A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 uh oh, i screwed up with my rose

I've looked into that a lot, and gotten conflicting information. Mainly epsoms is good for a magnesium deficiency, which is rarely a problem. There are many claims made that it is good for roses, tomatoes, etc., that it helps them use other nutrients more efficiently, etc., but one tomato expert, one of the countries foremost, says that a plant will only use the magnesium it needs and not more, so it's not worth adding to most soils.

Thanks for the info, Dave. Sue

dave, that's exactly what i was thinking. the stalks are still green and i'm not seeing any new growth at all. my instinct is that cutting it back would encourage it to recover (it would have less plant to worry about keeping nourished).

we got a good bit of rain since all this happened - i don't think the roots were affected badly tho; otherwise i think the whole thing would be brown by now.

here's a link for info on using epsom salts in the garden.

on other threads around here, people have commented that the epsom salts have helped their roses grow better. wasn't sure if i should or not since i already have the rose food there and i did already treat with the root stimulant (altho all the rain we've had recently has probably diluted that stuff by now).

i think i will cut it back a bit...not quite down to 8 inches (i've never taken it back that much). i doubt trimming it back some will hurt it - no leaves growing anyway...

Just be careful not to cut past any graphing incase it has a root stock. You don't want to cause it to revert or whatever they call it when the root stock becomes dominate. I wish I were better at remembering terms and stuff but I'm not. I usually just remember enough to get in trouble lol.

Around here, our roses meet with regular lawn mowing disasters. If worse comes to worse, and you loose all the leaves, stalks turn brown, etc...let the weedeater or lawn mower take care of it. THEN, cover it's little stalk. Give it some care. And, next year not only will it have grown, but it should bloom too.

I hate to be the "bearer of bad news", but this is an option. Needless to say, I'm fixing to move all our roses and put them in a raised bed. Bad, bad lawn mowers!!!!!!!

the thing that really kills me about this...

i'd trimmed it back a bit, then done a bit more and it was looking absolutely FANTASTIC! it had bushed out really, really nicely and was covered with buds...

i'll cut it back, nothing really severe tho - just in half. i like the way it's branched at the moment and if i go to far with cutting it back, i'll lose that.

princess, i put pavers along my beds so that i don't have any of those 'lawn-mower incidents'. the pavers do double duty - they keep the grass from growing into the bed and they're a guideline of where to stop mowing...

Our lawn mowing disasters are due to the fact that my MIL does not create beds. She just plants stuff where she takes a notion and rarely weeds around the plants. Thus...lawn mower accidents. So, I'm creating beds for her.

what is she thinking?!

plants NEED a nice bed to lay in so they grow healthy and strong!!!

if she doesn't want really delineated beds or something that is really visible, try what i did: i layed the edgers (those scalloped kind that are about 1 1/2 long) out flat. just to mark off the area as well as kill the grass (less to dig up) before i actually put them upright in the soil.

it looks nice just the way it is and when your a few feet away, you don't even notice them because the grass is taller than they are. and, they make a nice base for the wheels of the mower to get that bit of grass growing closest to them.

i might end up leaving them just as they are instead of digging up the dirt to put them upright.

joclyn...how much rootball did you get with the rose when you moved it? This is an unusually bad case.
As I said before, others might disagree, but in my experience, I'd cut back severely. Let the root system get re-established before it has to support top growth...that's the basis of your problem, as I'm convinced you didn't let it die from lack of water. You can train it for good structure later...this is entinsive care for the rose at this point! I'd use root stimulator at half strength once a week all season long, but no fertilizer besides that. Your rose has had about all the stress it can take for this year. I'm assuming you got a decent rootball?
Sorry, but I've killed a few roses in my time...

i got whatever roots were there. and there were not a lot which seemed odd because it's been in the same spot for 5 years. and has grown phenominally every year - even the first year! it grew to over 6 feet tall the first year!

it does have a very long taproot and i made sure to get the whole thing (had to dig down more than a foot so as not to break it off).

no i haven't let this die. i did maintain watering it regularly initially - then the weather turned very rainy so i haven't had to put water down on it in the past couple of weeks.

i didn't put down an additional treatment of the root stimulant (package directions say it can be reapplied in two weeks). i guess i will do that. will the epsom salts be helpful or should i skip them?

Umm, from the sound of things...your rose REALLY needs intensive care. Don't feel bad, so do mine since meeting with yet another lawn mower accident. I dug them up today, ended up causing the whole thing to do a major wilt (hey, it was blazing hot sun and 95 degrees). I cut them completely back all the way to a stalk. However, I buried the stems I cut off as well, sometimes these can grow roots, sometimes they don't. After cutting it back, I covered it over with soil (yes, this was intentional) it needs to root then grow again. Also, since I WANT green growth...it's going to need it, I soaked it in a heavily diluted nitrogen solution (3/4-1 tsp. nitrogen fertilizer to a couple gallons water) for a half hour or so before planting it in it's new home for the next year...a HUGE pot I intend to keep it watered when the soil is dry (crumbly) to the touch and it obviously needs water. And feed it as I do all my plants every couple of weeks once I see some new growth. We don't keep root stimulator here, so...I do what I can, when I can...ya know. Perhaps you could get a plant food spike for it. You'd only need 1 spike to get you from now to autumn when it should begin going into dormancy. I used one for houseplants last year because my rose was so severly traumatized by the tornado. I got one bloom last year (which was a shock), probably won't get any this year.

I'm not sure about the epsom, but I might use some (1-2 tsp) mixed with my normal feeding of beer and coffee (1/2 can beer, 1/4 cup coffee diluted in a 1 gallon watering can). If you saw our roses right now, you'd think it was an empty pot. LOL.

A little epsoms won't hurt, but whether it will help is another question. Really, at this point it may be a goner, but what matters most is keeping it moist but not drowned. There are no quick fixes in the form of fertilizers. It needs time to establish some new roots and adapt to it's new site. Root stimulator isn't a miracle cure, either, but it could help some. The best thing now is to keep your fingers crossed!

YAY!!! there's new growth!!! just a few spots on just a couple of the stalks...but it's there!!

so, i didn't prune down as far as i was going to originally...those that had growth were cut to just above where the new growth is and any that didn't have any sprouting leafs were cut back further.

phew! i was beginning to think it was gone for sure!!

thanks for everyone's help and suggestions!