22,795 Garden Web Discussions | Roses

One more comment, is that cane receives sunlight and those bottom leaves don't start green up more than that fast. I personally would not wait long to remove the cane. No I don't run around my yard starring at all the red growth. Almost all of my roses have red new growth some vary dark red. I do thou notice one that has to many red leaves on a cane and will make a note to watch for it to begin to green up. Why think about taking off a healthy cane when I know it's growing fast and the leaves haven't had a chance to green up yet. I won't but I won't wait to long because I have 100 others roses to protect. Better to lose a cane than the whole bush. Having lost many roses to rrd sometimes I go with my gut instincts.

I hear ya Patti! I took out the cane. Healthy new growth or not. After the Clair Matin experience it's just not worth waiting. Not at this time anyway.
For me, removing a cane is far better than removing a bush!
Just something weird about it. Doesn't mean it's RRD.
Susan

Thanks irisgal. When my granddaughter was two she watched a video over and over and over and.....well you get the idea, that was titled Rascal the Rabbit. She'd come into the den and ask to watch Wascal Wabbit so anytime I think of rabbits I think of her talking before she could say her Rs.
The rabbit hasn't been back and I haven't seen anymore symptoms of him eating my roses so I'm hopeful he moved on across the field into someone else's yard.

I have a really polite rabbit that lives in my extremely old/big boxwoods behind my front and side rose gardens right by the house. He rarely eats any roses or their leaves at all! It's very nice of him/her :) I do have a bunch of clover and violets right nearby, so maybe rabbits prefer those for salads?
His cousins in other parts of the yard, however, are not so nice to the small roses. Has anyone ever tried Tobasco sauce? I have one poor rose that gets eaten down to twigs every single spring!




Well, that's the thing. John Walden visited my garden shortly after PT was released. I asked him why they foisted such a dawg on the public. His response was, "if you think it's bad NOW, you should have seen it before we 'cleaned it up'. " He said J&P bought Armstrong Roses just to get their patents as things like Double Delight were still under patent. He also said their stock was "so badly virused, it had to be burned in the fields". From what John said, PT IS RMV free, or was when released. He also said there was "a better one in the pipeline". It was released. Remember Tigress? Yeah, very few others do, either. It was stronger but no "better". Fortuniana MIGHT improve it, but it just is not a decent plant.



We have so much poison ivy here that preschoolers can accurately identify it! Great idea, though! And I think my yard is a favored pass - through bcs for some bizarre horticultural reason, my wild area is poison ivy-free and blackberry free! I tried encouraging the holly back there to into the "bald" spits, but it just won't. Holly has a mind of its own, preferring to grow up under my screened porch and garage wall ; )
The wild blackberries refuse to be managed, too. Have tried to get them to grow up the paths, but to no avail. And they are fierce! I usually look like I have been in a multi cat fight after tangling with those thorny beasts.
Am hoping to get a former Youth Group kid to dig up a bit on the hill before he leaves for college, and then supplement with Christopher's wheelbarrow recipe and get a couple of Darlow's Enigma in before a couple of weeks are out. I am hoping that will at least give me an idea if this will work. I'm planning on putting tomato cages over the young plants to prevent trampling. Have an email into Long Ago to see if she has any DE. It's a 4hr drive, but might be better than stressing a plant by shipping it in August heat.

After much trial and error, I strongly recommend against playing games with marginally hardy climbers. They can't understand the plan, and insist on messing up. It is a much better idea to just plant a rose that will be the size you want in your climate. There definitely exist roses that will get big in zone 4, they just need a larger, more substantial structure than there is room for on the house. They also don't tend to be easily trained, so need more space to spread out than you might think.

Thanks for the feedback so far. A pillar could be nice- perhaps something I could put on a nice looking obelisk as a focal point? The feedback has been very helpful. The last thing I want is to have a large empty trellis with a rose that can't grow big enough to fill it, or a completely overwhelmed trellis with a rose that is out of control!

There are various approaches to roses that grow like that.
1. Pruning to stand up--cut long canes back to 3' or less. Cut the subsequent laterals back to 2 or 3 leaves after blooming or next spring. Continue pruning like this in spring and after the first flush until, after a few years, the rose is heavily branched and able to support itself. This is the classic method.
2. Natural arching--if you have 7' width available--heavy blooms will pull the tall canes over, or you can peg them to the ground to spread them out. The rose will bloom on laterals along the canes. Cut these laterals back to 1 or 2 leaves after blooming. Optionally, prune some laterals as in #1 to branch and fill in the center. Choose strong laterals from near the center.
3. Self-pegging--bend long flexible canes in a hoop and tie the tip to the base of the cane. Several laterals will break from each cane around the top of the arch. Then proceed as in #1. This is the fastest way to develop a dense, bushy plant. Some people object to the "origami" look.

Thanks michael. Method number one sounds like what I would like. I've tried pegging and it looks wonderful for a year but it's to much of a mess to redo it every year so I think method one is the way to go. Thanks so much for the advice. If anyone else has this rose do you have any advice for making it happy


I don't quite agree that being in a corner like that will mean possibly black spot issues. There can still be lots of air flow even in that area. My own Eden is a band I planted in June so I can't speak specifically regarding how it will perform there.


Jeri, I guess that's why we have to cut off the old canes every 3-5 years. I learned this lesson 2 months ago. My rambler-Blushing lucy's 3 main old canes all went together, they were about 7-8? yrs old, now I have nothing wrapping around the porch, really missed that.......training the new canes now.






Thank you!!!
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