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Roses: the Summer Season

July 2009 Jolene Adams, CGCI Rose Chairman jolene_adams@ix.netcom.com

Roses vs. Heat ...

Summer Rose Tips:

Water, water, water ... at least 10 gallons for each bush each week.
Feed with a handful of 20-20-20 or something along that line in midsummer.
Check on those pots! Keep them moist and freely draining.
Mulch to retain moisture in the soil and keep the top of the soil from drying up.
Hose off bushes once a week in the morning to clean off foliage and knock off obnoxious bugs.
Spray once a month with an organic fungicide mildew is NOT your friend!
Rejoice in your roses – give bouquets away! Make someone happy.

green dress

ummer – every flower (and weed) is blooming, the birds are singing, the grass is high and life is sweet.

The roses have rushed to bring spring blooms (sometimes twice!), and now they are slowing down a bit and ‘recycling’ their energies. New blooms are on the way!

Keep the rose a mean, blooming machine by removing the spent blooms. In hotter climates you should just snap the blooms off at the neck, leaving as many leaves as possible to make shade for the bush. In cooler climates, count down from the spent bloom and cut the stem off at a healthy set of 5-leaflet leaves.

Cool, moist coastal summers are perfect climates for mildews. Powdery mildew will attack roses (and many other plants). You can minimize any chance of infection by making sure your roses have good ventilation all around each bush. Don’t plant a rose flat up against a wall or fence there is no air circulation at the back when you do this and mildews get in and infect the blooms.

Aphids should be leaving soon. These nuisances can be hosed off with a jet of water each morning. Once they hit the ground, the black ground beetles get them! If your garden is healthy, you should have plenty of soldier beetles and lady bugs flying around, snacking on the leftovers.

Roses need to be fed during the summer months. They expended a lot of energy bringing on that first flush of delirious blooms - now they need to replace their reserves. A nice meal of any kind of fertilizer that has approximately a 20-20-20 rating would be appreciated (follow directions on the label). Remember - also spread some organics under the mulch and water them in. They become ‘comfort food’ as they disintegrate.

With dry weather setting in - save the petals of your blooms and make a dry sachet by laying them on a dry surface in a hot, dark area - or use your food dehydrator.

Pluck red, orange or dark lavender petals, snip off the white ‘pop’ at the base, and slice into green salads. They add color, vitamins, and a ‘touch’ of the exotic!

You can make rose water and add it to tea for a cool, scented beverage. Pile two cups of scented petals in a pitcher and add water. Cover. Set in the sun for several hours. Strain the water off into a clean container. Dump the petals in the compost. Use the water in teas for a hint of roses!

When using roses in cooking – make sure they have not been sprayed with anything other than plain water.

Keep weeds from going to seed in your garden. Weed seeds now will sprout when the rains start again - and you’ll be pulling weeds all winter long!

Stop – and Smell the Roses

(Photo above - a winning entry in the World Federation of Roses rose show, held in Vancouver this June. This won a first in class. The class called for a maidenform, dressed with roses and other live plant material, the attire to be ‘antebellum’ in style.)

ROSES GET POTTED TOO! Summer 2009

- Jolene Adams, Rose Chair

No – we’re not talking about bad lifestyle choices. What we want to emphasize here is that roses can make lovely container plants. You need to use the same methods and considerations you would use for all woody ornamentals.

Size. Any rose bush can grow happily in a container of the correct size. The smaller the mature size of the rose, the smaller the container you would use – and the easier it would be to move around the garden or patio! Miniature, Miniflora and Polyantha roses make ideal container roses. They stay relatively short and can fit into a 7 gallon container at maturity.

Bloom Style. What are you looking for? The formal ‘florist rose’ bloom? An old-fashioned beauty? A lot of petals ... few petals ... one bloom per stem ... sprays of blooms ... once blooming ... continuous blooming ... shrubby ... climbing? You choose before you buy.

Color. These smaller roses make great patio plants. You can mix and match colors with your annuals and many different ground covers. Instant ‘color spots’ can be achieved by moving several blooming roses onto the patio for a party or garden brunch meeting.

bin Planting. Have amended soil on hand for the container of your choice. Make sure the container has drainage – and DO NOT add crockery or rocks to the bottom of the pot! That’s an ‘old wives tale’ and will not help the rose at all. In fact, it lets slugs get into the bottom of the pot through the drain holes. Carefully remove your new rose from its wrappings. If it was in a container, place the solid root mass into your new container and adjust the height of the rose so there is about 1 inch between the eventual soil surface and the top of the container. Fill in well at the bottom and around the sides. Water well. Do NOT use a ‘pot saucer’. This baby needs to drain well, not stand in dirty water.

