A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Plants and Flowers Forum The Rose Grower's Forum Pics - roses suffered hail damage, please help :(

For my birthday, my husband bought me these two beautiful rose bushes that I wanted so much. I got them Friday, and waited to put them into the ground because I needed his help. Saturday night we had a bad hail storm that I wasn't expecting, and I didn't wake up for it. Now they are looking really bad, and I'm miserable about it. We planted them tonight.

My question is about how to proceed. Should I prune them? Fertilize them? The flowers are all dying and drooping. I don't even know how to prune them properly, but I bought a book about them when I got the plants. I can probably figure that part out. Will they even survive?

Any help is much appreciated, thanks in advance

Amber





This is a pic of the flowers I cut as soon as I brought it home, before the hail:

Your shrubs will survive. Cutting the dead flowers off will be best for it though. It will waste energy trying to revive them. You want that energy going into new blooms and establishing a nice root system.
Happy birthday and congrats on your beautiful roses!

That is what I hoped to hear! Thank you Tina. I will have to cut off almost 100 flowers though... how sad :( Now I have to read my rose book and learn how to prune!

Pruning and cutting the dead flowers off can be two different things. Just cut the flowers to the next set of leaves or a branch if that is what is next down the stem. If there are buds on the same stem leave them and just take the damaged flowers.

Oh! I was about to do the opposite! Thanks again Tina!

Tina is right , and different types of rose bushes have different rules for pruning.

Ooh, good link! Also, I will post pics, but I woke up and the flowers are all looking much better, so now I don't think I will remove as many as I originally thought. Plants are so amazing, they really are quite dynamic! What a wonderful hobby.

Ok, here are before and after pics. I removed about 25 flowers. Should I cut more? Keep in mind it is a new house, and we are in the midst of huge landscaping efforts, so the yard/lawn etc. is messy.

Before:


After:


Pretty rose :)

Those look beautiful! You did a good job and some of the flowers recovered nicely.

I think it looks great, as long as you don't see too much bending or damaged branches you should be fine..have they ever bounced back nicely.

I pluck off my dying roses as soon as they start to wilt...sometimes you will get more blooms that way.

Oh and gardening becomes more than a hobby..it gets to be an addiction

There are still some branches bending... it seems like there are quite a few flimsy ones, I can't imagine them holding up a flower at all - with or without hail. Should I remove those too?

I do think I'm addicted though! My hubby said I have to stop buying more plants... I bought a few and planted them this week, and when he asked about them, I said they were weeds that grew by themselves ;) I think lying to cover up behavior is the first sign of an addiction, no? (but it was bee balm, and I have hummingbirds and butterflies! I had to have it)

Yes, lying is one sign of addiction.
Don't trim the weak branches yet. See if they recover first. Because new rose growth is spindly and weak looking quite often. But it does fatten up. Just snip any broken growth or if any are touching/rubbing.

those roses are really pretty. I like that color.