Thank you @edhelka. I'm not normally drawn to reds but that is very striking. I hope you get a better show of flowers next season. Will you do anything different with it to try to improve the blooming. Does how you prune make a big difference?
Got some rainy day shots when I got home from work.
Leonardo da Vinci just opening. The colour is actually more of a coral (meh) but the camera makes it look more pink.
Rhapsody in Blue. Loving this one and the lovely fragrance.
Thanks for the feedback @edhelka, really helpful. I have too many doubles on order already, although only the best will win a final planting position as bed space is limited. I would like some more non-climbing semi-doubles for balance, plus I really like that form, but struggled to find many that met my criteria for various reasons - mostly lack of scent so I will definitely be correcting the SdeSA omission!
Golden Celebration has given me nothing since the beginning of the season but is sluggishly getting going again, doing that flattened bloom thing that many Austins seem to do here, in response to heat, probably:
Astronomia - I like the fact that even when it loses it’s petals, the remainder still looks pretty as you can see on the left of the photo:
Stormy Weather again. I’m tempted to get another, it’s that good:
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
@poppyfield64 Thanks. Yes, pruning makes a difference. This rose can be tricky to prune because the new vigorous shoots are often taller than the rest of the bush and can be floppy when the flowers open. Harder pruning encourages these vigorous cluster flowering shoots. Lighter pruning encourages more leafy growth and rounder, bushier shape.
Next year, I will need to prune harder anyway because I want to plant a new rose close to it and want to give it a good space and access to light. It also has more canes on one side and I would love a new cane on the opposite side.
BTW I really like the colour of your Rhapsody in Blue.
@Nollie@Marlorena also has SdeSA new this year, it would be good to hear her experience with it.
I'm loving your Stormy Weather every time you post it. I even looked where I could buy it last time you posted it. It's getting dangerous because I absolutely don't have space for another climber. (And yes, I know I can add it to my TCL order... better not to think about that).
Thank you for the info @edhelka. Next spring will be my first proper year of pruning. On paper and in my head it all makes sense but when faced with actually having to do it, then it doesn't always tie in together.
@poppyfield64 it will be my first go at pruning too. I'm dreading it, haven't got a clue when or how to do it for both bushes and the climbers! I will no doubt have a million questions when the time comes
@rock_hen we will be in it together then. Will definitely be a learning curve. I'm most dreading the climbers though. One of them I know I will be pruning very hard and repotting but the others???
Climbers don't need much pruning in their first years. Shrubs also don't need much. Hybrid teas and floribundas are easy. Nothing to worry about and we will be here
There are lots of very helpful videos out there on pruning established climbers, but I struggled to find much on formative pruning. At the moment I am just gently encouraging the canes in the direction I want them to grow, tying those in loosely and pruning out any wayward canes of my two young ones against a fence. If you hard prune a climber it does take at least a year for it to recover, as I discovered with Warm Welcome. Most pruning should be directed to the laterals, not the main canes, I gather, but I’m very much a climbing newbie.
I do the same with your Empereur Charles IV @edhelka. I think it might be heat sensitive for some reason and really don’t have many spaces out of full sun but every time I see yours, I want it!
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Early days it’s just cutting out any damaged, dying or badly placed canes. Cutting down to healthy material, or cutting the whole cane back to where it originated.
Then reduce the height of any over long canes on a bush rose so they’re roughly equal height to the rest.
Climbers on a fence/straight wall with wires - I’ve treated the stiffer ones like espalier trees, so gently tied in the structural canes at 45 degrees and then lowered them later in the year once growth has slowed and tied in. Cut back laterals to c6 inches.
But most of my new climbers haven’t put on anything like the sort of growth required to be able to tie anything in meaningfully.
With one like Malvern Hills, it’s canes are so long and flexible it’s quite fun training. I’ve also got it in a much more complex layout than the others as it has lots of awkward shapes, narrow pillars, windows and doors to work around. But I’ve trained it in zig zags at 45 degrees.
That threw out 12 ft canes in the first year! And it’s starting to throw out long ones again, but more from the base this time, just extensions of the existing framework.
Anybody grow Ispahan? Mine's probably about 8 years old and has got to the top of the 6ft + rose arch. I'm also tying in long canes sideways into the magnolia which is next to it. It's now throwing out longish 2-3ft canes right at the top which it does every year and which I usually just cut off, because it can get quite windy here. I'm wondering whether the canes would just start to flop over if I didn't prune them, thus giving me the potential of weeping cascades of blooms next year? Or is that a bad idea!
Posts
Got some rainy day shots when I got home from work.
Leonardo da Vinci just opening. The colour is actually more of a coral (meh) but the camera makes it look more pink.
Rhapsody in Blue. Loving this one and the lovely fragrance.
And Clematis Taiga
Golden Celebration has given me nothing since the beginning of the season but is sluggishly getting going again, doing that flattened bloom thing that many Austins seem to do here, in response to heat, probably:
Astronomia - I like the fact that even when it loses it’s petals, the remainder still looks pretty as you can see on the left of the photo:
I do the same with your Empereur Charles IV @edhelka. I think it might be heat sensitive for some reason and really don’t have many spaces out of full sun but every time I see yours, I want it!
Early days it’s just cutting out any damaged, dying or badly placed canes. Cutting down to healthy material, or cutting the whole cane back to where it originated.
Then reduce the height of any over long canes on a bush rose so they’re roughly equal height to the rest.
Climbers on a fence/straight wall with wires - I’ve treated the stiffer ones like espalier trees, so gently tied in the structural canes at 45 degrees and then lowered them later in the year once growth has slowed and tied in. Cut back laterals to c6 inches.
But most of my new climbers haven’t put on anything like the sort of growth required to be able to tie anything in meaningfully.
With one like Malvern Hills, it’s canes are so long and flexible it’s quite fun training. I’ve also got it in a much more complex layout than the others as it has lots of awkward shapes, narrow pillars, windows and doors to work around. But I’ve trained it in zig zags at 45 degrees.
That threw out 12 ft canes in the first year! And it’s starting to throw out long ones again, but more from the base this time, just extensions of the existing framework.