Who knows about roses?

[expatgirl]

give you a quick test for spying spider mites........take a white piece of paper and flick with your finger the leaves over the white pape--leaf side down.......if you see moving wee spots they are spider mites......you will have to act very quickly or they will annihilate everything in site.........don't wait they will NOT go away........and are disastrous in a garden.........believe it or not we actually have the little buggers here in KZ as cold as it gets here..........don't wait...........hope that you don't

 

[B'sgirl]

It is the tail end of the strawberry season here. Petunias and snapdragons are in full bloom. But we also went straight from winter to summer this year--didn't get much of a spring, so my lilies are just barely starting to bloom.

You are right that I need to mulch there. We've only been able to do a bare minimum with our yard. We can't even keep the grass watered! We have had obligations almost every single weekend, which is our only time to do much yard work. Hopefully next year I won't have to travel so much and I can get on top of these things. I actually have bags of garden soil and mulch sitting in my shed just waiting for me to get to that project. I blame it all on Abbie. Pregnancy/delivery took up my spring.

And thanks for the responses. I'm just a beginner and have a lot to learn.

 

[quicksilver]

B, sorry I missed this yesterday. My headache doesn't let me look at the screen too long.

The pics helped to see alittle more clearly.
The first thing you want to do now:
Cut your canes back, taking off about a 3rd. Any dead ones, cut all the way off.
Your rose will bloom again in about 40 to 45 days up until your frost.
(what is the name of the rose,by the way? Crown majesty? Gemini? Double Delight?) Anyway, the saying is, the amount of petals is how many days before it blooms again. According to your pic of the flower, that looks about right.
It's rare roses need iron, however, it does look like your
critters have sucked the life's blood out of that plant.
So now we have to get a bit more agressive. You need to apply a systemic solution in the ground, which puts killing agent into the veins of the plant. As opposed to the topical solution we already tried.
Try Ortho/orothenex - or tell your home center what you need to do with your plant.
Then you definately need to ammend that soil. It looks compacted and like heavy clay. Work some compost in, with some blood/bonemeal added. Put in some time release fertilizer, with NPK for roses - see your garden center guy/girl.
Roses like a slightly acidic soil.(6.5ph) and need a good 6 hours morning sun. Only water 1-2 times a week, but water at ground level and well.
Doing the trimming and soil ammendment shouldn't take more than an hour, if that.
Oh, and the soil you ammend will help your strawberries too, if not this, definately next year.

Good luck, keep us posted, and ask more if you need to.

 

[B'sgirl]

Thank you so much!

I still haven't done anything else though. It was on the agenda for this evening but I wasn't able to get that far.

You are absolutely right though, all my soil needs mulching. The people who lived here before me weren't into gardening and had a weed trap over the soil instead of mulch so it's been a work-in-progress. Here in Utah the soil is clay, Clay, CLAY so it will take awhile to get it real good and rich. I still have some Nutri-mulch turkey manure leftover from the vegetable garden I can work in. Would crass cuttings work as well? I have a systematic solution now and I'll probably put it in on Monday along with the mulch (I don't work on Sundays).

Should I really cut the canes though? The dead ones are off, but there are so few leaves left on my bush I hate to cut off anything else!

I'm not sure what kind of rose bush it is. I can't find the tags anywhere and I can't remember people's names very well let alone the names of plants! I will try and find the tag though and remember the name this time!

 

[quicksilver]

Yes, cut the canes now. It will take 40-45 days, if you want to save the plant and have it bloom again. Don't wait. It's like cutting the deadends off your hair to make it healthy and grow again. Just do it, if nothing else.
The longer you wait, you risk letting the plant die.
Use the manure if it's compost, and work it into the soil.
But you also called it mulch. Mulch is for top of soil to keep moisture and weeds down. If it's mulch, you need
compost and sand for better drainage, and to lighten up that clay. And you need a good rose fertilizer. That rose is showing you illness as a result of it's living conditions.
It's like you've expected it to florish on bread and water.
It didn't. So now you have to give it medicine to make it healthy again.
Keep the grass clipping for the compost pile. Good green matter, mixed with brown matter will help everything in the spring. But it needs to breakdown first.
If you dress it now with grass, you'll truly find out what a horrible smell rotting grass can give off. And you'll never forget that smell! And isn't that rose by your front door? Not an appealing thought passing that to get in the house!
Again, good luck, and keep us posted.

