Seeing everyone's roses with lots of leaves and even flower buds made me worry that I had pruned too hard and too late. I'm relieved that this , Elina I think, seems to be ok. I planted 4 of them a year or so after my son was born and only have 2 left now
Apologies if this is the wrong place to post but I’ve been reading this thread for a while and think all your advice is so helpful. I have a peace rose (not sure if this is the official name) which is sentimental as it’s a cutting from my late Grandma’s rose, and I’m ashamed to say in the past I haven’t taken great care of it. We moved into our current house just over 2 years ago and had our garden landscaped last summer which has inspired a (pretty bad) gardener in me as I’ve had a blank canvas to fill.
Last summer I managed to revive the rose a little bit and in the October I had 2 blooms which I was really relieved to see. My questions are what I can do to better help the growth and encourage more blooms especially lower down, do I need to do something about the dark spots and how can I encourage growth towards me? I planted it the wrong way round and all the growth and blooms are towards the fence.
I did prune some in the autumn but not sure I did it correctly or at the right time, I also replaced the top of the soil this year with peat-free compost as the soil was bad quality.
Sorry for the long post. Below is a picture of the rose as it is now, a picture of the spotting and pictures of the blooms from last year (some are sideways but I can’t figure out how to change that).
@Dirty Harry, yes I agree - both! I use slow-release inorganic rose fertiliser granules in February/March and again six month’s later. Liquid seaweed and/or tomato feed weekly during the season. Pots need a lot of help.
Thanks @Alfie_, it is a lovely house in a lovely rural spot, we’re very lucky. It’s called a ‘Masia’ which is a traditional stone-built Catalan farmhouse. It’s going to be hard to part with when we downsize in a few years!
We’ve had some glorious rain today, thanks be. The dry and dusty water butts are nearly full again so my roses will be happy.
Spot the first small and tentative bloom on Astronomia. This has such astonishingly healthy, robust foliage. Even the sawflies seem to shun it - it’s completely spotless while other nearby roses are shredded:
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
@Newbie_greenie Hiya, welcome to roses, nice to see you... your Peace rose is looking ok, no real problems there, you've done a good job in keeping it going.. The manky spotty leaves just snip them off with fingers or scissors, it doesn't need them.. If you haven't done so, you should feed your rose with appropriate rose fertilizer, and if you have any, mulch with compost, it will do a lot of good. 'Peace' rose is naturally lanky and goes bare at the base, very typical, but what you could have done, if bold enough, was to prune your rose hard, this will produce shoots lower down and create a more balanced shrub in the longer term... See Bullfinch's post above yours, and you will see how hard pruning even a very old, gnarled rose, encourages a whole mass of new shoots to grow from places you never thought they would.
As your rose is in full leaf, just let it grow for now, but consider hard pruning to the white lines I've indicated, sometime during the summer, when the rose is having a rest and not in flower. There is also some grey dead wood that could be pruned out, I've white lined those too..
As for the blooms facing the fence, that won't happen this year, you may get the odd bloom facing that way, but most will face towards the sun, away from the fence.
...keep us informed during the summer.. 'Peace' has lovely blooms ..
Hi @Marlorena thank you so much for your advice! I will definitely hard prune in the summer where you’ve indicated, get some rose food and have a go at mulching, and I’ll post any progress!
@Marlorena ha ha yes I can imagine Beales will be very tempting! It’s so hard when you have such a small garden, as I want all the roses! Also makes it tricky to decide when space is so limited, I feel the pressure to get it right. Thinking about my potted rose, I might wait until I see the roses in bloom as I may then feel more secure in making the right decision.
Hi Everyone, been lurking and enjoying everyone's posts and pictures. Waiting impatiently for my own roses to bloom. . I am looking to add to my collection (am a self-confessed rose addict with my share of hits and misses) and in particular, am looking for an apricot-pink climbing rose that I can train up a trellis or an arch. For a while, I had The Shropshire Lad on my list but it's been retired (shame!) and David Austin recommend Strawberry Hill as an alternative although it doesn't come across to me as apricot-pink as such. Are there others that you could recommend? Thanks in advance.
