...nice long garden @newbie77 ..and I hope you have recovered from Covid... I think you lost your sense of smell at one point?.
..well, thank you for the comments about pruning.. @Lizzie27 I'm sure your New Dawn is going to look great... not an easy task that rose.. I would have pruned out all the laterals back to the framework and shortened the size of the plant if necessary..
.. this is a climbing rose I did today... I haven't got time in Spring for all this, so now a good time for me.. it was quite straggly, about 6 foot tall by 10 feet wide, I've reduced to about 5 tall by 8 wide.. pruned back laterals, some by half, some back to stubs. It's important to give roses a rest by inducing some dormancy... roses never go truly dormant like apples, and will sprout as soon as temps rise a bit.. ...before... ..before.. ..before.. ..after... there is another clg rose coming in from the right on wire, but I shall let them merge and tie one to another, it's ok to do that..
...tomorrow I shall do 'Wild Rover' 'Blush Noisette' and 'Kew Gardens'.. all very easy..
We all garden our own way, but something you always read in books, hear on t.v. or advice on forums which is to pick up all diseased leaves and dispose of them, as this is considered good husbandry to reduce black spot the following year ... well, sorry, I haven't time to do that so everything stays on the ground... I only pick up leaves from potted roses..
Do I get more black spot than anyone else? I don't think so, and I haven't sprayed in over 35 years.. one thing I have learnt is that whatever measures you take - if you don't spray - you will get some degree of black spot throughout the season, regardless of how clean you are out there.. it's ever present.. so I don't waste my time on it.. all diseased leaves are left to decompose..
Up to you what you do of course, but I like to make things as easy as possible, and do as little as I can get away with..
@Marlorena, thanks for asking. I am almost recovered, still get headaches and tiredness. My sense of smell is coming back too. I can smell strong smell, but cant pickup any delicate smell yet.
Very beautiful colour of rose in third photo.
Good to know that it doesn't make much difference whether to pickup leaves or not. I was feeling bad as not only there are fallen rose leaves, they are topped up with apple and poplar leaves and I dont think I would be able to do any cleanup for a while.
I'm so glad you've said that @Marlorena, that makes my life much easier and I shan't feel guilty any more. I have several roses where it's nearly impossible to reach the BS old leaves so I've had to leave them be.
I rather think you will now be inundated with pruning queries, starting with me! What do you advise please about pruning my Isaphan rose which I love. It must be about 10 years old now, it's reached at least 7-8ft high this autumn and 4 ft wide. It's supposed to be on a metal rose arch but has grown sideways abetted by me into a nearby magnolia stellata. I must confess I have never pruned it much, apart from shortening it across the top of the arch. It didn't bloom so profusely this year so I must be bold I think. Should I use a pruning saw and cut old 2 or 3 of the original, now quite thick stems if I can? These might be a bit difficult to get at. Or should I just cut down the whole lot to about 3-4 feet? Indecision, indecision.
Hi all, lovely catching up on all the posts here. I have been awol for a while, busy finishing a new bed, clipping hedges and having a general autumn tidy up in the garden. Most of my roses have had their autumn prune - most just a light trim but more radical pruning for (modern) roses, particularly those in very windy spots, like Lady Em and Julia Child in the Oranges and Lemons bed.
Interesting @Marlorena, I am scrupulous about rose hygiene in an attempt to reduce blackspot, but I get it anyway, probably just inevitable in my hot ‘n humid climate. Who knows, maybe it would be worse if I didn’t clear up the fallen leaves? I do like the beds weeded and tidy though, so clearing up the leaves periodically is something I would do for that reason alone. I think airflow is possibly more important and especially not letting other plants overhang the roses - I noticed BS was markedly worse where other things are encroaching on their space, so regularly cut back any boisterous neighbours and try to maintain good, clear airspace.
Well it’s official (excluding newbies since most had a head start in the poly) Munstead Wood is my longest continuously flowering rose this year. The blooms are not perfect but huge - so full marks for continuing effort:
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
..lovely bloom for the time of year @Nollie .. and of course your conditions are very different, so only you can judge from your own experience there as to how you deal with your roses.. the ones you show all look remarkably clean most of the time..
@newbie77 .. I'm delighted to hear you are recovering well... and your sense of smell is returning.. I still practice avoidance but I fear it'll end up on my lap sooner or later..