​

 

[B'sgirl]

Well the stuff is called Nutri-Mulch, but the label says it is all-purpose compost. The instructions say to turn it into the soil so I think that's what I want. I'm about to go and work it in when I'm done here because the ground is nice and soft (it finally rained last night after a month with no rain)!

I trimmed the canes down this morning. It actually looks better now though, they were getting too long anyway. I also applied the systematic solution. It has some fertilizer in it, but I still need to find a better one. I have some iron granules for the grass, are they okay to use for the bush? I'm thinking to just get the bone meal and forget the iron, but since I have some already I might as well use them if they will help.

Thanks for your patience with my inexperience.

 

[MexicoKaren]

With all the experts giving you help here, your rose will be the envy of your neighbors by this time next summer...or maybe even by the end of this summer...just takes time.

 

[quicksilver]

No. No iron. When you work in the compost, work in some blood/or/bone meal. Otherwise you're just going to have to do it later anyway.
If you want to buy it a present, buy it a time release fertilizer working it in around the perimeter of the plant about 2-3" down, so when you water, it works down to the roots and encourages the roots to grow outward to a broader circle. Another words, if the circumference of the plant is say 4-5", and the top canes are growing out at about say 18" from center where canes meet, put fertilizer around plant at about 18" around circumference of plant.
Also, when you add the compost, turning the soil, make sure you water all this in very well, deep. Then leave it alone for a couple of days.
You've shocked it, with cutting and disturbing the ground. Think about yourself having a minor car accident. You will be shook up and need time to calm down.
Again, good luck.
We're gonna make a go of this if it kills us!​

 

[quicksilver]

I changed my mind. Add alittle iron. I just read on iron and roses. It said where ther is heavy clay soil, yours may be more alkaline than the rose likes. The iron will help with this.
Sorry. I'm trying to keep it the least amount of effort with maximum results for you, as I know your time is limited.

 

[B'sgirl]

Hooray, my roses are starting to revive! I still need to mix in some blood meal, but at least the stems that were going brown are starting to get some green color again. One more branch turned brown and died, you can see it on the right, but it's the only one.

 

[quicksilver]

Great. We'll make it the forum mascot bush.
What's with that one really tall spindly looking branch in the back, on the right? That looks like it needs to come off. I throughs the whole balance off. At least to my eye.

But what did you wind up doing, adding?
Keep up the good work.
Thanks for the pics.

 

[Callisto in NC]

B'girl this might have already been asked but I'm not seeing where. Did you trim the plant last year at the end of the season and then at the beginning of this season? Roses need to be really cut back to get full.

 

[B'sgirl]

What's with that one really tall spindly looking branch in the back, on the right? That looks like it needs to come off. I throughs the whole balance off. At least to my eye.

But what did you wind up doing, adding?
Keep up the good work.
Thanks for the pics.

The spindly one is pretty new. I was amazed at how fast it grew. It grew like that after I trimmed. I dug in an organic compost made only from plants. I cleared away all the bad parts, and I poured a systematic solution that had pesticide, fungicide, and fertilizer around the base. I think it was Bayer brand. I also cleared away all the strawberry plants so if they were infected they wouldn't bring it back to the bush.

B'girl this might have already been asked but I'm not seeing where. Did you trim the plant last year at the end of the season and then at the beginning of this season? Roses need to be really cut back to get full.

I cut it back in the spring a little, but DH wanted to start new bushes from some of the shoots and we read that they have to bloom first so we waited for that. Then we were out of town every weekend so DH could never do it. I just wanted to trim it and chuck the branches but DH wouldn't let me. So the bush just sat. I don't want a really tall bush there so I intend to cut it back quite a bit every year like my grandmother does with her bushes.

