A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 What's your best ROSE tip??

Gang,

I've been drooling over all of the wonderful roses there are in the magazines, books and catalogs I've been devouring!!

I would really love to add roses to the mix...

SO...if you have any tips about growing, choosing, planning to add roses, could you share them with me?

I love the idea of growing clematis alongside of the roses to add color to the leggy roses!

Thanks!

I seem to have more luck with the minature roses and fairy roses.

I do have 1 old rose and I have hardy geraniums growing under it. The pale pink with darker pink veins in the blossom.

Since I refuse to use chemicals in my garden it would be hard to grow any really finicky varieties.

Rue,

My neighbor used to do fairy roses and baby's breath along the edge of her entire garden. It was really pretty.

Speaking of finicky....my dad loves roses...he has a rose garden and he does NOTHING to them. Nada!!! His roses are always wonderful...He prunes them in the fall I think. But, no chemicals, no feeding them special rose food....Nuthin!!!

Don'cha just know that when I get my rose garden I am NOT going to have THAT sort of luck?!?

Have a happy day!

Barb,
Where does your dad live, state?

Weezie

I shower mine faithfully with manure tea& they love me for it.My best rose is my Aloha HT& I've finally successfully rooted some cuttings(well er uhh actually hubby had issues with rose...not sure what happened exactly...uhh found stems all broke off and mangled..possibly he maybe walked THROUGH the rose bush maybe,possibly) I dipped stems in rooting hormone then watered IN with more rooting hormone and covered with baggie and is on speaker by love seat under lamp.AND I AIN"T MOVEING IT!It rooted there fine and is gonna live there fine till I re pot it up in a month maybe.but all the stems are haveing growth on them and shooting out like when normal luckie folks root things and it works.roses are not good for me have had one previous success is all.
I prune mine all growing season.everytime a bloom ends i snip and shape.I'll be moveing 3 today and will prune them and my others as is growing time and most are shooting new growth anyway and started my compost tea going Friday.

I'd like to hear how ya'll do with cane care

Ok Barb, maybe this will help. I've been growing
roses for 50 years from Missouri to California.
You've got a good start if you've been looking at
catalogs and books about them. There is also some
good websites on roses. Here's my suggestions:
As soon as the bare root roses hit the nursuries there, and the ground is thawed, buy the varieties
you want. You need as early a start as you can give them. Follow the planting directions that come with them. I'm in zone 9 here so they have
bare root roses at home depot now. You may not get them there for another month or so.
I plant mine from 21/2 to 3 feet apart and plant
Alyssum between them. I mulch them with bark
chips. This saves a lot of weeding. Some roses
need fertilizer and some don't. Try the type of
fertilizer they recommend there. If it doesn't
show up as bigger blooms and better color, don't
worry about it. You'll just be wasting your money. It depends on your soil.
You'll need to prune yours in the fall and cover them with hay or some winter mulch.
You may have a few pest and disease problems. They
carry sprays for this at the nursery.
roses are the easiest growing low maintenance
perennials I know of.
Good Luck
Gene

Weezie,

He lives in PA too! In fact, he lives about twenty minutes away!! And, he's sittin' pretty, just waiting for his roses to bloom!!

Njoynit,

Sounds like you are a pro with roses! I am going to try to make cuttings of my father's roses for my own stash! Is that all you do? Just dip it in root hormone and put it in a baggie?

Barbara

Gene,

Thanks for the tips. I appreciate it! I like the idea of buying lots of roses!! I have ordered two from a catalog and would love to add more.

What I really want to do is to take clippings from my dad's roses.....because I remember most of the varieties being there since I was a kid. Is it really as easy as taking a cutting?

Barbara

Barb,
Why I asked about your dad and where he lives...
You said;
I was curious as to how and why he prunes them in the fall... Can you ask him for me???

And ask him how his procedure/technic/time line would be!!
#1.___________, #2._____________ #3._____________
if you know what I mean, (if he has no disease's at all). I am curious about the roses and pruning in the fall.... I never have because I've understood it would stimulate growth, and as you know we want them to go night~night!!!
I don't have any bug or disease problems with my
roses (a tiny bit with aphids on the new growth, but not bad at all) but I would love to know
the sequence of his "putting the roses to bed"

Think he'd give you his secret????

