me it was a marketing ploy saying that there roses were the best. Most of te AARS roses weren't that good Thank goodness the program was stopped!

That's OK - got plenty of Indicate 5!

There here has been a noticeable shift in our yard from Japanese to Oriental beetles, to the point where the beetle damage is merely annoying--there are many blooms that survive the invaders.

I'm not the only one who has noticed this--I've linked a popular press article.

Here is a link that might be useful: North Shore Sun Article on Beetle Decline

I agree about the Molineux rose being pretty resistant to BS.Its a really good performer in my garden.

I can't speak to which DA's might be resistant in your zone and climate, but for what it's worth, the following have had decent BS resistance in my garden in Ontario, Canada and my Mom's garden in PEI, Canada. Some of these might be afflicted a little by BS in a non-spray and organic gardening environment here, but typically not very severe.

Gentle Hermione
Molineux
Crocus Rose
The Mayflower
Teasing Georgia
Tamora
Munstead Wood
Wild Edric
Mrs. Doreen Pike
The Ingenious Mr. Fairchild
Constance Spry
Geoff Hamilton
Harlow Carr
Queen of Sweden

These ones will get some BS or late season mildew here, but typically not very severe.
Miss Alice
Lilian Austin
Mary Rose
Eglantyne

LOL. Body bagged roses are truly "grab bags" these days. It's now my conclusion that you never know what you're gonna get, EXCEPT that it's NOT going to be the rose pictured and named on the label.

Just for kicks (and because [a] hope springs eternal, and [b] because I'm a glutton for punishment], each year I buy a bagged 'Oldtimer' from either WalMart or Lowe's. This year when I unbagged my Lowe's purchase I found a metal tag that read 'Pink Double Knock Out'. The tag wasn't wired to a cane, it was simply loose within the bag.

Very curious, I potted the thing, waited, and watched as the heavily waxed canes turned first to a rich mahogany red/brown, then to a progressively darkening gray, culminating finally into terminal ebony.

I'm still grieving the possibility that I might actually have had the great good fortune to have copped a 'Pink Double Knock Out" for just cents over 3 bucks. Arghhh . . .

I bought 5 body bag roses at Walmart this past spring for $4.67 each. Although they have not been growing gangbusters, they are growing albeit slowly. They each have sent up at least one bloom so far and I found that all of them were properly labeled. What I found was that the root mass of these roses were about 1/3 the size of the rose canes. I guess you get what you pay for.

Has anyone noticed the Knock Outs being resistant to aphid damage?? I had aphids on other roses in my garden but none on my Double Knock Out, Pink Double Knock Out and Sunny Knock Out.
In that photo above-- it looks like rose slug damage.

Aphids & rose slugs love our Double Ko's here...

Yes, Mr. Lincoln, and you might look at Kirsten Poulsen. I believe it has the same upright habit that my Else Poulsen has. Don't know how tall you want the rose to be. In my small garden, I'm always encouraging upright growth, but Else needs no help, and there's never any sprawling. I'm sure there are many upright growers, but these are the two I am familiar with. Lou

Altissimo is another nice, upright climber that is easy to keep in check and is healthy here.

I'll put a link below to the HelpMeFind listing:

Here is a link that might be useful: Altissimo

In east TN, it's voles. That snake may have solved the problem, but there are millions of voles out there and the moles and subsequent voles love the soils in gardens and flower beds, far more than the compact soils of yards and hay fields. Snakes can only eat so many of them.

You may have done the exactly right thing, instinctively.

That rose is regrowing underground. IF we get hot and dry temps, you may want to reduce the lengths of the canes to lengths that the roots can support in dry weather. Even though you may be watering, July and August can be so hot that the roses become even more water needy and the roots haven't gotten back to their spring condition yet.

Have you had severe storms? Is it possible that with severely water logged soil and high winds the bush could have been uprooted? I know that I've had some problems with roses that toppled in the winds before. And it has been a very stormy spring.

I agree with Ann that you did the right thing by firming it back up right away. I would add that you might want to stake it temporarily to protect it from further upheaval. Just place a good sturdy garden stake in the ground near it and use some twine around the canes to secure it. With some time it should regrow the lost roots and the leaves will eventually replace themselves. Be patient with it and don't fertilize it until you see some good new growth. Keep it watered but be careful not to OVER water it. If it gets very hot there you might want to try and shade it somehow during the hottest part of the day too.

Those outer petals are called "guard petals" and they are supposed to look like that. They are very often misshapen and/or miscolored as compared to the rest of the rose, and they are there to guard the rose from the elements when it is still in the process of forming and then opening. When I cut roses to put in a vase, I take the guard petals off. Just rock the petal back and forth and it should just snap off for you.

