22,153 Garden Web Discussions | Roses
I second what Diane said. I grow several different types of boxwood (a couple that you mentioned) and the variety was determined by the mature size I'm looking for. Whatever type of plant you chose try to find a cultivar who's mature size is similar to what you are looking for. I would not want to be trying to constrain my Green Mountain boxwood to a 2' hedge!! Ugh.
I use a much smaller variety (Green Gem maybe?) that I keep about 18" as a hedge in front of roses. Anything much taller than 2' gets too tall for my tastes to be in the front row without blocking too much of the roses.
I am thinking of an rectangular enclosed area formed by hedges about the height of a short picket fence. The roses will be inside the hedges peeking out. Ideally I am thinking of 3 to 4 feet in height. I will think about it first.
I know you are right Seil, but I have noticed some difference in some of my blooms. Last year during my spring flush I was very pleased with some of my roses, Pink Peace did especially good, but several of them weren't at their best. A couple of examples this year that they seem to be doing much better, my Dublin Bay blooms are gorgeous and have a higher petal count, I've always liked it, but the blooms this year are the prettiest I've ever seen. My Belinda's Dream blooms are huge, and gorgeous, believe me they were pretty last year, but this year they're outstanding! The buds on nearly all my hybrid teas are huge. I've read several times about the third year leap and I am guessing it is partly due to that, also we've had some weather lately that I think is conducive to helping roses be at their best. No matter what a spring flush brings I will always look forward to it, but I do believe some are better than others. I meant to say thank you everyone!
New growth on bareroots (or established plants breaking dormancy) will be fine at that temp, no need to cover. It won't stay down there that long, and there will still be some residual heat from the daytime temps.
Bands are different, as most of them are grown in a greenhouse, as wirosarian noted. I would protect those (I recommend for this area that we don't have bands delivered until mid-May for that reason) plants for the short term.
Thank you everyone for your advice. I am happy to report that my roses are ok from the cold night when temps dropped down 31 degrees for a couple hours. There was no damage on the new growths from bareroots at all and new growths on existing roses were fine too though they have been rather yellowish.
Shacute - since I'm close to you in Nebraska, and we have similar
climates, I have to heartily endorse Bonica as well. It's fantastic in
our cold and variable climates, and bushes out nicely every year. Not
perhaps as lovely as Malorena's (what is?), but quite nice, and very
easy care for a beginning rose. You still have to prune out dead wood at
the end of winter like with any rose, but otherwise it really looks out
for itself and blooms all summer like this. Mine is a little less compact than it might be otherwise because it's in part shade, but a rose that can bloom like this in part shade? Sign me up...
I agree with Sharon that the Easy Elegance roses are very nice for our zone, and they're sold pretty widely in our area (Mulhall's in Omaha has a fantastic selection). My favorite among them that would do nicely for a hedge is Sweet Fragrance, which is a lovely saturated peach color that blooms all summer at around 4' high once established. Some of the other Easy Elegance roses, as well as some of the Kordes Veranda and Flower Circus roses, may be too short growing to serve as a hedge if you want it to be chest high or so. Those latter two varieties are bred to be 2-3' high, though the Fairy Tale series are taller in general. Among the Easy Elegance, Sunrise Sunset gets bigger for me with support, but it really wants to be 2' high and 8' wide without support. Yellow Brick Road or High Voltage might do OK as medium sized yellow bushes, but they're pretty loose blooms and they turn cream pretty quickly.
If you have access to a Bonica you really can't lose in our zone, and that'll give you enough confidence in your rose skills to plant a lot more roses elsewhere (sneaky, aren't we?)
Cynthia
Diane -- some of the blooms on Souvenir de la Malmaison seem as if they're intricately crafted of the finest reeled silk, and they especially look that way to me in photographs. Because of the raves on this forum, I had high expectations of this rose, and I'm glad to see she is meeting them.
Here's the odd rose on the climber that does not have the pintucks:
Hi John, congratulations! I grew the original seedling freestanding in Newhall, umpteen dozen years ago and it didn't climb, but got "stout". Most climbers will thicken instead of elongating if not supported. The shrubbier types can make very large shrubs and eventually build upon themselves, using the older, dead wood as support. My impression is that is likely what ALmD would do if left to her own devices, but I've not attempted that since the very beginning. I'll PM you now. Thanks. Kim
It's also called a vegetative center and besides too much nitrogen I think I've read it can also be caused by some weather conditions during the time the bud is forming. I had one on Quietness once that grew another flower bud right out of the center of the rose. It was weird!
The ones I get are usually same color as the green leaves and it's a bugger to find them. They tend to stay with the same bush till they are found. Try going out after dark with a flash light they wrap themselves around the bud and munch till dawn.
Lovely roses, thanks for sharing. :-) Their gallon size roses are really big! I'm wondering if it's too late to order from them.
summersrythem, I would definitely say it is not too late to order from them. They ship almost year round and always have a great supply available. Just a couple more reasons why I love them.
Thanks again to everyone who complimented!!! I promise to post more photos as they bloom!