@Tack I was going on instinct re light pruning for weeping standards - but Styles’ advice via WAMS and the article I found and linked earlier (p.167) seem to confirm that. That article has detailed advice and does say to trim once-flowering ones after flowering.
@cooldoc no I don’t take off new buds/growth. I usually get a fair bit of cane dieback over winter and frosts as late as April, so any blackened ends get pruned off after that.
Good points, @Mr. Vine Eye. I suppose the question is then, when IS it preferable to plant the graft above ground?! I can think of two instances..
A rose that madly suckers on it’s own roots and you don’t want a huge thicket of basals taking over your garden. Charles de Mills is the usual example. In vert boggy ground or an area that is regularly under water in winter, re graft rot. Any more??
Interesting that ZD does not produce basals, Marlorena..
Brilliant news @zugenie. If your old BMS does resprout from the base you might end up with two! I once had the same rose replaced twice by DA, no quibble whatsoever.
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
I've read it now @Nollie thank you. My instincts on this were more or less correct but I'm not intending on tying the rose to the frame at all. Canary Bird has sturdy canes at the crown so I can't see the point. If I lose some to gales maybe I'll reassess but it is in a sheltered spot.
I think you are right that DAs and some others are practically evergreen @cooldoc. If this winter hasn't been cold enough to put them to sleep then I guess defoliating by hand is what to expect. Malvern Hills will be a challenge when it gets tall, do you have this issue @Mr. Vine Eye ?
All those leaves on YL @cooldoc it hasn't gone dormant at all, has it.. be interesting to see how it does this year for you.. you have an interesting collection of potted roses..
@zugenie That's good news. I quite like this rose so far, in a number of ways. Hope you get to like it more as time goes on..
This is my last one to defoliate, 2-yr old still potted Mme. Isaac Pereire. It’s held on to it’s foliage the most and I was hoping the recent cold weather and hard frosts would do it for me, but no. Still haven’t dug/built the bed for it since the ground is still frozen. I was wondering if I should leave it until it’s permanent position is ready, but by then it will probably be flowering!
Plenty of new growth here too, here’s Love Song, which was pruned and defoliated earlier. A floribunda thats got a good, sturdy framework. I only took about a third off as I want it to grow large:
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
MIP looks fabulous right where it is against that wall Nollie, is that where you will plant it? I really wish I had a wall to grow roses against but there is hard standing around every bit of the house and you've all seen my ugly fencing which led to the borders mostly having shrubs. Not really sure that my efforts to shoehorn roses in is hugely successful, they need more care than the pots and with much worse access. Lovesong is one such going in the ground and I'm hoping for a big shrub too. I'm sure we all feel thwarted by aspects of our gardens though. Your terrain and climate seems especially challenging Nollie...but that wall..sigh.
I had never heard of defoliating roses until last year in this forum. Which in a way is good, otherwise I wouldnt have bought so many roses, thinking that is hard work and going to take a long time. Anyway when I didnt defoliate, all those leaves eventually did fall off and got replaced over spring summer, but yes a defoliated rose looks clean from start of season.
So far all roses are small and I somehow end up pruning hard so not many leaves are eventually left to remove. Will see how it goes over coming years.
Posts
@cooldoc no I don’t take off new buds/growth. I usually get a fair bit of cane dieback over winter and frosts as late as April, so any blackened ends get pruned off after that.
Good points, @Mr. Vine Eye. I suppose the question is then, when IS it preferable to plant the graft above ground?! I can think of two instances..
A rose that madly suckers on it’s own roots and you don’t want a huge thicket of basals taking over your garden. Charles de Mills is the usual example. In vert boggy ground or an area that is regularly under water in winter, re graft rot. Any more??
Interesting that ZD does not produce basals, Marlorena..
Brilliant news @zugenie. If your old BMS does resprout from the base you might end up with two! I once had the same rose replaced twice by DA, no quibble whatsoever.
Most of the roses have retained their leaves here.. atleast most Austins (Young Lycidas in foreground)
The self defoliated ones.. L-R Chandos B, Stephanie d U, PAOK, Louis Odier (front)
Poets wife.. Not a new bud.. this one stayed on since November..
@zugenie
That's good news. I quite like this rose so far, in a number of ways. Hope you get to like it more as time goes on..
Plenty of new growth here too, here’s Love Song, which was pruned and defoliated earlier. A floribunda thats got a good, sturdy framework. I only took about a third off as I want it to grow large:
So far all roses are small and I somehow end up pruning hard so not many leaves are eventually left to remove. Will see how it goes over coming years.