@Lizzie27 ..your Ispahan is about the right size that I remember... 7 x 4 or 5 feet .. a rose that takes beautifully to pegging, fan shaped like a Peacock.. whereby it will produce laterals all along the length of every stem, quickly covering any string used to tie cane to cane.. yours is in an unusual situation, so what to do with it, well if you have an abundance of canes, you could reduce by one or two, but I'm reluctant to remove too much this time of year.. I would prune out all flowered lateral growth if I could get to it.. leaving the main framework clean.. this makes the plant seem less claustrophobic and tangled... an immense satisfaction.. it wouldn't take too long.. .. after it's flowered next summer, I would reduce the plant to about 4 feet and start again with it, trying to fan shape right and left, if possible, with the new growth...
Many thanks for that advice @Marlorena, although having read it, I think mine's a lost cause as I can't easily get to it, too many bushes in the way and hellebores underneath. I'll try taking out two of the oldest stems if I can crawl under the magnolia! I can cut the laterals back on top of the arch and if I can get my OH to steady the stepladder and get near enough, I might try to bend the longest 7ft canes over the top and tie them into the magnolia. No chance of fanning it out however. I'm interested to read that you wouldn't prune at this time of year but would do it after flowering in the summer, is there a special reason for this please?
Oh well, I'll know better in the future. Thanks again, what would we do without you.
This is really kind of you @Marlorena, I am studying your pictures intently. I was very reassured by your comments about Desdemona, everyone seems to love it but I thought the apparent ill health of my stems meant I had a problem. I will copy your climber advice exactly and look forward to seeing what you do with Blush Noisette. Thank you.
Your MW looks great @Nollie but I will continue to resist and admire from afar. Lovely garden @newbie77.
Thank you for the pics, super useful! Ive not touched my new climbers yet as a few flowers still on, but as they are very young, some only planted a few months so im assuming I dont take too much off anyway?
Whats wild rover like? Ive just got a climbing one from Styles, lured by the colour! Quickly Potted for now but will be planted in ground once the new obelisk arrives.
Ive been clearing all the dead leaves and removing any blackspotted ones to try and stop spread. Not too horrendous this year thankfully. I spray sulphur rose and fungus rose clear a couple of times a year to try and control a few prone ones. Ive noticed feeding them more the last couple of years has really visibly improved resistance in my spotters though, Well worth the big bucket of feed!
The ones I show (or the parts thereof) is the thing there @ Marlorena, you don’t get to see the manky, spotted ones!!
Talking about different approaches/climates, Paul Zimmerman’s pruning and training videos seem to be very popular at the moment. They do offer good demos and basic advice (once you get over his irritating manner) but not everything he says is applicable to every type of rose or to every climate, even within the US. It really annoys me that he doesn’t qualify his advice accordingly, like some other US rosarians do (e.g. Kim Rupert is usually good at doing this). I watched one of Zim’s recently on training climbing roses over an arch, where he piled on six roses and totally poo-poohed the whole concept of needing good airflow - Rubbish! A myth! Modern roses have great disease resistance, don’t worry about that! Words to that effect anyway. Well I don’t have his climate so wouldn’t do that here, they would be a diseased mess. And some of the roses he had on there were not modern anyway 😠 OK, rant over!
Here’s Love Song this morning, pretty clean so far, but next year will be the real test - some roses seem to get a free pass in their first year then succumb in their second:
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Posts
..and I hope you have recovered from Covid... I think you lost your sense of smell at one point?.
..well, thank you for the comments about pruning.. @Lizzie27 I'm sure your New Dawn is going to look great... not an easy task that rose.. I would have pruned out all the laterals back to the framework and shortened the size of the plant if necessary..
.. this is a climbing rose I did today... I haven't got time in Spring for all this, so now a good time for me.. it was quite straggly, about 6 foot tall by 10 feet wide, I've reduced to about 5 tall by 8 wide.. pruned back laterals, some by half, some back to stubs. It's important to give roses a rest by inducing some dormancy... roses never go truly dormant like apples, and will sprout as soon as temps rise a bit..
...before...
..before..
..before..
..after... there is another clg rose coming in from the right on wire, but I shall let them merge and tie one to another, it's ok to do that..
...tomorrow I shall do 'Wild Rover' 'Blush Noisette' and 'Kew Gardens'.. all very easy..
