My Digiplex Illumination in two pots have buds on, which is exciting. My outside dahlias have shoots. I have lots of rose buds but no flowers yet. How swiftly it all moves along. Next week's warmer weather in London will make everything start to pop.
The two roses I have with glossy foliage are doing quite well BUT the Susan Williams-Ellis, which has matt foliage, has been really damaged by the frost - drooping growing points and shrivelled leaves. Not optimistic for a bumper year - will they recover?
@Pianoplayer your rose will recover (and bloom later) but those drooping shoots and crispy leaves won’t. The cell walls have basically been destroyed by the frost. You will need to prune back to the next set of healthy, undamaged leaves, but timing is everything. If you are due more frost, hold off for now as that can cause further damage to the new growth at the pruning points.
I have suffered major frost damage (nighttime temperatures dropped to -5 plus very cold winds) even on my tough, glossy-leaved roses. Only a couple in sheltered locations against a wall were unscathed. It looks like my frosts have passed for now so I’m going to bite the bullet and prune off all the damage tomorrow.Â
This is how I’ve treated frost damaged plants in the past, but as this is the first time I have suffered such damage to roses, if anyone has any advice to the contrary please chip in, ideally before I wield the secateurs!!Â
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
I'm sad to see black spot on Guinee too. It seems so early (not that I have been watching for it in previous years). About one month of lovely rose foliage in the garden and that's that.
Hi @Nollie the trouble is that the shoots were so short/small that there aren't any undamaged leaves to prune back to! I will wait for a while and see if the shoots grow, which will allow me to remove the damaged ends.
@Fire you have my sympathy - my iceberg climber has a few leaves showing blackspot already, even though I sprayed the wretched thing!
I think we worry too much about our roses as far as frost damage is concerned.. Â
I will check over each rose quickly sometime early to mid May, just before flowering gets underway, and I'm fairly confident of no more hard frosts at that time, and remove anything I think is unsightly.Â
Remember that, if you lose a dominant shoot to frost, there are 2 other dormant buds either side which will shoot in its place. I would only prune if I find the top of the stem has died back, but of course it's up to you what you all do.
Here's an example .. as you can see the central, dominant shoot got caught by hard frost and died. So 2 new vigorous ones either side replaced it. That's what your roses will do.
I should add that, in some harsh climates all the buds can be destroyed on a once flowering rose, which means all the blooms are lost for that year, but I've never seen that happen to any garden of mine in the UK.. Repeat flowering roses just get delayed..
I don't want to spray and I don't suppose the black spot on my particular roses will do actual damage. It's just a shame to see BS start so early in the year. I have no idea what difference it makes in the scheme of the world... none at all.
Posts
I have suffered major frost damage (nighttime temperatures dropped to -5 plus very cold winds) even on my tough, glossy-leaved roses. Only a couple in sheltered locations against a wall were unscathed. It looks like my frosts have passed for now so I’m going to bite the bullet and prune off all the damage tomorrow.Â
@Fire you have my sympathy - my iceberg climber has a few leaves showing blackspot already, even though I sprayed the wretched thing!
I will check over each rose quickly sometime early to mid May, just before flowering gets underway, and I'm fairly confident of no more hard frosts at that time, and remove anything I think is unsightly.Â
Remember that, if you lose a dominant shoot to frost, there are 2 other dormant buds either side which will shoot in its place. I would only prune if I find the top of the stem has died back, but of course it's up to you what you all do.
Here's an example .. as you can see the central, dominant shoot got caught by hard frost and died. So 2 new vigorous ones either side replaced it. That's what your roses will do.
I should add that, in some harsh climates all the buds can be destroyed on a once flowering rose, which means all the blooms are lost for that year, but I've never seen that happen to any garden of mine in the UK..
Repeat flowering roses just get delayed..