Life Span. Any ‘potted’ plant needs root revitalization periodically. For roses it is about every 3 to 5 years once they are mature. At the time of deep dormancy you need to withhold water until the soil mass starts to shrink away from the sides of the pot (Be careful! Don’t let the roots get too dry!) Carefully tip the pot and slide the root mass out. Clean up the pot or select the next larger size. Slice about one inch of material off the bottom of the soil mass. Place new amended soil into the new pot, slice into the sides of the soil mass about ½ inch in 2 or 3 places - just enough to cut through any girdling roots, then carefully slide the rose back into the new pot. Fill around the sides with the new soil. Water well. Prune and let the rose rest. These roses can live for 50+ years if cared for – some even longer. The main danger to them is drying out or root rot from standing water.

Care. Just like the large roses in the garden, these babies need basic care. Feed them lightly four to six times a year to replace the nutrients that they consume and the ones the water flushes through the soil. Water when you can no longer feel the moisture in the soil if you push your finger into it. Make sure you add enough water – slowly – so it starts to flow out through the drain holes. If you spray for insects and fungal disease in your garden, make sure these plants were watered well the day before spraying. No matter what you spray with – a containerized plant can’t run away – so be sure that the leaves are covered with the spray material, undersides and top sides but do not let direct sun or summer heat dry the plant off. The leaves are too tender for that. Let it dry off in the shade or early in the morning. Then water again the next day! Prune for shape and bloom during the late winter. Deadhead as necessary.

pots Enjoy!

ADVANTAGES:

* Container planting can be done at anytime, regardless of weather and soil conditions.

* Ideal potting soil mixture can be made for maximum root and plant growth.

* Pots can be moved into a garage or protected area in case of freezing weather after late fall or early spring planting.

* Roses get off to a quicker start in the spring due to root zone being warmer above ground.

* Pots can be moved around to experiment with different sun/shade conditions.

* Roots are protected from competition with roots of older bushes and from site contamination (if there is such a phenomena) until roots of new bush are well developed.

* Normally will get more growth the first season because of all of the above.

* You can evaluate the variety and bush for the first season without going to the labor and hard work of planting it in the ground. (Is it really a keeper?)

DISADVANTAGES:

* Some extra work in planting in the ground if you decide after a few years to transfer the bush to the ground.

* Will need to water more frequently than bushes that have been planted in the ground. If potting mixture contains one-third to one-half soil that has some clay in it, this will be minimal.

* Cost of the container (if your rose was not already purchased in a pot).

* Need area in the sun to plant potted rose bush.

Roses in Winter
Winter Protection for Roses

By Jolene Adams

In the colder climates of our state, rose growers must deal with the issue of getting their roses through the winter. The way we protect roses in cold climates differs from the way people in the warm winter areas handle this seasonal task.

Besides extreme cold, there are two other winter fact ors that are probably even more damaging to roses. First is the drying effect of those cold winter winds. Cold air is much dryer than warm air so it sucks moisture from everything it blows past. That includes the stems and leaves of your roses! The leaves get all dried out and crunchy – the stems wither and soon die. This kind of drying is worse than a summer drought when water is scarce.

Second is the freeze/thaw cycle we go through during winter. When roses go dormant and the weather slowly turns cold, the walls of the cells in the stems become tough and the liquid contents of the cell become gooey – almost like thick antifreeze, and are reinforced with starches. The walls of the cells no longer flex. But as the weather warms up during a thaw the cell contents become diluted with purer water from the plant’s continuous fluid exchange inside the stems and the cells become full – almost bloated. Then the cold weather comes back and freezes that water and – since water expands when it freezes – it ruptures the thickened cell walls and all the gooey goodness also oozes out. You might think that winter is over during a warm spell in spring – but when winter comes roaring back – that’s when the cold kills!

Protecting your roses during winter should start long before winter gets here. Remember that some roses are more winter-hardy than others. But no rose can freeze to the ground and expect to continue with all its vigor when spring gets here. Budded roses are more susceptible to complete freezing, but even own-root roses can die from repeated freeze/thaw cycles. A consulting Rosarian from your local rose society should have a list of roses that do well in your area – including getting through winter with proper care.

When planting your roses – if it is grafted (budded) – plant that bud union about 2 inches below the soil level to help protect it from freezing (in warm areas the bud union is always above the ground to help it stay dry). Where you plant is also a factor – low areas collect cold air (remember … heat rises!). On the other hand, roses planted in a higher, open area can be subjected to stronger drying winter winds. When roses are planted close to a shelter (e.g. buildings or wind breaks) they often can tolerate winter much better.

