My roses failed this year. I think this is the only bloom that came through with any gusto.
Most of the bushes are going on 30 years old and I'm wondering if I need to pull them up and start anew. According to the Great Google, the average lifespan of a rose is 35 years, so mine are pushing it.
Some of these were started by my husband's grandmother, who passed them on to me. I am not keen to lose those, but I also don't know how to start a new bush myself. I don't think I have the patience for it, either, from what I read about how to do it.
Next year I will try to care for them better, and see how they do. If they do not improve, then I will have to figure out what to do about them.
I miss my rose bush. It bloomed beautifully for a few years after we moved here and then suddenly just died. I was upset, but I am not good at growing things either.
ReplyDeleteI am not a rose expert and live in a northern climate. My grandmother had a beautiful rose garden. As her helper when I was a small girl, I remember taking cuttings from the rare rosebushes, dipping the freshly cut stem in rooting compound and placing in clay pots filled with potting soil. Indirect sunlight; water gently three times a day. You will know when they are ready to join their sisters.
ReplyDeleteI also recall grandmother taking cuttings from delicate roses and grafting those stems onto hardier rootstocks. It may be worthwhile to buy an inexpensive #2-grade rose (my Queen Elizabeths — an exceptionally beautiful and sturdy rose — were only $2 apiece at a hardware store sidewalk sale).
I wash my roses. Take a bar of Ivory soap, cut into small pieces, put into a pressurized garden sprayer tank (not used for chemicals) filled with warm water. Leave overnight so the soap softens to become a solution.
Early on a late spring morning around sunrise, I wash them. Roses are ladies; they do not like to get wet. This is the exception. Pump up the sprayer; turn the nozzle to fine mist. Direct the mist at the buds and leaves. Wet the whole rosebush. My sprayer is two gallons so I walk around the house and spray the foundation plants, too.
Insects (especially aphids) do not like soap. In the olden days, the women would put the dishwater on the outdoor plants. But then detergent happened.
Mine are that old too and looking scraggly when not in bloom. Propagating roses is not hard, but I've not had success yet because I forget about watering them.
ReplyDelete