..One should caution regarding advice from those in other countries with totally different climates to ours.. and by the same token, if on social media, it's true in reverse of course..in todays world it can seem like somebody is just over the fence, rather than 3000 miles away...
... Mr Rupert writes from a Californian perspective and experience of growing there... not much to do with us.. and as they have found out sometimes to their cost, advice from this side of the pond is largely irrelevant in their conditions...
...most works in the English language on roses, have been written by British gardeners going way back, right up till the late 20th Century.. when the late David Austin, Graham Thomas and Peter Beales wrote volumes and had glossy books published... all of which were bought and read by those in other climates, only to find out that the information contained therein, was largely meaningless for their own conditions..
One of my favourite English writers is the geneticist Dr. Charles C. Hurst, whose valued contributions to the understanding of rose genealogy and history, was mostly between the two world wars.. which interrupted his work considerably..
..more lately, American rosarians and breeders of roses have come to the fore... but the knowledge they mostly impart, is based on those earlier writers... in fact, it was Peter Beales who advocated spraying a hose over your rose bushes, very early in the morning, to dislodge any black spot spores settled during the night...
..as regards pruning, I am reminded of when the English writer Charles Quest-Ritson, who may not be everyone's cup of tea in the rose world but his knowledge and experience is undisputed.. was asked when he prunes his roses, bearing in mind he had over 1000 at the time... his reply was ... ''this week.. next week.. sometime.. never ''... which sums up how I feel about it..
Regarding Standard roses... back in the day they used to graft onto R canina [dog rose] stems, which were full of thorns and suckered all down the stem... horrible !... things have moved on considerably, now they still use dog roses but improved 'selections' which offer a thornless interstem to graft the scion on to, this interstem should also be de-eyed of any potential suckers...and being thornless there is no need to de-thorn, as nobody wants to handle a 4 foot stick of prickles... ... this requires time and skills, which I would be prepared to pay for... therefore I wouldn't want to ''go cheap'' as far as Standards are concerned... but would only buy from one of a few vendors in this country... so.. beware cheap Standards is my advice ... I've no idea what they do abroad, maybe it's just as good .. I would also choose a rose that has blooms which either look out at you, or weep somewhat... rather than upright and stiff... those do not make good Standards..
..you can also improvise and do your own.. but it takes a couple of years... you need a cheap obelisk [in place of the support stake]... and a rose that will grow at least 4 feet tall, as you can usually get 5 or 6 feet out of these roses grown on support.. you keep the tallest canes and allow them to grow to that height, but prune out any low stems nearer the ground... this way you will have several stems forming a narrow habit tied against the obelisk... the rose will then mushroom out at the top with blooms at eye level for many of us shorter types..
..here's one I did earlier of 'Thomas a Becket'.. as you can see there are no blooms low down.. I've grown a few Austins this way...
On a lighter note i remember my first year of gardening. I thought of creating a cottage garden. I was only aware of gardenweb which was mostly American. So followed the advice there, sowed over 30-40 types of perennials. Nourished those till 3-4 inch size then over two days i planted out all of those hundreds of seedlings. In forum they used to plant "hunk of seedlings". It rained for next 3-4 days and i was busy at home. After that i went to check. There were hardly any seedlings!!! Everything completely gone!!
I asked someone in my office, how can that happen. The guy laughed and laughed and told me about slugs and snails 🙄
Gardenweb is useful in some respects but it's important not to be too influenced by what you see there... one thing American gardeners like to do, from my observations, is to create what they regard as an English style rose garden, complete with David Austin roses, perennials and grass...they don't want Prairie gardens, much loved by landscape designers over here, which is a Dutch/German invention.. ..English style is a difficult one for those in warm climates as they don't get rain for 6 months, much like southern Europe... so they have to install expensive, wasteful drip watering systems or hand watering constantly... so you may see glamorous photos on the internet of so many gorgeous roses grown in the sun, but don't forget they need to water... without that their gardens would dry up... most of California for instance would be scrub and Chaparral landscape.. it's the watering that keeps it 'English' looking during the summer.. of course their Spring flush from March to May is fantastic due to winter rains, but from then on, they wouldn't show you an unwatered garden...
..we should consider ourselves fortunate indeed to get the rain from above in summer, even if it does become tiresome..
...I'm trying to sort out my autumn rose orders, not so many this season due to cutbacks but I've ordered already.. Hume's Blush Tea Scented China Mrs Reynolds Hole [no apostrophe guys] Erfurt Bengal Crimson
... I'm considering Timeless Purple and a few others...
This reminds me of a Facebook post from someone in the US about her water bills. It was $160 per month ($60 before roses). I tried to calculate how many cubic meters of water (or standard watering cans) $100 worth of water is and I just don't get it.
Having a lot of rain is good. Even with the blackspot. Having summers in the lower 20s is bad but I try to appreciate the better parts of it, like having strong coloured blooms.
..a most interesting rose @sarinka ...not one I've grown so far... bred by George Paul who was the David Austin of his day... I have one of his named for his wife 'Mrs. Paul'. and it's impressing me very much indeed.. the foliage is clean, it produces blooms repeatedly on a shapely graceful bush..