Problem solved.

Florida, yes I am talking about the outer petals, no bug bite, I haven't seen any bug.
Scott we got cool spring this season but not wet. This season the stems and leaves are so beautiful but the flowers are same like before.

Kstrong, I am a new gardener and do not know much about flowers. It is nice to know the "problem solved" :-)

Thank you all for sharing.
Caelian

Fun thread you guys!! I rarely bring my flowers inside, partly due to the cats, but mostly because I prefer to enjoy them outside. Once in awhile I might bring in a few stems, or occasionally someone will get me a bouquet of roses,etc. Years ago, our cat Princess (now gone) would tend to knock the vases over just by smelling the roses. She would make a mess with water going all over the place. Her replacement, Lola, loves to eat rose blooms tho. I have pics of her laying on the dining room table eating a rose at Christmas time. She's such a weirdo. Last time I bought some florist roses to try and root them, I let her eat several of the blooms because I didn't really need them for the attempted rooting (didn't work anyway). Lola is such a little busy-body. She always has to be right there with you, "helping" in any way she can. I just find it amusing.

I think if I were you, and wanted to bring the flowers inside to enjoy, why not make sure you bring one (or two) roses in that maybe aren't the most beautiful ones, and give 'em to the kitties to enjoy also. Maybe that will keep them from messing with your bouquet.

I could never be without at least one or two cats (we currently have 4). I've used the squirt bottle in the past, but just never remember to get one out. They don't really get into too much trouble to warrant getting it out I guess. But no matter how much trouble they might get into, nothing is worth traumatizing them by shoving them in a drawer for punishment! That's just not acceptable. Altho, come to think of it, one of them just might actually enjoy that!

Unmentioned above is the simple solution of getting a kitten. The kitten will make the mature cat's life so miserable that the mature cat will forget about the roses.

By the time the kitten is two, the mature cat will have chilled out. (Or taught the kitten how to do the attention getting rose reach)

Thanks for the feedback. Can't wait to get it planted.

Kate

We planted it, when it first came out, because of the claims of disease-resistance. What we failed to realize at the time was -- that was BLACKSPOT resistance!

We rarely see blackspot.
We see mildew and rust.

'Baby Love' mildewed badly enough here to have the appearance of a plant with yellow blooms and white leaves.

Gone.

Jeri

Mowing will work fine on the lawn side. You can buy plastic root barrier 16" deep to set on the unmowed side. Roots that produce suckers probably don't grow that deep.

If you are ordering grafted roses, you can set the bottom of the graft right at soil level and this will prevent suckering. Canadian producers such as Hortico, Palatine, and Pickering produce grafted bare-root roses which are a good value for US consumers.

Normally most of us recommend burying the graft just slightly for zone 6 gardens, but not for winter-hardy roses that sucker.

What spacing do people suggest for a hedge of Dagmar? Three feet?

In my experience, Frau Dagmar root suckers with the best of the Rugosa's. To give you an idea, I planted a couple of them to frame the opposite corners of the bottom edge of a kidney shaped flower bed in my Mom's garden. They stay a nice compact 4ft tall, but have suckered so extensively in the last 5-6 years that they are basically about 10-12 by 8-10 ft now in terms of length and width.

That was from a single plant in each corner... I've offered to remove some of the suckered plants, but Mom likes them like this as they fill in the area nicely, so we've let them sucker unchecked and they are a sight to behold in full bloom.

I'm not sure a root barrier like plastic edging would stop it. You'd need to go deeper than 6" down and would need something stronger.

If two canes are affected, you should take the whole plant immediately. If only one, and you found it very early, you can try removing it at the graft or crown. This usually does not work, but it's worth trying for a mature rose or one that would be hard to replace. A more radical approach is to dig the whole plant and then split the crown, saving a cane or two and associated roots on the opposite side from the RRD cane. Then replant the hopeful part as a bare-root. This doesn't work with own-roots that have formed a taproot nor with grafted roses that haven't gone own-root. The rose needs to have a crown wide enough to split. Use a hatchet driven with a sledge or maul.

If the RRD rose was touching another rose, prune that side of the neighbor rose severely. I have definitely seen contagion by crawling to neighbor plants.

Very sorry you have an RRD rose, but I'm glad to hear from you, redsox. How is the garden otherwise?

Howdy, Michael! I think we will go ahead and remove the whole rose. I am suspicious of a neighbor too, and it is one that I believe you have as well: Mother of Pearl. Not that I have seen any strange growth, just that the spring flush seemed disappointing.

I am proud of my garden for the most part, although it grows despite a bit of benign neglect as I am part of the sandwich generation. My orchids suffer too.

Hope all is well with you!