Weezie

Hi Barb I'm back,
You asked about taking cuttings from Dads roses.
Unless you graft the hybrid cutting to an original wild rose you are going to end up with a
wild rose. These are a lot of stem and no flowers.
I never tried grafting much, because the bare root
hybrids are so cheap and they are already grown
2 years from the grafting. However there are some
original roses that do bloom but the hybrid growers don't generally use them because they take
over the cutting.
Bare roots still take 1 to 2 years to get a good
bloom on the average. If grafting survives you
can add 2 years to this.

Go to WWW.ASK.COM and put in "How to graft roses".
You'll get a lot of websites with info on grafting
roses. Maybe you can talk Dad out of a couple
roses and plant them at your place. Now is a good
time for planting them.
Have fun,
Gene

Weezie,

My dad doesn't *do* anything to them. He just cuts them low to the ground in the fall. I guess it's just after it starts to get frosty?

That's all he does to put them *to bed!*

No manure, no special feedings...and no diseases...except for a few bugs, aphids i guess they are. They look great from June till it gets cold! He just loves them so much, they just grow for him!

My best rose tips are the following...

mine get more epson salt as its in my manure tea.it keeps my leaves green& gives basal shoots and imagine is why the 2 in container were so darn rooty.they sure don't have that much roots when I buy them!
never knew about the metal shaveings.Have to see if hubby will go for that for me...he's a mechanic.
when my blooms are done I prune that stem back.I cut my angle according to how I want it to grow so can keep my plant open& flowing .


and I placed the baggie over the pot I stuck the cuttings in.I rooted one last year that is red& it bloomed red.my step dad has it now.will have to see how it does.My climber is some old type rambling rose.she dug it when she moved but did not get it all so it came back.she said it grew their for 20 years.

Kristin,

I live very near a Starbucks!!! I will satisfy my caffeine needs and gardening at the same time!!! What could be better??? Thanks!

Mocha Latte, anyone??

njoynit,

Thanks for the tips....I'll be buying epsom salts for sure!!

For some of the roses and stuff,
up on the top, Bill has some google ads,
that are linked to the rose inquires....
click on them and check them out!!

Weezie

Weezie,

Do you know how

My best two tips for roses that I have are: use sulphur to prevent black spot, (because black spot can not be cured once you have it)you can only treat it, and keep keep the water on the ground, water early in the morning and never ever water the plant foilage

What type of sulpher?I live in a humid year round area& I have one that has problems with black spot.Its in a area by itself.Its a starry nights shrub rose.Its really the only one effected,but i moved it when noticed it so was away from the others.I am fixing to move it to a container.I'll likely wheel it to the other end of yard also.

I love roses and put a new bed of roses last year.I am so anxious to see how they over wintered. But with all the multitudes of choices
to grow,after deciding what colors I wanted, scent was the next important priority.Theres nothing worst[ well maybe a few things] then bending over to smell a rose and finding none if any scent.For me, it could be the most beautiful rose in the world but if theres no scent of heaven,then I just cant grow it in my garden.Thanks for all the good tips you guys.

I have a couple of roses in my Garden one is a Josephs Coat and the other is my favorite the Purple Tiger I have trained it to be a rose tree. I use eggshells on my roses not sure if it helps but I got that from a Japanese man I met and his roses were beautiful!

Her is a link to a picture of what my Purple Tiger looks like:
http://www.rose-roses.com/rosepages/floribundas/PurpleTiger.html
Once you look at it you will understand why I love it so much!
Oh an great ideas I will make me some of that Tea and try the Epsom salts!

Steelwoolghandi

Steelwoolghandi, Shamarian and all

Love that rose! It's a beauty! Does it really look as good as the photo?

Shamarian...Memorial Day rose sounds like the scent is out of this world! I love the really scented roses too.

Barbara

Hi,

I'm in TX and my roses love to get a little water everyday and to be fed at least twice a month.

I rooted cuttings this winter by placing them in a tub with potting soil in it and placing Mason jars over them. They collect warmth from the sun and also keep moisture that way. I rooted about 25 of them (different varieties) and they are doing beautifully! (This was the way my grandmother and her mother and grandmother rooted roses.)

Hope this helps someone.

SunnyP

Barb, was so excited about looking into the Memorial rose but found it was for zone 5 and up, I'm in zone 4 If anyone knows of superior smelling roses for zone 4, let me know.Thanks anyway Barb