..as for checking on roses, I have several books I refer to as well as online, and talking of HelpMeFind Roses, a great resource, but again we must take care to check information and photos appropriate for our location and there are not always many of those unfortunately.... so I ask members here in UK to consider uploading any of their rose photos to that site... I don't think you need to be registered, but it's free anyway and no contribution is necessary... but there are scant photos from UK.. most are from Australia, U.S. and other European countries... I have to wade through pages of photos from those places which I deem interesting to compare but of little use to me for growing purposes.. how a rose grows in Melbourne isn't relevant to my conditions..
I upload where I can, even if it's just a bloom or some leafage.. it's also fun to read comments about a rose and there's no need to hold back on that... if it's hopeless in your garden it's worth saying so for others to see, and give reasons why you don't like it...
..''covered in black spot... mildews.. defoliates... droopy blooms.. I got rid of it after 3 months''.. is great information...
Posts
...most works in the English language on roses, have been written by British gardeners going way back, right up till the late 20th Century.. when the late David Austin, Graham Thomas and Peter Beales wrote volumes and had glossy books published... all of which were bought and read by those in other climates, only to find out that the information contained therein, was largely meaningless for their own conditions..
One of my favourite English writers is the geneticist Dr. Charles C. Hurst, whose valued contributions to the understanding of rose genealogy and history, was mostly between the two world wars.. which interrupted his work considerably..
..more lately, American rosarians and breeders of roses have come to the fore... but the knowledge they mostly impart, is based on those earlier writers... in fact, it was Peter Beales who advocated spraying a hose over your rose bushes, very early in the morning, to dislodge any black spot spores settled during the night...
..as regards pruning, I am reminded of when the English writer Charles Quest-Ritson, who may not be everyone's cup of tea in the rose world but his knowledge and experience is undisputed.. was asked when he prunes his roses, bearing in mind he had over 1000 at the time... his reply was ... ''this week.. next week.. sometime.. never ''... which sums up how I feel about it..
... this requires time and skills, which I would be prepared to pay for... therefore I wouldn't want to ''go cheap'' as far as Standards are concerned... but would only buy from one of a few vendors in this country... so.. beware cheap Standards is my advice ... I've no idea what they do abroad, maybe it's just as good ..
I would also choose a rose that has blooms which either look out at you, or weep somewhat... rather than upright and stiff... those do not make good Standards..
..you can also improvise and do your own.. but it takes a couple of years... you need a cheap obelisk [in place of the support stake]... and a rose that will grow at least 4 feet tall, as you can usually get 5 or 6 feet out of these roses grown on support.. you keep the tallest canes and allow them to grow to that height, but prune out any low stems nearer the ground... this way you will have several stems forming a narrow habit tied against the obelisk... the rose will then mushroom out at the top with blooms at eye level for many of us shorter types..
..here's one I did earlier of 'Thomas a Becket'.. as you can see there are no blooms low down.. I've grown a few Austins this way...
I asked someone in my office, how can that happen. The guy laughed and laughed and told me about slugs and snails 🙄
..English style is a difficult one for those in warm climates as they don't get rain for 6 months, much like southern Europe... so they have to install expensive, wasteful drip watering systems or hand watering constantly... so you may see glamorous photos on the internet of so many gorgeous roses grown in the sun, but don't forget they need to water... without that their gardens would dry up... most of California for instance would be scrub and Chaparral landscape.. it's the watering that keeps it 'English' looking during the summer.. of course their Spring flush from March to May is fantastic due to winter rains, but from then on, they wouldn't show you an unwatered garden...
..we should consider ourselves fortunate indeed to get the rain from above in summer, even if it does become tiresome..
...I'm trying to sort out my autumn rose orders, not so many this season due to cutbacks but I've ordered already..
Hume's Blush Tea Scented China
Mrs Reynolds Hole [no apostrophe guys]
Erfurt
Bengal Crimson
... I'm considering Timeless Purple and a few others...
E.g. if I wanted to know about Sophie's Perpetual ( https://www.trevorwhiteroses.co.uk/shop/china-roses/sophies-perpetual/ ), is there a reference book I can look at? A reliable independent rose review site?
Thanks
@sarinka you can find more information and photos on this site:
https://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.5875.1&tab=1
...not one I've grown so far... bred by George Paul who was the David Austin of his day... I have one of his named for his wife 'Mrs. Paul'. and it's impressing me very much indeed.. the foliage is clean, it produces blooms repeatedly on a shapely graceful bush..
..as for checking on roses, I have several books I refer to as well as online, and talking of HelpMeFind Roses, a great resource, but again we must take care to check information and photos appropriate for our location and there are not always many of those unfortunately.... so I ask members here in UK to consider uploading any of their rose photos to that site... I don't think you need to be registered, but it's free anyway and no contribution is necessary... but there are scant photos from UK.. most are from Australia, U.S. and other European countries... I have to wade through pages of photos from those places which I deem interesting to compare but of little use to me for growing purposes.. how a rose grows in Melbourne isn't relevant to my conditions..
I upload where I can, even if it's just a bloom or some leafage.. it's also fun to read comments about a rose and there's no need to hold back on that... if it's hopeless in your garden it's worth saying so for others to see, and give reasons why you don't like it...
..''covered in black spot... mildews.. defoliates... droopy blooms.. I got rid of it after 3 months''.. is great information...