22,795 Garden Web Discussions | Roses
Well, I'm still a long way from Beth in N Ca standards, but my recent count after the yearly "death march" (to finally decide and pull tags from what didn't survive the winter) brings me to 938, if you count the minis. There is an occasionally circulating thread that jokes about counting roses so they aren't really so many, and not counting minis is one of those tips. Once I get past pruning and planting season, they aren't really that much work, since I don't spray and I simply deadhead and water a little from now to frost.
I've shown a lot of photos from my best years, so here are a few shots of an average rose year that this is turning out to be.
My "east side survivors" - roses in the zone 4 pocket of my house that can handle more extreme temperatures - starring Alexander MacKenzie (pardon the deadheads still hanging in)
Edgar Degas and some friends in the background
Felix LeClerc with some non-rose friends
Garden Delight - one of my new favorite roses
Lunar Mist blooming its little heart out as always
And Sunrise Sunset eating a trellis that got in her way...
Cynthia
Just counting these the other day, around about 53 in this perennial garden that includes roses. The majority of these are climbers or climber/shrubs (28), some as pairs. Shrub roses (10) & shrub habit Floribundas (11) add another 21. Hybrid Teas number only 3 - Abbaye de Cluny, Fragrant Cloud & a new-this-year Kordes' Savannah. There's also a NOID (no identification) rose long planted that was incorrectly tagged from the nursery that may fall into any of the former categories. Keep in mind this count was done during an imaginary tour rather than by actual head count, discounted some iffy roses (unsure survival) & is likely inaccurate. Many more were attempted over the years. In this no spray garden, health & tolerance of freeze-thaw cycles (typical in Winter & early Spring) prove essential to beauty, bloom & fragrance.
I've had my 3 Pomponellas for eleven years. In my growing season I tend to get 3 to 4 flushes of profuse bloom spring and fall are the best and longest lasting. Like Kate's the hottest part of summer is one of her down times. They make beautiful shrubs for me with very healthy foliage about 6'x6' after a few years. The flowers will ball in very wet humid conditions like this year. But this year is not the norm (not sure if it's ever normal anymore). The flowers are small but many of them. I really like mine.
If you planted a band this year, I'd recommend digging it up now and putting it in a pot. It probably hasn't sent roots very far yet, so if you dig a hole big enough, you'll get it all out. I think you'll find it grows faster if babied for a while in a pot, anyway. The few bands I planted directly in the ground have been much slower growing than those I potted up for a while first.
:-)
~Christopher
I buy bare roots at Aldis from time to time when they clear them out for $1.99. Yes, I'm a fanatic of a bargain shopper :) I suggest soaking them in water for a day or so before planting. And if the weather warrants it, plant them in pots. You can transfer in the early fall. I'm hardly an expert, but I am fearless. Plants are living things and every living thing is coded to survive. Don't give up. Water em and let nature take its course. Also, I'm not seeing much mulch going on. If that is the case, you'll want to mulch well, especially for the height of the summer months.
Speaking of red hot heat, here are stats regarding heat in U.S. cities.
Highest Temperatures
Large US cities where the temperature most often climbs to 100 °F (37.8 °C) or higher.
City Days a Year Above 99 °F
Phoenix, Arizona 107
Las Vegas, Nevada 70
Riverside, California 24
Dallas, Texas 17
Austin, Texas 16
Sacramento, California 11
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 11
San Antonio, Texas 8
Salt Lake City, Utah 5
Houston, Texas 4
Kansas City, Missouri 3
Warmest Climates
Twelve major US cities have a daily mean temperature above 65 °F (18 °C)
City Daily Average
°F °C
Miami, Florida 77 25
Phoenix, Arizona 75 24
Tampa, Florida 73 23
Orlando, Florida 73 23
Houston, Texas 70 21
New Orleans, Louisiana 70 21
San Antonio, Texas 70 21
Austin, Texas 69 21
Las Vegas, Nevada 69 21
Jacksonville, Florida 69 20
Dallas, Texas 67 20
Riverside, California 67 19
Cities with temperatures of at least 50 °F (10 °C) nearly every day City Days a Year Above 49 °F
Los Angeles, California 365
Miami, Florida 365
San Diego, California 365
Riverside, California 365
Phoenix, Arizona 365
Orlando, Florida 364
Tampa, Florida 364
San Jose, California 362
Jacksonville, Florida 360
San Francisco, California 360
Hottest Days Cities with the highest average daily maximum temperature City Average High°F°C
Phoenix, Arizona 87.2 30.7
Miami, Florida 84.3 29.1
Orlando, Florida 82.8 28.2
Tampa, Florida 81.7 27.6
Riverside, California 80.9 27.2
San Antonio, Texas 80.3 26.8
Las Vegas, Nevada 80.1 26.7
Austin, Texas 79.8 26.6
Houston, Texas 79.7 26.5
Jacksonville, Florida 79.3 26.3
New Orleans, Louisiana 78.2 25.7
Dallas, Texas 77.0 25.0
Los Angeles, California 75.2 24.0
Lynn
Hi Cynthia,
Thanks for your sympathy on the flattened plants. I always gather hollyhock seed and throw it out in fall, late winter, and early spring. between that and the reseeding they naturally do (the ones still standing, I end up with hollyhocks everywhere, all lovely doubles in a tremendous variety of mostly soft colors. Virtually every year, by the middle of July, I have lost about half of them because this is also a very windy place, made worse by being out in the hills on a hilltop.
