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What a stupid thing I've done with my roses
yarrow2
Posts: 782
Photo one shows an old barrel which has rose 'A Shropshire Lad'. The rose to the right of it in a pot is 'Boscobel'. The third rose in the white pot is another 'A Shropshire Lad'. All were fine and dandy coming along as usual until a week ago when I told a gardener friend that I was always disappointed that both the 'A Shropshire Lad' produced lovely Spring blooms - but not very many at all. He had a look and said my problem was that I had planted them with the grafts above the soil. Being an idiot, and thinking as they were coming in to bud, I didn't want to detach the two in pots from the trellis and try to repot them. Instead, I stupidly (???) piled a a couple of inches of multi-p compost on them to cover the graft. Now, all 3 roses leaves are as in the photos below. 'Boscobel' has lots of nice buds, it's early yet for my 'A Shropshire Lad' pair to bud yet - but until I did the stupid thing, they were coming along fine.
I've now scraped off most of the multi-p and am wondering if I can get these 3 roses to recover - or am I too late for that? These roses are three (or maybe 4) year old. I have no space to put them in flower beds. Any advice would be greatly welcomed. Thank you.
I've now scraped off most of the multi-p and am wondering if I can get these 3 roses to recover - or am I too late for that? These roses are three (or maybe 4) year old. I have no space to put them in flower beds. Any advice would be greatly welcomed. Thank you.
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Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Many thanks again.
The graft buried or not - both have their pros and cons and both are correct, depending on the conditions. It won't affect the flowering or the health of your roses.
Leave the compost where it is. As the plants are in pots, they will require regular feeding.
Also, don't worry too much about spots and various foliage problems. All roses sometimes have fungal diseases, insect damage, and weather damage. They are strong plants and they usually outgrow most of these problems.
In a pot, regardless of size, they will need an annual top dressing in spring of a good, slow release fertiliser which is balanced for roses or tomatoes and they will need regular watering with occasional tonics of liquid rose or tomato feed from spring thru to mid summer to keep them happy in between the usual daily or weekly or in between waterings depending on the local heat conditions.
Yes, the pots are on the small side although when I planted them I was assured they would do well for a few years. But, you are right. I need to get much bigger pots. Not sure whether to re-pot late in the year or wait until, say, February next year - or perhaps that would be too late?
Thanks for the response Obelixx. I had a year without gardening and am only just getting back into it and it's amazing how I've forgotten so many common sense things in such a short time. Keep forgetting names of plants I've had for years and can't remember how I used to do one thing or another. Was too late to start seeds indoors this year so not wanting to miss out on sweet peas I saw some very healthy looking plants as I as passing a new place. No labels on the pots so I grabbed a few. Wasn't until I got home that I realised there WAS tiny print at the bottom of the pot and they're not sweet peas they are mangetout. Something about living through this pandemic - seems to have clouded my thought process over time. However, we who have a garden of any kind are so so very lucky and what a blessing it is.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.