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WARM WELCOME ROSE

janeuknowjaneuknow Posts: 4
in Problem solving
I have a warm welcome scrambling rose that is about three years now and just doesn't want to do well.  It's only about 50-60cms spread and although still getting flowers (bit insipid ones) and new shoots, there just is a general malaise about it. I should by rights be streaks ahead.  I have it against a trellis fence in a sunny border and the soil seems okay, but having said that it has been put in an area where we had some old mature lilacs and forsythia taken out.  I have recently mulched it with bark, I feed it, I water it, and generally give it the love and attention it should get oh and I also sprayed it with rose clear as some of the leaves looked a bit infected.  Anyone give me any advice - could it have been pot bound from the start; I have had this before with plants. I put in a star jasmine (trachleospermmmummmm ... something like that) aobut two years ago, it showed some growth spurt then suddenly stopped and just looked useless, half dead thing (also in similar vicinity as the rose, so ... maybe something to do with the soil in hindsight).  I did pull it out with frustrated anger this year and the roots were like spun candyfloss round and round and round.  So that was £12 down the drain. 
Would love some feedback, before I ramble on about other failures
Best wishes
Jane E

Posts

  • raisingirlraisingirl Posts: 7,093
    edited June 2018
    This is possibly not what you want to hear, but I had one of those and it did exactly the same - thrived for a year or so, stumbled along for another couple of years and then died.
    It was planted near another climber which was alive and well and flowering happily when I moved house about 8 years later. 
    So it may just be that rose is not a strong strain - some aren't. Or maybe you and I both made the same mistake and loved it too well. Gorgeous colour and scent. Shame really.

    On the upside, it may not be you or your soil that's the problem  :)
    Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon

    “It's still magic even if you know how it's done.” 
  • janeuknowjaneuknow Posts: 4
    AW, thank you, for replying.  I think I should pull it up and have a look at the roots.  Like you said, though, it might just be a bad strain.  I had this vision inside my head of this flourishing mass of bright red roses clambering away, so it is very disappointing.  And an expensive game too wouldn't you say?
    All the best and I'll look out for you on the forums
  • raisingirlraisingirl Posts: 7,093
    There are a few rose experts on the forum so if you wait a while, you may get a more informed answer than mine - you and I are a rather small sample, perhaps.

    In the meantime, there are lots of really good roses around. If you post a thread here as you did this time, with the name in the title of a rose you're considering (or most other plants), you'll most likely get someone whose got one or had one and can give you better info than the label  :)
    Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon

    “It's still magic even if you know how it's done.” 
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    I planted a potted WW on a 2 metre high obelisk last May, by the end of the season it had wound it’s way to the top with lots of strong canes, flowered continuously and profusely all season, very vibrant orange. It started off just as well this year but seems to be on a break at the moment, but new buds developing. It has been battered by storms and got some blackspot so maybe that’s slowed it down. So they can do well, even for a rose novice like me, but be interesting to see how it fares given your experience Jane and raisingirl - I do hope it survives and it wasn’t a one-year wonder!
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • MarlorenaMarlorena Posts: 8,705
    Was there anything else planted besides lilac and forsythia? You can't get much worse than those for ruining the soil for further plantings... It sounds like the ground was quite impoverished before you planted the rose.  I would like to know what amendments you made to the soil before replanting.
    We have to realise that it's the laxa rootstock you're nourishing, if happy this will put down thick anchor roots and send a long tap root runner through the soil just below the surface.  If it doesn't like the conditions it's  not going to do that, and your top growth [your Warm Welcome rose] won't thrive, because the rootstock is suffering from nutrient deficient soil.  A bit of feeding and mulching from the top is not enough in the early years, if the soil in the first place was not attended to sufficiently...
    East Anglia, England
  • janeuknowjaneuknow Posts: 4
    I want to thank everyone so far.  I am new to GW so it is lovely to get these responses! I think in hindsight with my experience now, I didn't prepare the soil as best I could.  I should perhaps have dug a bigger hole, replaced a lot of the soil with good stuff, etc.  Also think it is planted too close to the fence.  And I agree, re the lilac and forsythia - they probably robbed any goodness from the soil.  I must admit, that whole patch there has been hit and miss. Even a buddleja has sickled for goodness sake, although this year is coming up much better.  I've lost the star jasmine, a lathyrus and a clematis in this area, so I'm thinking it's down to those dastardly trees!  :( ( I would put a link and photo of the WW, but I dropped my i-phone down the loo and it's unfixable, so can't take photos)
    Best wishes to everyone on this lovely forum
    Jane E
  • janeuknowjaneuknow Posts: 4
    Ps Marlorena - I can't honestly remember - the bed was pretty overgrown when I took it over and unloved, but I do remember a gooseberry bush, that's about it...
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