22,795 Garden Web Discussions | Roses
Thanks for all the helpful responses. Michael, good to see you again. Ann, the leaves are turning green. I read your E book and I would really like to catch any RRD early, if possible. The top growth is flexible but I wouldn't call it rubbery. All the rapid growth in several roses has had me spooked.
I rogued out a rose and took in some canes to the UT extension. They said it "appeared to be RRD" but no mites were present and they didn't have a test to diagnose it. Just confirmed that it had similar symptoms. I was upset that I paid $25. If it didnt show symptoms of RRD I wouldn't have temoved it.
Thanks again! Susan
I'm in zone 6 and I keep my standards in pots. They get wrapped in burlap and stored inside my shed for winter. An insulated but unheated garage works best though. Find a really nice big pot and put it in that. You can still put the pot in that bed for the summer but you'll be able to turn it from time to time to keep the growth more even and it will be easier to winter over.
Soluble materials, including most manufactured fertilizers, will get through to some extent. Water enough to mostly dissolve them and then come back later with more water. I do it this way, although my mulch is not 4" deep.
Most organic fertilizers have to be in contact with soil bacteria to release the nitrogen. Blood and poultry manure contain some soluble urea, but the part of the N that is in protein form will not break down for a long time. Eventually it will get to the mulch/soil interface.
I can't say how Austins will grow in California, but here in the heartland, there are any number of shorter Austins to pick from. Just this morning I was admiring Munstead Wood and Molineux in the back garden--both about 3 ft tall, may grow another half-foot to foot at most by the end of summer. I was thinking how they were just the right size for my gardens.
Austin has several recent roses in the same range--Princess Alexandra of Kent and Boscobel and others, for instance.
Tamara (above) is looking good!
Kate
Campanula - it is true that over 100 years ago they planted thousands of Mme Caroline Testout roses in Portland, I think they were planted along the main streets. I do recall somewhere reading a couple of years ago that a rose person had found several remaining plants from the original plantings, still alive and blooming.
Jackie
I'd guess your rose bushes have been visited by the same rose slugs (sawfly larvae) that tend to attack rose bushes every late spring/early summer. This is usually a temporary problem--then the good predator bugs come along and gobble up the rose slugs, and there is no more problem.
However, the bush is often left with ugly damaged leaves. I would just pluck off the worst looking ones, and then wait patiently for the bush to produce new leaves (followed by buds and then blooms).
In the future, it would help if you checked the bushes in the late spring/early summer for tiny, tiny green wormlike things--usually on the underside of the leaves. When they are present, squish them. That will keep them somewhat under control until the good predator bugs arrive a couple weeks later.
As for the not flowering well problem, that is just part of the normal bloom cycle of any rose. A rose blooms for a couple weeks, then the blooms deteriorate (turn brown) and fall off, then the bush rests and renews itself, then it starts blooming again. Most roses go through several bloom cycles per season.
When the blooms deteriorate, the bush will look better if you deadhead it (pick of the brown old blooms). Deadheading sometimes encourages the bush to begin blooming sooner also.
Hope that helps.
Kate
Jackie, I'm not sure if this is the graft 
But I was told tree roses have the graft at the top and this rose was definitely not a tree rose at least I don't think so. It never looked like the tree rose I searched online. I have not touched it since, just watering everyday. I'm just going to leave it be so it can try and recover. If it doesn't grow properly I'll just yank it all up and buy a new rose. Yes I stopped listening to that person lol.
While searching high and low for Earth Song in a gallon pot, I was able to find it at a place called Roses Unlimited. This year I have acquired The Magician, Julia Child and now Earth Song. I think I'm going to try a few more Bucks and maybe Rio Samba. Thanks for sharing your beautiful roses, happy gardening!
Those that have been blackspot resistant for me are Earth Song, Winter Sunset, Prairie Harvest, and Les Sjulin. The first three are somewhat fragrant. Most can get cercospora spot. Prairie Sunrise has one of the nicest flowers, and seems somewhat resistant, but I spray it occasionally. Quietness is resistant in some gardens, but it depends on the strains of BS in your particular garden. I haven't found it slow-growing at all. My own-root Q grew quickly to 4' x 4', now 5'x5'. The beautiful Q flowers are resistant to botrytis petal blight and balling.
Distant Drums is one that didn't grow vigorously on its own roots. It's basically a normal hybrid tea with exotic coloring and fragrance.
Just a funny note. I sent an email to the production manager for that news show. I explained their information error and suggested they vet their interviewees a little more closely. Someone responded and said they received a record number of complaints from gardeners and garden clubs all over the area pointing out their misinformation.
They added a link in their written article pointing to the correct RRD information. It is too much to ask I guess that they simply take the video off their website.
As to the botanic gardens, no one there will return a phone call on the matter.
Good for you, Beth. You beat me to it, lol. I'm still wondering how this guy can claim with a straight face to be a horticulturist. Even my MECHANIC, who has exactly one KO rose knows more about RRD. I'm not a bit surprised they got complaints.
John