I think this fall I'm going to pull everything out of that whole garden, mulch it, and start over. I was working of a pre-existing garden from the prior owners so I'd like to re-vamp anyway.

 

[Callisto in NC]

I cut it back in the spring a little, but DH wanted to start new bushes from some of the shoots and we read that they have to bloom first so we waited for that. Then we were out of town every weekend so DH could never do it. I just wanted to trim it and chuck the branches but DH wouldn't let me. So the bush just sat. I don't want a really tall bush there so I intend to cut it back quite a bit every year like my grandmother does with her bushes.

I think this fall I'm going to pull everything out of that whole garden, mulch it, and start over. I was working of a pre-existing garden from the prior owners so I'd like to re-vamp anyway.

Well, put your foot down and tell DH he messed up your plant. You're supposed to cut it really far back so it can fill itself in. I raised roses forever when I was in California but since I don't have an outside spicket here I can't raise them anymore. Lugging water outside just isn't as easy as it sounds like it would be. When I move I'll definitely have a hose and spicket. Growing from pruinings is not the easiest thing when it comes to roses. It's easier to pay $5 for a plant from Home Depot than bothering to get frustrated with attempting to create your own bush.

Tell DH grandma knows best and trim that baby. Depending on where you live it might not be too late to give it a trim. We always cut ours back to about 8 inches tall and by fall they'd be 5 or more feet tall and super full.

I miss having roses. You just don't see them here like you did in California.

 

[expatgirl]

anything that dies, get rid of it----canes and all..........blood meal is fine but be sure that your roses are getting enough water and acid......and spray them for fungus........my grandma fed hers kitchen scraps.......some kind of scented roses as they loved it...but it was in a more arid environment, too.... north of Dallas.......she also loved her garden and saved all the rinse water from her laundry that day to soak the parched earth.......what an Oh, Pioneer Woman!!!! She still comes to me ever so often in my dreams and that's how I keep her alive.......nothing special.......just dream hugs............

 

[B'sgirl]

That is so sweet, about your grandmother! Do you have a life story written about her?

I trimmed again yesterday and got rid of anything that had died since my last pruning as well as that stray branch. I also added more mulch to it. I couldn't find any blood meal--I guess it's out of season here now. All the gardening places have been cut back and they are preparing for fall and winter now (we have a short growing season here). The bush is looking good though. If it blooms again before the frost comes I'll have to post another picture.

 

[quicksilver]

It WILL bloom again. Not IF, silly.
Okay, you couldn't get bone meal either? Stange.
But get that rose food, time release, I mentioned.
That will take care of everything and last till the end of season.
(I said it should bloom 40-45 days after cutting back.
So now we can document-through the thread, when you did that the first time, and see exactly how long it takes.)

Do not cover base of the plant with compost/dirt or anything, higher than the base of the soil you originally planted in though.

Thanks for the update.

​

 

[expatgirl]

That is so sweet, about your grandmother! Do you have a life story written about her?

I trimmed again yesterday and got rid of anything that had died since my last pruning as well as that stray branch. I also added more mulch to it. I couldn't find any blood meal--I guess it's out of season here now. All the gardening places have been cut back and they are preparing for fall and winter now (we have a short growing season here). The bush is looking good though. If it blooms again before the frost comes I'll have to post another picture.

you know, I've heard several references to a life story....I guess I'm missed out on something somewhere,,,,,,,can you help me out???

 

[expatgirl]

My grandma was special and so funny..........she had her down sides, too..............just like me.............she has been my inspiration for so many years.........I'm so lucky to have had her in my life............thank you g...................

 

[B'sgirl]

It WILL bloom again. Not IF, silly.
Okay, you couldn't get bone meal either?

I say if because it can frost here as early as September. It may bloom before then though, I guess I do need to count the days.

I might be able to get bone meal at Lowe's, or maybe the greenhouse in the next town over. I will make calls and see if they still have any.

you know, I've heard several references to a life story....I guess I'm missed out on something somewhere,,,,,,,can you help me out???

I'm not sure exactly what you are asking for help with. Writing a life story for your grandma? Locating one?