Withholding fertilizers late in the growing season is a common practice among rose growers. When fertilizers are applied late in the season, new growth sprouts up and doesn’t have a chance to go dormant before the first cold weather hits.

To induce dormancy, stop deadheading blooms during the later part of the growing season. As petals fade, they should be pulled off by hand and the plant should be allowed to form hips. This sends a signal to the plant that it is time to think about a long winter’s nap.

Healthy roses going into winter stand a much better chance of surviving than those weakened and stressed by disease or neglect. It is always a good idea to get fungus diseases and other problems under control before winter protection is applied.

Methods of Winter Protection

The ‘pile it on’ method provides a high level of winter security for most sections of the cold country. What you do is bring in clean soil from some other part of the garden. The soil is shoveled on the roses to a depth of approximately 12 inches. While very effective, this requires a lot of work. Also removal of the soil mound in the spring is a chore since you need to be careful not damage new shoots that are starting to grow under the soil mound.

An alternative to adding soil is to pile up compost – your own homemade stuff or something you can buy. This can then be gently moved away from the crown of the rose in the spring and allowed to mix with the rest of your garden soil during the growing season.

Another ‘pile on’ method is to cover the dormant rose plants with a mound of heavy mulch material. Any kind of heavy woody material that won’t blow around is good but several other materials could be used. The nice thing about this is that the mulch can simply be spread out on the rose bed when the plants are uncovered in the spring. Also the much can usually be easily removed without damaging much of the new growth.
Primary disadvantages of this method are cost of the mulch.

Another method is to put a wire cage (like chicken wire) around the rose and fill it to the top with leaves from your trees. They pack down and insulate the rose from the weather. In spring you slowly let them blow away or add them to your compost pile.

For very lazy rose growers and those that love to gamble, here is the ideal winter protection method. It involves simply ignoring the fact that winter is coming and doing nothing. It works very well for some roses and may even work for most during mild winter. However, most of the modern roses will very likely suffer major winter damage if left unprotected. This is the recommended method for growing roses as ‘annuals’.

Roses grown in containers need to be handled differently. The containers should be brought inside (preferable to an unheated space), or bury the containers in the garden, or cover the containers (all bunched together) with mulch or other material.

COOKING WITH ROSES

One of the rose garden's many bounties occurs each fall as the last roses bloom and succulent rose hips form. These hips are actually seed pods and are edible. Remember --- roses and apples are cousins!! So the hip forms like a little "rose apple". Depending on the type of rose, the hips will differ in shape, size, sweetness, color and time it takes to ripen. As with all fruit, you will know when the hip is ripe because the sides will "give" slightly when you gently squeeze the pod.

In my yard I have roses that make big, round hips that start out green and slowly turn bright pumpkin orange. There are two other bushes whose hips are slender and "flask" or "coke bottle" shaped and they tend to turn reddish brown. The best and biggest hips in my yard are on Altissimo (a climber) and Hansa (one of the rugosas).

The hip forms after the bloom has withered, so if you want to harvest hips you must stop deadheading the roses in August.

When I was a little girl, my grandmother taught me to make green apple jelly. She also adapted her recipe to make jelly from the rose hips in the fall. It's pretty simple, and very tasty. Rose hips have from 10 to100 times more vitamin C than most natural products along with vitamins A, E, B-1, niacin, K and P and also calcium, phosphorous and iron.

PREPARATIONS

If you want to try this winter ritual, here's how to start.
Be very sure the roses haven't been sprayed with insecticide or dusted with sulfur. This is very important. You want clean, untainted rose hips for your jelly.

Watch the hips form and when they are the right color (or you are sure they are ripe), pick them off. Most rose hip recipes require a good amount of rose hips.

Have sterilized jelly jars ready.

Wash the hips and chop them (nowadays, I use a food processor). Since this is going to be a jelly (which will be strained any way) you don't need to remove the skin or pick out the seeds. Just don't let the seeds break up -- if broken, they add bitterness to the jelly.

(Some recipes call for apple pieces to provide extra juiciness, which reduces the quantity of hips needed but not the particular taste and aroma of the hips.)
Use the hips instead of green apples in any apple jelly recipe.

MY RECIPE:

Boil 2 lbs of chopped rose hips in 2 pints of water until good and tender. Rub the pulp through a fine sieve to remove the seeds and basically make a puree.

Peel, quarter and remove seeds from 4 to 5 green apples and boil in water until soft. Rub them through the sieve also.