Do I get more black spot than anyone else? I don't think so, and I haven't sprayed in over 35 years.. one thing I have learnt is that whatever measures you take - if you don't spray - you will get some degree of black spot throughout the season, regardless of how clean you are out there.. it's ever present.. so I don't waste my time on it.. all diseased leaves are left to decompose..
Up to you what you do of course, but I like to make things as easy as possible, and do as little as I can get away with..
Very beautiful colour of rose in third photo.
Good to know that it doesn't make much difference whether to pickup leaves or not. I was feeling bad as not only there are fallen rose leaves, they are topped up with apple and poplar leaves and I dont think I would be able to do any cleanup for a while.
I rather think you will now be inundated with pruning queries, starting with me!
What do you advise please about pruning my Isaphan rose which I love. It must be about 10 years old now, it's reached at least 7-8ft high this autumn and 4 ft wide. It's supposed to be on a metal rose arch but has grown sideways abetted by me into a nearby magnolia stellata. I must confess I have never pruned it much, apart from shortening it across the top of the arch. It didn't bloom so profusely this year so I must be bold I think. Should I use a pruning saw and cut old 2 or 3 of the original, now quite thick stems if I can? These might be a bit difficult to get at. Or should I just cut down the whole lot to about 3-4 feet? Indecision, indecision.
I would be so grateful for your comments.
Interesting @Marlorena, I am scrupulous about rose hygiene in an attempt to reduce blackspot, but I get it anyway, probably just inevitable in my hot ‘n humid climate. Who knows, maybe it would be worse if I didn’t clear up the fallen leaves? I do like the beds weeded and tidy though, so clearing up the leaves periodically is something I would do for that reason alone. I think airflow is possibly more important and especially not letting other plants overhang the roses - I noticed BS was markedly worse where other things are encroaching on their space, so regularly cut back any boisterous neighbours and try to maintain good, clear airspace.
Well it’s official (excluding newbies since most had a head start in the poly) Munstead Wood is my longest continuously flowering rose this year. The blooms are not perfect but huge - so full marks for continuing effort:
@newbie77
.. I'm delighted to hear you are recovering well... and your sense of smell is returning.. I still practice avoidance but I fear it'll end up on my lap sooner or later..
@Lizzie27
..your Ispahan is about the right size that I remember... 7 x 4 or 5 feet .. a rose that takes beautifully to pegging, fan shaped like a Peacock.. whereby it will produce laterals all along the length of every stem, quickly covering any string used to tie cane to cane.. yours is in an unusual situation, so what to do with it, well if you have an abundance of canes, you could reduce by one or two, but I'm reluctant to remove too much this time of year.. I would prune out all flowered lateral growth if I could get to it.. leaving the main framework clean.. this makes the plant seem less claustrophobic and tangled... an immense satisfaction.. it wouldn't take too long..
.. after it's flowered next summer, I would reduce the plant to about 4 feet and start again with it, trying to fan shape right and left, if possible, with the new growth...
Oh well, I'll know better in the future. Thanks again, what would we do without you.
Whats wild rover like? Ive just got a climbing one from Styles, lured by the colour! Quickly Potted for now but will be planted in ground once the new obelisk arrives.
Ive been clearing all the dead leaves and removing any blackspotted ones to try and stop spread. Not too horrendous this year thankfully. I spray sulphur rose and fungus rose clear a couple of times a year to try and control a few prone ones. Ive noticed feeding them more the last couple of years has really visibly improved resistance in my spotters though, Well worth the big bucket of feed!
Talking about different approaches/climates, Paul Zimmerman’s pruning and training videos seem to be very popular at the moment. They do offer good demos and basic advice (once you get over his irritating manner) but not everything he says is applicable to every type of rose or to every climate, even within the US. It really annoys me that he doesn’t qualify his advice accordingly, like some other US rosarians do (e.g. Kim Rupert is usually good at doing this). I watched one of Zim’s recently on training climbing roses over an arch, where he piled on six roses and totally poo-poohed the whole concept of needing good airflow - Rubbish! A myth! Modern roses have great disease resistance, don’t worry about that! Words to that effect anyway. Well I don’t have his climate so wouldn’t do that here, they would be a diseased mess. And some of the roses he had on there were not modern anyway 😠 OK, rant over!
Here’s Love Song this morning, pretty clean so far, but next year will be the real test - some roses seem to get a free pass in their first year then succumb in their second: