@Nollie I couldn’t find any suitable cutting material on my Harlow Carr last year, but I’ve decided to try it nevertheless. It was a thin, small, branched cutting, but it took and grew nicely this year and had a few flowers. This is a photo of the cutting from April or so.
That’s looking good and very encouraging, thanks @pitter-patter. I think I will give it a go. I guess if the commercial propagators only used perfect cutting material there would be far fewer roses on sale!
LD Braithwaite has been declining year-on-year and virtually bloomless all this summer, just a bunch of tired looking leafless canes. It has now decided to remind me why I loved it a few years ago, just as I am about to dig it up of course. My camera doesn’t do it justice, it’s a real eye-popping pure red:
(Its still going though!)
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
@Omori, mine has also produced about a 4 foot long cane and all others are thin and spindly. I cut back the long cane last weekend (no patience with that sort of behaviour 😭) while hacking a Margaret Merrill to a few sticks...
I’m going to take come cuttings this year and take them to the allotment to trench behind the shed. I’ve already got several cuttings in water from earlier in the year - they’ve not rooted, but they’re not dead either and they’ve been in the jars for months. Will keep to see if they eventually do anything.
My Kew Gardens cuttings from last year went in a pot of soil mixed with multipurpose and sharp sand.
My Lady Emma Hamilton was redelivered today, looked very dry compared to how they usually come. The few days spent at the Royal Mail depot obviously not agreed with her.
Can’t plant realistically until Saturday so she’s gone in a bucket of water in the shed.
@newbie77 The usual advice and consensus here is 50:50 MPC and John Innes no. 3 compost.
Our local GC doesn't sell JI and I haven't found a good source online. JI is 7:3:2 loam, peat and sand (+ added nutrients). So I do a similar mix using topsoil - approx. 1/3 loam and 2/3 compost. For the loam part, I usually use some garden soil to add life to the mix and for the compost part, I like to use some composted manure too. So my final mix is usually close to 1/4 topsoil, 1/12 garden soil, 1/2 MPC and 1/6 manure or something similar, I don't measure it.
Two that I picked this morning, the paler one is Felicia and the other an unknown that we inherited with the house. It's completely defoliated now but still has several blooms and buds. I keep thinking I'll get rid of it but the flowers are such a glorious colour that I don't have the heart. This is Lovestruck, planted bare root in March and has flowered on and off ever since. Colour is a deeper red than the photo and so far it has been healthy and trouble free.
@newbie77 thank you but it is down to luck that I have had a sunny summer and the patio is very sheltered, positively Mediterranean . Taken todayThe roses planted in the ground look more bashed about than my potted onesBut the bees are still happy, look at these bright yellow pollen sacs being brought to the hive
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For cutting, ok something more gritty. I want to try some rose cuttings too.
@Tack, lovely flowers. Your pots are so full of buds and flowers!
LD Braithwaite has been declining year-on-year and virtually bloomless all this summer, just a bunch of tired looking leafless canes. It has now decided to remind me why I loved it a few years ago, just as I am about to dig it up of course. My camera doesn’t do it justice, it’s a real eye-popping pure red:
(Its still going though!)
My Kew Gardens cuttings from last year went in a pot of soil mixed with multipurpose and sharp sand.
My Lady Emma Hamilton was redelivered today, looked very dry compared to how they usually come. The few days spent at the Royal Mail depot obviously not agreed with her.
Can’t plant realistically until Saturday so she’s gone in a bucket of water in the shed.
Two that I picked this morning, the paler one is Felicia and the other an unknown that we inherited with the house. It's completely defoliated now but still has several blooms and buds. I keep thinking I'll get rid of it but the flowers are such a glorious colour that I don't have the heart.
This is Lovestruck, planted bare root in March and has flowered on and off ever since. Colour is a deeper red than the photo and so far it has been healthy and trouble free.