Combine the apple and rose hip puree with 2 1/2 to 3 cups of sugar and 1/3 of a cup of lemon juice. The solution should be cloudy with minute bits of the rose and apple pulp.

Bring to a boil and continue boiling for another 15 minutes.

When it has reached the desired consistency, (makes a thin skin when poured from a spoon) pour into sterilized jars and seal.

Fertilizing Your Roses

By Jolene Adams, CGCI Rose Chairman

Fertilizing Roses Roses have hearty appetites. To keep on producing beautiful blooms, sturdy stems and healthy foliage, they require three indispensable nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in the form of potash (N, P, K). Fertilizer labels carry three numbers that give the percentages of these nutrients that the mix contains. The "general purpose" rose foods and fertilizers most commonly found at the supermarket or discount store usually is labeled 15-15-15, which means that 45% of the mixture (by weight) consists of equal parts of these three main nutrients. The other 55% is filler. Usually the filler material contains traces of the micronutrients sulfur, calcium, magnesium, manganese, iron and/or zinc and keeps the stuff from clumping in the bag or box.

What

You can feed roses with granular fertilizer, spikes, time release beads, liquid fertilizer and/or powdered products (like manures or kelp products). The granular and spike fertilizers may release nutrients all at once, or over a period of time; the liquids nourish the plant right away, the powdered forms take a while to degrade in the soil before becoming available to the plants.

When feeding – try to use a balanced fertilizer – one that has many of the micronutrients included. Don’t try to add minor or supplemental nutrients yourself – you’ll overdo it and probably kill the plant. Remember – “micro” means a teensy bit. Magnesium is one of those micronutrients – your rose doesn’t need it if you are growing them in clay soils in California – we already have as much magnesium as we need. Epsom salts is magnesium sulfate – so, buyer beware!

Whichever style of fertilizer you use, be sure to read the label carefully to find out how much to apply. Inadequate nutrition can stunt a rose's growth; too much can weaken plants and make them susceptible to disease.

Time-release fertilizer delivers nutrients slowly but steadily over a period of time. Many people feel that these fertilizers don't deliver at a fast-enough rate for roses. The beads of fertilizer must be below the soil and covered so light doesn’t hit them. The soil must be very moist. The ground has to reach a certain warmth usually above 70 deg. F before they begin to work.

Liquid fertilizers can be sprayed on the foliage (yes, leaves will absorb fertilizer!) to help brighten colors and increase bloom size. Results can be seen within 10 days. This is called foliar feeding. If you use this method, be sure to spray early in the day so the sun can dry the leaves before the evening cools off and mildews are prowling through the garden looking for damp leaves!.

Granular, powdered or pelletized fertilizers are applied to the ground around each bush, usually at the drip line, and gently scratched into the first two inches of soil. Be careful not to destroy the feeder roots fanning out from the base of the bush. Cover the soil with mulch to hold in moisture so the fertilizer goes into solution.

When

Roses should be fed on a regular schedule. Granular fertilizers can be applied at the beginning of the growing season (usually March, when the emerging foliage is about 3"-4" long), at the end of each bloom cycle, in the middle of the year (mid-July), and one final feed later in September to give them something on which to "winter over." That late feeding should be low in Nitrogen (a formula like 0-10-10) so the roses won’t put out new growth in winter.

How

All your plants need to be well-watered the day before you fertilize. This prevents "fertilizer burn" which happens when a thirsty plant tries to drink up the liquid part of the feeding because it needs water. You can water very well on one day, then spread the fertilizer (powdered, granular, time release) or push in the spikes, or use a hose-end sprayer for a liquid fertilizer application. Then you water the ground again to help the fertilizer go into solution in the soil.

–Landscaping With Roses

We’ve all been raised on the idea of a group of tall hybrid tea roses as a focal point in the garden. But modern roses are moving into the landscape – as the ‘supporting cast’ for your ‘garden production’.

Stiff, upright exhibition-style rose bushes are giving way to the softer look of the shrub, the shrublet, the miniature, the floribunda rose to fill out a garden border, to mask fences and walls, and to line drives, entrances, and walkways.

Meet the ‘new roses’ - tough, colorful, easy to grow, and tolerant of neglect. Here are some that have recently been introduced to the gardening market:

Wing Ding - a polyantha rose with a lot of ‘pop’. This shrubby rose grows to medium height (about 2 ½ ft in CA), covers itself several times a year with bright sprays of orangish-red, small blooms of 7 - 8 petals. The large clusters of blooms last for at least two weeks, and the blooms occur all over the edges of the bush - so by cutting back the old growth carefully, you can have an amazing monthly spectacle of bloom from this little shrub. It is extremely disease resistant.

