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Growing roses on exmoor

karen_telling5551karen_telling5551 Posts: 9
in Problem solving
hi I have some beautiful roses in my garden, one in a large tub. However much I look after them they are not what I call thriving. I have been told it is the lack of pollution here, the air is too clean! Any ideas? 

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  • edhelkaedhelka Posts: 2,351
    You need to write more details (or even better, post photos) to get good advice. In what way are they not thriving? Are they not growing, not flowering, diseased? How do you care for them? What roses are they?
  • karen_telling5551karen_telling5551 Posts: 9

  • karen_telling5551karen_telling5551 Posts: 9

  • karen_telling5551karen_telling5551 Posts: 9
    Sorry the pics aren’t very good. One of the roses is David Austin Gertrude Jekyll. It is in a large tub and has fresh compost added every year. I feed it with top rose and it has plenty of water. I have sprayed it with greenfly killer recently. I don’t know what the other rose is but it is a climber. I’ve added fresh compost and fed with top rose. The soil is acid and very stony with something called shillet. 
  • edhelkaedhelka Posts: 2,351
    You are right, the photos are not the best. You have some new growth there but the rest of the plants looks like a mix of problems.
    So for now, some general advice. What I've learnt growing roses in Snowdonia (almost).
    I don't know how bad your local conditions are. Here, every meter of altitude counts. People uphill from me have fewer hours of sunshine per year, worse soil and greater wind exposure. We also have microclimates here, every valley is slightly different. But on walks around here, I am seeing nice roses in gardens more uphill so I believe it's possible but harder the higher you are.
    Roses are basically like a lawn. They need a lot of sunlight and a lot of water. If you can grow grass, you can grow roses :) (BTW I have a terrible lawn, all moss and weeds, I guess I am better with roses). Give them the sunniest spots you have in your garden. The usual advice of 6 hours or more per day is even more important where sunny weather is rare.
    If there is wind exposure, give them a sheltered spot. Otherwise, you will lose some spring foliage to wind damage and between other issues (pests, diseases), the roses will struggle.
    If you plant in the ground, dig deep. At least 40cm, more would be better if you can, but I am often not able to do more (after an hour with a pickaxe). Get all the stones out (I can easily get two full buckets from one rose hole). Mix some composted manure and compost with your soil, possibly also topsoil if needed.
    In pots, use 50:50 ratio of John Innes no. 3 and MPC or a similar mix of topsoil, compost and a small amount of manure. You want a lightweight fairly rich mix with loam base and good drainage. For shrub roses, use 45x45cm pots, bigger for climbers. You can use smaller but then you need to repot after 2 or 3 years, just adding some compost won't be good enough.
    Feed roses in the ground twice per year (in spring and after the first flush) with rose food. If your soil is free draining and you get a lot of rain and there is a risk of nutrients leaching out quickly, you can add some occasional tomato food or seaweed extract (these also have magnesium and calcium which can be lacking in acidic soils). Feed roses in pots every two weeks with liquid food.
    Choose disease-resistant roses or other resilient roses that can tolerate bad weather and poor conditions well. A rose that can keep its leaves for most of the year is in a much better position to thrive. Be prepared for trial and error, it's quite possible that some roses won't be happy in your garden. I had Gertrude Jekyll in my rose bed growing backwards, she's now happier in a pot.
  • karen_telling5551karen_telling5551 Posts: 9
    Thank you for the comprehensive answer. I think the problem with the two planted in the ground I that I didnt dig a large enough hole initially and despite adding compost there just aren’t enough nutrients in the soil. I think perhaps I’ll dig them up and buy some large pots for them. Gertrude Jekyll is in a pot 50 x 45 but I think I’ll try repotting for net season. My neighbour across the lane has a beautiful rose that she doesn’t appear to do anything to do! 
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