Rose Notes

Click here to download the most recent copy of
the Rose Newsletter
wriiten by CGCI Rose Chairman Jolene Adams .

Landscaping – With Roses

By Jolene Adams, CGCI Rose Chairman

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!

Fertilizing Your Roses

By Jolene Adams, CGCI Rose Chairman

Here in Northern California we do NOT want to add more magnesium to our soil - so the Epsom Salts are definitely not recommended.
The Blood Meal and Bone Meal are good organics, but they are usually added to the hole when planting a rose, not scattered over the rose bed or scratched into the soil. Dogs and cats and other critters will smell this a mile away, and then they come and dig it up!
Ironite is okay if your roses are showing that they need iron. Osmocote is a time-release fertilizer. Small balls of plastic are filled with a fertilizer, and then you put them into the ground about 4" deep around your roses. If the temperature of the soil gets above 75 degrees and you are watering enough to melt the plastic ball, the fertilizer oozes out and feeds the rose.
If you put any of this on top of the soil, you are wasting your money and your time. Anything you add to the rose bed needs to go underground. You will need to either scratch it in, water it in, or bury it.
Mushroom compost and chicken manure (hopefully composted too) are good organic additives. Again, you need to mix it into the top couple of inches of the soil and water well. Leaving it on top just lets it dry our and blow away.

Roses like to be by themselves in full sun. They will tolerate other light conditions but they get leggy, less flowers and mildew. Fertilizer and some type of aphid control will keep them healthy. Cutting off the flowers or old flower heads to a five leaflet leaf will conserve the plants energy, make it grow more and take the summer heat better. Why the five leaflet leaf? Because the bud above this leaf has been used to make the flower stem and new shoots will sprout from the lower leaves.

You might want to consider drip irrigation for your roses. Roses do not like sprinkler irrigation. I had one line on each side of the rose row with one gallon per minute drippers at four feet apart for a number of years. Last year I added drippers to make them two feet apart in each row. I covered the ground with a weed-blocker screen; then bark; then the drip system. I still run it 30 minutes, three times a week in the middle of the summer. The growth has doubled and the flowers are higher in number and quality. Be sure to use a flow control (10 to 15 pounds pressure or you may blow the drippers out) and a filter (to clean the sand and shells out of the water supply) and a valve to hook it up to work off of your control clock (you may need a digital clock to get enough time per station).

I always took roses to my teachers in the spring. Why don’t children do that anymore? I needed every edge that I could get and we didn’t grow apples. It worked on my mom too. She didn’t like us using them on mud pies but who could turn down such a beautiful presentation from such a loving son. Roses are a good way to remember moms; they have beautiful color, wonderful smells and thorns to poke you to pay attention to the job at hand.


	Rose Notes for California Gardeners
	Click here to download the most recent copy of the Rose Newsletter wriiten by CGCI Rose Chairman Jolene Adams . Landscaping – With Roses By Jolene Adams, CGCI Rose Chairman 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! Fertilizing Your Roses By Jolene Adams, CGCI Rose Chairman Here in Northern California we do NOT want to add more magnesium to our soil - so the Epsom Salts are definitely not recommended. The Blood Meal and Bone Meal are good organics, but they are usually added to the hole when planting a rose, not scattered over the rose bed or scratched into the soil. Dogs and cats and other critters will smell this a mile away, and then they come and dig it up! Ironite is okay if your roses are showing that they need iron. Osmocote is a time-release fertilizer. Small balls of plastic are filled with a fertilizer, and then you put them into the ground about 4" deep around your roses. If the temperature of the soil gets above 75 degrees and you are watering enough to melt the plastic ball, the fertilizer oozes out and feeds the rose. If you put any of this on top of the soil, you are wasting your money and your time. Anything you add to the rose bed needs to go underground. You will need to either scratch it in, water it in, or bury it. Mushroom compost and chicken manure (hopefully composted too) are good organic additives. Again, you need to mix it into the top couple of inches of the soil and water well. Leaving it on top just lets it dry our and blow away. A Few Thoughts on Growing Roses By Harry Dedini, Valley Lode District Director Roses like to be by themselves in full sun. They will tolerate other light conditions but they get leggy, less flowers and mildew. Fertilizer and some type of aphid control will keep them healthy. Cutting off the flowers or old flower heads to a five leaflet leaf will conserve the plants energy, make it grow more and take the summer heat better. Why the five leaflet leaf? Because the bud above this leaf has been used to make the flower stem and new shoots will sprout from the lower leaves. You might want to consider drip irrigation for your roses. Roses do not like sprinkler irrigation. I had one line on each side of the rose row with one gallon per minute drippers at four feet apart for a number of years. Last year I added drippers to make them two feet apart in each row. I covered the ground with a weed-blocker screen; then bark; then the drip system. I still run it 30 minutes, three times a week in the middle of the summer. The growth has doubled and the flowers are higher in number and quality. Be sure to use a flow control (10 to 15 pounds pressure or you may blow the drippers out) and a filter (to clean the sand and shells out of the water supply) and a valve to hook it up to work off of your control clock (you may need a digital clock to get enough time per station). I always took roses to my teachers in the spring. Why don’t children do that anymore? I needed every edge that I could get and we didn’t grow apples. It worked on my mom too. She didn’t like us using them on mud pies but who could turn down such a beautiful presentation from such a loving son. Roses are a good way to remember moms; they have beautiful color, wonderful smells and thorns to poke you to pay attention to the job at hand.
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