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Rambling (?) Rose Disease
Dave Humby
Posts: 1,145
i have a rambling rose - I believe - that in the first year in the house looked very healthy with an abundance of clusters of smallish purple flowers. Last year however it looked very poor and virtualily no flowers. See pics
It looks like a very mature rose that is grafted at the base - excuse my ignorance I'm a 101 gardener. Anyway at the end of the summer I cut it back right to the main stem. I don't know if this drastic action was right or not but it seems to have encouraging new shoots so fingers crossed. Anyway, did I do the right thing? and can I do anything to stop whatever happened last year happening again?
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I'm not convinced that that's a rambler in the first place Dave. Ramblers usually have a very lax habit which needs some form of training or support. That appears to be more a climber although which one I don't know. If it's a grafted rambler then it needs yearly pruning out of the flowered stems as they flower on new stems produced the previous year. Did you plant it or was it there when you moved in?
It may be worth you having a look on
http://www.classicroses.co.uk/productindex.php?type=rose&prodfinderformroseColourStrength=8&prodfinderformroseColour=purple
See if you can identify it. It may have been there for years looking at that large main stem. Getting the best from it may require renovating it from the base upwards and creating a good frame for it to ramble up and sideways. That trellis isn't up to the job.
Thanks Dave. It was already here. I would guess it has some age to it as the stem at the base is probably 30mm dia. I think it might be semi-evergreen in the one winter it went through intact. You might well be right about being a climber, I'm not at all clear on the definition between the two. It does require plenty of support. It was tied up to supports in various places.
I'll have a look at the link and see if I can get a better ID. Thanks again. Yes the trellis has had it. There are some hooks in the wall which I tied wire to and hooked up to various parts of the plant to give it a sort of framework support.
Some of them do, and more
In the sticks near Peterborough
Have you fed it? I think it looks hungry. Does it get enough water being close to 2 walls like that? If it's too dry then it won't be able to absorb fertiliser anyway.
I have climbers that grow taller than that.
Thanks to all the comments so far.
It's possible the flower bed there could have been on the dry side, certainly last summer when I took the pics. The other thing that came as an after-thought but may be relevant is the rest of the bed which runs alongside the conservatory has a rhododendron and pieris which has some ericaceous(?) compost plus I fed those with a liquid feed during the summer. Is it possible the rose dislikes those conditions?
Roses cope with acid soils Dave, but adding humus, well rotted manure raises the pH slightly, and as the bed is next to the house this will help retain moisture as well. Feeding roses is best done with a balanced rose food, they need a bit more than the run of the mill feeds. Do it now, doesn't cost much and the rose will love you for it. If you do ID it let us know and we can guide you as to renovation.
Just a question, but must you put up with it?... if that was mine I would have had it cut down and dug up in about half hour...soil amended and something else put in... life is too short to put up with these things when they don't perform, it doesn't enhance your wall nor your Conservatory...
...however, I note the rose appears to be thornless, so the usual thornless climber is 'Zephirine Drouhin' but the blooms are deep pink rather then purple.... it's not a rambler but may also be a large shrub rose that's been allowed to get out of hand... some Austin roses can get very lanky indeed...
...the two trunks at the base, are they coming from the same graft? they look separate..
Marlorena, I hadn't thought about getting rid completely but I guess that's an option. The first year we were in the house the rose was fantastic. Loads of dark shiny foliage and an abundance of flowers. My better half loved it.
Here's a close-up from today of the new shoots after my drastic haircut. They look ok.
There are three main stems coming from the ground. Two are thick and have the new shoots. The third is what I thought was a graft but maybe it's just a deformity - it looks like a serious arthritic knee! This is the one you can just see poking up from the back on the right (much thinner). This doesn't appear to have any new shoots and basically looks dead.