@Alfie_ I am 20 minutes from Peter Beales and I've been to David Austin's garden, but it was a few years ago.
David Austin has masses of roses with some perennials, magnificent in June for the spectacle and scent. But I really like Peter Beales as it is more like a real garden. There is quite a bit of lawn with benches to sit on, mixed borders with lots of perennials among the roses, a pond with a bridge and beds planted around it, rose arches and tunnels covered with climbers, ramblers and clematis. I posted some photos a month or 2 ago.
The plants sales are good too, a bit pricey though. Apart from roses there is an excellent choice of perennials and a tunnel just full of Thorncroft clematis. They have enlarged their garden centre area and their restaurant. There is a terrace outside the restaurant which is lovely on a warm day.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
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Apologies if this is the wrong place to post but I’ve been reading this thread for a while and think all your advice is so helpful. I have a peace rose (not sure if this is the official name) which is sentimental as it’s a cutting from my late Grandma’s rose, and I’m ashamed to say in the past I haven’t taken great care of it. We moved into our current house just over 2 years ago and had our garden landscaped last summer which has inspired a (pretty bad) gardener in me as I’ve had a blank canvas to fill.
Last summer I managed to revive the rose a little bit and in the October I had 2 blooms which I was really relieved to see. My questions are what I can do to better help the growth and encourage more blooms especially lower down, do I need to do something about the dark spots and how can I encourage growth towards me? I planted it the wrong way round and all the growth and blooms are towards the fence.
I did prune some in the autumn but not sure I did it correctly or at the right time, I also replaced the top of the soil this year with peat-free compost as the soil was bad quality.
Sorry for the long post. Below is a picture of the rose as it is now, a picture of the spotting and pictures of the blooms from last year (some are sideways but I can’t figure out how to change that).
Thank you in advance!
Thanks @Alfie_, it is a lovely house in a lovely rural spot, we’re very lucky. It’s called a ‘Masia’ which is a traditional stone-built Catalan farmhouse. It’s going to be hard to part with when we downsize in a few years!
We’ve had some glorious rain today, thanks be. The dry and dusty water butts are nearly full again so my roses will be happy.
Spot the first small and tentative bloom on Astronomia. This has such astonishingly healthy, robust foliage. Even the sawflies seem to shun it - it’s completely spotless while other nearby roses are shredded:
Hiya, welcome to roses, nice to see you... your Peace rose is looking ok, no real problems there, you've done a good job in keeping it going..
The manky spotty leaves just snip them off with fingers or scissors, it doesn't need them..
If you haven't done so, you should feed your rose with appropriate rose fertilizer, and if you have any, mulch with compost, it will do a lot of good.
'Peace' rose is naturally lanky and goes bare at the base, very typical, but what you could have done, if bold enough, was to prune your rose hard, this will produce shoots lower down and create a more balanced shrub in the longer term... See Bullfinch's post above yours, and you will see how hard pruning even a very old, gnarled rose, encourages a whole mass of new shoots to grow from places you never thought they would.
As your rose is in full leaf, just let it grow for now, but consider hard pruning to the white lines I've indicated, sometime during the summer, when the rose is having a rest and not in flower. There is also some grey dead wood that could be pruned out, I've white lined those too..
As for the blooms facing the fence, that won't happen this year, you may get the odd bloom facing that way, but most will face towards the sun, away from the fence.
...keep us informed during the summer.. 'Peace' has lovely blooms ..
Your 'Elina's are looking great, they seem to be very old roses, fabulous to see such new growth on them..
David Austin has masses of roses with some perennials, magnificent in June for the spectacle and scent. But I really like Peter Beales as it is more like a real garden. There is quite a bit of lawn with benches to sit on, mixed borders with lots of perennials among the roses, a pond with a bridge and beds planted around it, rose arches and tunnels covered with climbers, ramblers and clematis. I posted some photos a month or 2 ago.
The plants sales are good too, a bit pricey though. Apart from roses there is an excellent choice of perennials and a tunnel just full of Thorncroft clematis. They have enlarged their garden centre area and their restaurant. There is a terrace outside the restaurant which is lovely on a warm day.