How can I encourage basal shoots on my Margaret Merrill? It’s 6 years old and I cut it back very hard this Spring to encourage them but nothing appeared. I must be doing something wrong so your advice would be much appreciated. Many thanks!
To add the royal red flush - my Ena is starting again - the second flush since cutting to the ground in Feb. I think this climber has permanently reverted to a bush type. There seems no to desire to climb
Is it just shooting and branching from the old hard pruned canes Fire? No sign of any new basals that would climb?
Kind of related to @Sammymummy ‘s question about how to encourage new basals if not, as pruning back hard is meant to encourage them. I read a while back in a Peter Beales book that the biggest mistake people make is not pruning hard enough in early years, so they end up with leggy bushes with few basal breaks, so could that could be your issue Sammymummy? Even if that were true, doesn’t help now you now!
I have also read various suggestions such as scraping off the mulch, cleaning up the graft of stubs of old dead canes to allow space for new canes, conversely, piling on a good mulch of well-rotted manure/compost up around the canes, feeding with high-nitrogen chicken manure or alfalfa tea.
I changed to alfalfa tea feed this year and most new roses planted in the ground have thrown up two or more new basals. Coincidence? I haven’t noticed much difference in the established roses, such as my trio of Julia Child - the back two have produced lots but the front three-caned one stubbornly refuses.
Be interested to hear what has worked for others, if anything?
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
"Is it just shooting and branching from the old hard pruned canes Fire? No sign of any new basals that would climb?"
@Nollie Yes, just shooting from what is already there. I think I pruned too much in the early years - they say this can revert a climber to a shrub. I added some soil and manure over the graft in the early spring and have fed consistently, but it's not seeming to help much. I might be impatient, wanting signs in the first season, but I think not much will happen. I have been thinking of replacing it for some time. I'm on a street that gets pollarded every two or three years. As the rose is south facing, some summers it's in blazing full sun, and some years, like this one, it's mostly shaded with some west sun. It's also in a v hard planting spot, squeezed in between a wall and two paths.
Speaking of feeding - I realised that coinciding with the really strong growth I've had on my apple tree this year, I actually fed it for the first time. Just used some old grosure slow release fertiliser blobs forked in around it in spring.
Only just occured to me that that could account for some of that growth! Although it's also four years old and you'd expect a plant to pick up after that long in the ground.
I've got some roses still to feed - Kew, RJ, GG, TAM, MW, SF, VB, Potted Des. (Listing for my own reference really!) Can't really feed Malvern Hills as there's not enough soil around it to have anywhere to put it. I don't think it needs feeding though to be honest!
You could try notching @Sammymummy which won't get you basal growth but could get you some new canes lower down at least. Not that I've ever managed to notch successfully. I've got a very scarred apple tree at the allotment after multiple failed attempts to replace a missing branch. Other than that what Nollie said sounds right. Cut it more drastically and you're more likely to get growth lower down.
It looks to me like you planted it with the graft flush with the soil? So that might be one reason why you're not getting as many. All of mine are planted a few inches below which means there will have been several low down buds on existing canes that ended up below the soil. That's where a lot of my basal growth will have come from.
I did some more clearing the other day of this bed at the plot so it's looking much better. Can see Arthur Bell now too (Kew Gardens behind to the right)
Thank you @Nollie and @Mr. Vine Eye - it was planted well before I discovered this wonderful thread, hence not-deep-enough planting & not-so-hard pruning.
Ah yes, @Fire, too hard pruning of climbers, I did that with Warm Welcome - long saga about rotting wigwam support/bad advice early on, after bravely rallying for several years, it’s finally given up. Maybe you need to give Ena a deadline, if you don’t buck up by, say, the end of next Spring, your gone!
I would certainly prune back those old cane stubs right back to the graft and try piling on the mulch @Sammymummy and if you are feeling brave, try notching as @Mr. Vine Eye suggests. And another good point Mr. V, like Sammymummy, my first rose I planted with the graft above ground and it never gave me any breaks, so that’s certainly seems to be a factor. We are all learning all the time from each other 😊
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Still finding excuses to use it! 😂 I wouldn't normally bother deadheading individual blooms in Malvern Hills. I'll wait for the whole cluster to be finished.
Today I spotted that a few of the rugosa, which I thought might be goners after everything turned brown, have started regrowing from new buds.
They've responded well to cutting back and having the brown leaves stripped off.
Posts
'La Belle Rouge'
'Chippendale' very orange today and very fragrant.
'Claire Jolly'
'Gabriel Oak'
'Snow Ballet' with nemesia
Kind of related to @Sammymummy ‘s question about how to encourage new basals if not, as pruning back hard is meant to encourage them. I read a while back in a Peter Beales book that the biggest mistake people make is not pruning hard enough in early years, so they end up with leggy bushes with few basal breaks, so could that could be your issue Sammymummy? Even if that were true, doesn’t help now you now!
I changed to alfalfa tea feed this year and most new roses planted in the ground have thrown up two or more new basals. Coincidence? I haven’t noticed much difference in the established roses, such as my trio of Julia Child - the back two have produced lots but the front three-caned one stubbornly refuses.
Only just occured to me that that could account for some of that growth! Although it's also four years old and you'd expect a plant to pick up after that long in the ground.
I've got some roses still to feed - Kew, RJ, GG, TAM, MW, SF, VB, Potted Des. (Listing for my own reference really!) Can't really feed Malvern Hills as there's not enough soil around it to have anywhere to put it. I don't think it needs feeding though to be honest!
You could try notching @Sammymummy which won't get you basal growth but could get you some new canes lower down at least. Not that I've ever managed to notch successfully. I've got a very scarred apple tree at the allotment after multiple failed attempts to replace a missing branch. Other than that what Nollie said sounds right. Cut it more drastically and you're more likely to get growth lower down.
It looks to me like you planted it with the graft flush with the soil? So that might be one reason why you're not getting as many. All of mine are planted a few inches below which means there will have been several low down buds on existing canes that ended up below the soil. That's where a lot of my basal growth will have come from.
I did some more clearing the other day of this bed at the plot so it's looking much better. Can see Arthur Bell now too (Kew Gardens behind to the right)
I would certainly prune back those old cane stubs right back to the graft and try piling on the mulch @Sammymummy and if you are feeling brave, try notching as @Mr. Vine Eye suggests. And another good point Mr. V, like Sammymummy, my first rose I planted with the graft above ground and it never gave me any breaks, so that’s certainly seems to be a factor. We are all learning all the time from each other 😊
Still finding excuses to use it! 😂 I wouldn't normally bother deadheading individual blooms in Malvern Hills. I'll wait for the whole cluster to be finished.
Today I spotted that a few of the rugosa, which I thought might be goners after everything turned brown, have started regrowing from new buds.
They've responded well to cutting back and having the brown leaves stripped off.
Did an inspection of roses, even the ones in black spotter corner are not doing too bad yet.
Never-mind another reason to not bother with vegetables anymore.