Hi everyone. I’ve been absent for a while- time is short with toddlers on the loose! @Marlorena I see you’ve been through the wringer, I hope all is settling down.
I got my first Gertrude J this year and it was strange. It was planted in late April/ early May, and already had one cane shooting up fast. That shoot and one other got very tall- maybe 7/8 feet, and flowered at the top only. The rest of the rose struggled- that made me wonder whether they were suckers. They do have 7 leafed clusters on them, but most of the plant has that, so I wonder is that just a GJ thing. I’ve circled the shoots in question below- they all come from high up in the plant so I don’t think they’re suckers? Any advice?
@ciaranmcgrenera, those aren't suckers which usually appear from underneath the soil. I think it's just what GJ does, mine looks much the same. It's quite a tall shrub I found. I'm going to give mine a hard prune over the winter, mainly because I want to now remove the metal rose basket I originally put over the new plant as the blooms were so floppy but also to see whether it controls the height or not. Time will tell. M
My GJ doesn't seem to mind having the longer canes shortened at any time of the year!
@ciaranmcgrenera, those aren't suckers which usually appear from underneath the soil. I think it's just what GJ does, mine looks much the same. It's quite a tall shrub I found. I'm going to give mine a hard prune over the winter, mainly because I want to now remove the metal rose basket I originally put over the new plant as the blooms were so floppy but also to see whether it controls the height or not. Time will tell. M
My GJ doesn't seem to mind having the longer canes shortened at any time of the year!
That’s good to know, I didn’t want to cut it back hard as it was so soon after planting- not sure there was any logic to that, just didn’t seem right. I wanted to maybe bend it over and see if I could encourage side shoots but the other canes wouldn’t have been strong enough to tie it off to.
I’m thinking of moving some salvia caradonna/ Michaelmas daises nearby and ramping up Gertrude with another two plants- there’s too much going on in such a small border. At least then I’ll be able to “Niff” them off each other.
@ciaranmcgrenera GJ can be grown as a shrub or a short climber so it’s perfectly normal for the long canes. If you want to grow it as a shrub you prune it like you do with all David Austin shrub roses (pruning advice on the David Austin website).
Uh oh. On Facebook, people who received the free calendar from DA have been sharing the rather crawling letter that accompanied it ("our valued and loyal customer")... and some people who have spent thousands on roses from them and haven't got a calendar are now upset. Another PR blinder lol
@Marlorena - happy and relieved that you didn't get the bad news you were dreading. Thank God. Many more roses your way! 💐
@WhereAreMySecateurs I should say it’s another PR blunder.If they are sending out free calendars they should be sending them to everyone who buys roses from them because surely we are all ‘valued and loyal’ customers.
@owd potter Your bare root plants look great. I might have positioned Blush Noisette a little further away from the wall but no problem.. it's a big bulky rose with thick wavy canes, but can be trained in a number of ways..
Thanks @marlorena, As for Blush Noisette, you may recall a discussion a while back in which I canvassed opinions for a climber that I could grow in a pot in a paved courtyard area that I was working on? You may not, you have no doubt had far more important things to occupy your thoughts recently. Anyway, you suggested that if not possible that I could open up an area of the paving to plant into the ground, that maybe I should experiment growing a climber in a pot. Well, after much deliberation I opted for BN which according to TW (I think) is suitable for pot culture. I use the term 'Pot' in the loosest sense, as I made a 1.10x0.50x0.60m planting box from old pallets, in which to house it. So although it does appear to be planted rather close to the wall, it was quite deliberate on my part to plant as close as I could into the apex to assist in the training of stems across both of the adjacent walls. I figured it is contained anyway and it's roots have approx 1/3 m3 of manure enriched soil in which to romp, so I'm hoping it may work I now will construct 2 x 2.00x 1.00m trellis screens to attach to the walls on which to train it next year.
I'm sure I've read somewhere that the dreaded sawfly lay their eggs just below the surface of the soil/compost at the base of roses to overwinter. If this is true, would it benefit from scraping the top couple of inches away and replacing it with new soil/compost.
@owd potter aah ok.. I like innovation and that's quite innovative... I look forward to seeing how you deal with this rose in that situation. It's a nice looking wall to train it on.. I keep snippers handy for deadheading this rose.
I tried to order some roses from Andre Eve in France yesterday but it wouldn't accept my postcode... [rolls eyes]..
Posts
I'm going to give mine a hard prune over the winter, mainly because I want to now remove the metal rose basket I originally put over the new plant as the blooms were so floppy but also to see whether it controls the height or not. Time will tell. M
My GJ doesn't seem to mind having the longer canes shortened at any time of the year!
@Marlorena - happy and relieved that you didn't get the bad news you were dreading. Thank God. Many more roses your way! 💐
As for Blush Noisette, you may recall a discussion a while back in which I canvassed opinions for a climber that I could grow in a pot in a paved courtyard area that I was working on? You may not, you have no doubt had far more important things to occupy your thoughts recently.
Anyway, you suggested that if not possible that I could open up an area of the paving to plant into the ground, that maybe I should experiment growing a climber in a pot.
Well, after much deliberation I opted for BN which according to TW (I think) is suitable for pot culture.
I use the term 'Pot' in the loosest sense, as I made a 1.10x0.50x0.60m planting box from old pallets, in which to house it.
So although it does appear to be planted rather close to the wall, it was quite deliberate on my part to plant as close as I could into the apex to assist in the training of stems across both of the adjacent walls. I figured it is contained anyway and it's roots have approx 1/3 m3 of manure enriched soil in which to romp, so I'm hoping it may work
I now will construct 2 x 2.00x 1.00m trellis screens to attach to the walls on which to train it next year.
@owd potter
aah ok.. I like innovation and that's quite innovative... I look forward to seeing how you deal with this rose in that situation. It's a nice looking wall to train it on.. I keep snippers handy for deadheading this rose.
I tried to order some roses from Andre Eve in France yesterday but it wouldn't accept my postcode... [rolls eyes]..