Good and Plenty - just like the familiar candy this shrub rose blooms in raspberry pink with white centers. A shrubby bush, the small blooms of 5-8 petals cover the edges in flushes every 5 weeks. Easy care - no diseases, lots of color. This one forms a small mound and blooms its head off every year.

Marmalade Skies - prepare to be shocked! Big, fluffy clusters of screaming tangerine blooms - about 20 petals, flowers in big bunches. Sometimes so many blooms the stems bend down! Disease resistant, capable of forming a hedge, grows to about 3 ft tall, spreading habit.

Golden Halo - one of the very stiff, upright miniature roses that blooms in lovely clusters of golden yellow. The small blooms look like florist roses, and often come in small clusters. Reaches about 2 ft.

Blossom Blanket - this one is good for slopes, walls, cliff faces. Small white blooms of 20 petals with big yellow ‘eyes’, disease resistant, and dedicated to growing low - it covers the ground in about 3 years, giving you a carpet of blooms on a sturdy, disease resistant shrub of 2-3 ft tall. And ... it’s fragrant!

Coffee Bean - what? You never had a ‘brown’ rose?? This little gem is a russet-colored miniature, with blooms that blend brown, rust, soft purple, caramel and dusty orange - all in one flower! Deep green leaves and strong disease resistance, with blooms coming every 5 weeks or so. Smoky red-orange buds open to blooms that go through color changes in the orange-brown ranges, ending dark indigo-brown.

Treat your garden to a makeover - try some landscape accents – with roses!

Download the most recent copy of
the Rose Newsletter below
wriiten by CGCI Rose Chairman Jolene Adams.

Rose News-Spring 2010
Rose News-Fall 2009
Rose News-Spring 2009
Rose News-Winter 2008 "Roses: The Winter Season
Rose News-Fall 2008 "Roses: The Fall Season"
Rose News-Summer 2008
Rose News- Spring 2008
Rose News- Winter 2007
Rose News-Fall 2007

* Finger prune those little buds that are growing in the wrong direction – push them off with your finger!

* Once the rose is growing well it needs food – fertilizer should have a slightly higher nitrogen percentage. 20-18-18 or something along that line will work well.

* Organics are used to feed the ‘critters’ in the soil. They in turn manufacture the necessary solutions that feed your roses.

* Spray for mildew and rust once the leaves are 2" long. Use horticultural oils or fungicides that will help your rose fight off fungus infections.

Before the leaves get too big you can ‘tune up’ your pruning job. Did you leave a stem a bit too long and there is no new growth for several inches? Trim it down to the active bud now and you won’t get ugly ‘die back’ in the cane tip. Maybe one side of the rose is higher than the other? Now is the time to trim down the top to make a gently rounded shape.

It is a good idea to stay OUT of the flower beds when they are wet and soggy. Stepping on the ground will compact it and make it harder for the roots of the roses to ‘breathe’.

Cool, moist weather is also the perfect climate for mildews. Powdery mildew will attack roses (and many other plants) once the rains have stopped - powdery mildew does not like continually wet foliage or water falling on it. You can minimize any chance of infection by making sure your roses have good ventilation all around each bush. Don’t plant a rose flat up against a wall or fence - there is no air circulation at the back when you do this and mildews get in and infect the stems and blooms.

Once the weather is warm and clear you can start checking your roses to see if the new canes are growing in the right direction. Don’t let a new bud get started in the wrong direction! If a bud is starting to grow towards the inside of the bush, or towards the driveway, or anywhere but out towards the edges of the bush, simply reach over and flick it off with a snap of your finger, or push it off with your thumb. The little scar will heal in a few days and no damage is done.

Aphids will soon find your garden – they are only waiting for warm weather and the juicy tips of growing plants to appear. These nuisances can be hosed off with a jet of water each morning. Once they hit the ground, the black ground beetles get them!

You might want to start thinking about a routine for feeding your roses. They are starting to grow right now and they are using the food stored in their roots until their leaves develop enough chloroplasts to start photosynthesizing carbohydrates. Once that starts, the roses will be very hungry.

A nice meal of any kind of fertilizer that has approximately a 20-18-20 rating would be appreciated (follow directions on the label). Remember - spread some organics on the surface and water them in. They become ‘comfort food’ as they disintegrate.

Label you roses! They have names - let your visitors know what they are. You can use paint stirring sticks, store-bought labels, slats of venetian blinds, rocks - - whatever tickles your fancy!