just was out tying up more plants and about died of heat stroke. It's not the 60s anymore, and the changes are hard on the old body.
The goats are creeping ever closer to my back yard, as their owners move the temp fences across the gulley. I don't know how far they'll let them up the hill. It's going to be interesting, and my photographer (granddaughter) is in Oregon right now.
Diane
Sorry about the misplacement of the pic.
Heatwave2000 - don't despair about your Twilight Zone. I suspect it would have done the same thing in a pot, perhaps more so. Nurseries often pump the roses up on a lot of fertilizers to make them look good for sales, and by the time they get to their real sites they're "tired". They've been having to run a marathon for weeks in the sales floor, and they need a rest to rebuild their roots. Add to that a hot climate, and your rose is in a period of adjustment. If it continues putting out those small blooms, I'd actually pinch off the buds before they bloom to give it more time to rebuild its structure. In your warm zone, you wouldn't need to do this routinely, but it's something to try for a rose that's a little stressed to give it a boost.
Remember also that any newly planted rose will not look at its best for a year or two. The rule of thumb is "first year sleep, second year creep, third year leap". That's normal and expected, so you're doing fine!
Cynthia
I wish they had tested the asymptomatic Lafter for the virus...just saying.
Sounds like there's a source for the virus and vector mites fairly close to the garden...should be an interesting test. Similar tests (same plants) are being conducted elsewhere from what I've read.
Funny I always see the pets before the plants, Beautiful kitty was my first thought as well. All the easy elegance you mentioned will be upright after this year except SS. Don't know your zone but many of my EE's do die to the ground in winter here depending on how harsh the winter is. They bounce back nicely for the next year thou.
I'm trying an experiment with a new Sunrise Sunset. Since all of my original SS's always kept their canes off the ground. I was wondering if the difference could be fertilizer. My soil is much improved over what it once was and can't change that. But it is not going to receive any extras. No seaweed sprays, alfalfa meal, cotton seed meal, leaves, nitrogen ect ect ect. To see if she may grow more upright than they do now. Even before the extra care they were always covered in bloom. I believe perhaps more than they are now. Since we have had nearly zero sun this season the truer test will be next year.
I second pat-bama. Long lasting fragrant roses are what you want in a cutting garden (if you like fragrance). His list is very good and I grow most of them. I would add Sonia Rykiel, Barbra Streisand, Evelyn, Memorial Day, Frederic Mistral, Papa Meilland, Stainless Steel, Blue Moon, New Zealand, Beverly, Granada, Augusta Luise and Yves Piaget. All these are pretty productive for me.
Amazing photos, Pat. Wish my Easy Does It looked half as good as yours. Still recommending EDI, though. Ebb Tide is a beautiful floribunda for its color (in cooler weather ) and its scent. Pat, I love your pics of Gruss. Do you grow the pink version, too? That one interests me also, and I wonder if it measures up to the original. Diane
Thanks! That's one Easy Does It...about 6 years old. Mine gets about 5 to 6 ft tall by about 4 feet wide by end of season. Pictures are from May of this year. Blooms continuously, but always a favorite of the Japanese Beetles, so you wouldn't want to see a picture of it at the moment...currently unrecognizable, but recovers quickly once the bugs are finally gone. Diane, I've had 2 GaA bushes for several years now and love them so much that I wanted to try the pink version. I got it as a band this spring. It's in a 3 gallon pot in a good bit of shade while it grows. Still small with only a handful of blooms so far, so not fair to judge...but I love the color variances of the original and the pink version doesn't seem like it's going to have as much of that.