Larry, any clues as to the cause of the root rot?

I'm not quite sure what happened, but I was working in a part of the garden near 2 Iceberg plants and had stepped behind them to weed. I moved through the bed and turned around to see one Iceberg was laying on its side, completely broken off just below the bud union. It looked like the wood was damaged and weak in that spot already, and I'm guessing I bumped against it. It was a poor, rescued bagged rose and I suspect the graft wasn't great to start with. The other one looks fine and I'm fine with having the space open up- I don't need 2 relatively plain white roses there anyway.

gemini_sage said: French Lace sounds like a reasonably good performer. Do any of you grow French Lace?

Neal, 'French Lace' is one of the roses I left behind when I moved to the mountains. I have to say it was one of the most favorite roses I have grown in my rose life. I was told it would not stand up to the my high summer temps. This January, I decided to shovel prune the one rose in my garden that gets afternoon shade and bought another 'French Lace'. I just had to try it up here. I love that rose.

I don't know how it would do as a standard. I don't particularly like standards created with floribundas or hybrid teas. The growth of the rose is too upright for my taste. I like to have weeping standards.

It's all a matter of taste and has nothing to do with the rose ...

My reasoning is that a standard rose (or any rose) that costs, say, £30, provides us with years and years of pleasure. Being mean, say ten years - so £3 per year. Compare that with the cost of a bunch of cut roses - say, £15 - that lasts just a few days.... I think my advice is therefore don't go for the cheapest, go for those you love the most!

Neal, no I have no clue as to why the two plants turned black and died, just hoping others don't follow suit. It has been several months and so far nothing resembling that is happening with the rest of the plants.

Lyn, I love French Lace too. It does well in our heat, but it has never gotten more than 2 feet tall and wide for me in 8 years.
Neal and Larry, that rot sounds awful! I'm going to guess it came with the rose instead of developing in your soil, or you would have lost more roses near it.
Mika, I use that rationalization all the time. Sad truth is, if I had to, I would skip meals to buy another rose.

Sounds like I'm going to have to go back and get one They have a lovely fragrance and I like the idea of bringing the blooms to nose height!

Lyn, I know what you mean about standards with hybrid teas especially- they grow in wonky shapes a lot of times anyway and I especially wouldn't like that on a standard. Hoping the shorter, bushier floribunda will have a tidier shape. I do love the weeping look of cascading roses on standards- such a romantic look!

Mika, I like the way you think I'm rather good at rationalization myself

gemini_sage said:Lyn, I know what you mean about standards with hybrid teas especially- they grow in wonky shapes a lot of times anyway and I especially wouldn't like that on a standard. Hoping the shorter, bushier floribunda will have a tidier shape. I do love the weeping look of cascading roses on standards- such a romantic look!

Neal, my experience with 'French Lace' in San Diego, is that the rose can handle hard pruning, which for a standard is a good thing. You can prune so that it grows with the shape you like.

Cindi ... is your FL one of the roses that dies back during the winters or is eaten by critters ?

I doubt if I will ever find the few roses I left behind that I truly miss, so I am really hoping my new FL can handle this climate.

Lyn, that's great to hear about French Lace! Just realized I have the perfect spot for it- a large container by the door of our main entrance! I've got a conifer in there now that has been there through winter. I keep a large pot in that spot not only because it looks good, but our front door opens out, which is kinda strange... and also gets caught by the wind and slams into a light fixture. So I keep a large pot there to catch the door. This will give me more options when it comes time to protect for winter.

French Lace is planted in one of my gardens where one of the contaminated shrubs was removed last year. I hope to see it come back healthy.

Teri ... I hope so, too. I really love that rose.

I killed three curculio weevils today on Soleil d'Or. I don't remember them showing up so early in past years, but that is their favorite rose.

Makes sense if your winter temps were warmer than usual. Mine were on average 10 degrees warmer than what is normal. I don't expect any more freezing night temps which I usually have through the middle of April.

My roses leafed out before the forsythia bloomed, which is really strange.

I don't have anything in bloom, yet, and none of the species roses around me are blooming.

I am still hoping to get a clean first flush.

Have you heard anything about a forecasted hotter summer season ?

I haven't heard, but it wouldn't surprise me. The last couple of summers have been cooler than usual. We haven't had any triple-digit temps for at least two years. Winter was milder on the whole, but that didn't stop a couple of extra-frosty mornings from killing everything that was the slightest bit tender.

Who can answer this ?
My roses are now starting their first flush of the season.
I have "White Licorice" which is "supposed to be" a florabunda...and it did bloom as such last year...in clusters.
This year, it's absolutely loaded with single stem blooms and not a single cluster to be found. I'm not complaining, but just curious why this would be the case. The buds are enormous.
I've never had a FB rose do this.
Any theories ?

That's bizarre. I've never had a floribunda do that, so I have no theories.

Sounds like blooming with single blooms is normal for the rose.

This is from the plant patent:

"The new variety usually bears its flowers singly, sometimes in clusters of two to three per stem. Flowers may be borne in somewhat irregular rounded clusters on strong short to medium length stems (about 15 to about 50 cm.). Outdoors, the plant blooms abundantly and nearly continuously during the growing season. "

I finished my spring pruning of the roses today. I started early enough but then got distracted doing other things in the garden before I finished. So I still had front yard rose beds to do. But I got them done today so I am done.

This year I am planning a big veggie garden but unlike other years I am starting all my own from seeds. I have so many seedling started inside I don't know where I will plant them all.

Rita, do you can tomatoes? I started canning them a couple of years ago. I wanted organic canned tomato products in glass, but the prices are outrageous, so I started growing and canning my own and have made my own barbecue sauce, ketchup, Italian red sauce. It's been rather enjoyable.

The only rose showing frost damage is Molineaux (sp?), and Austin rose. It's a crappy little thing anyway that has stayed the same size for 9 years. I think I'll toss it and make room for something else. And speaking of Austin roses, my order from them arrived today. I had never bought an own root, bare root plants before, and the description said they were similar in size to grafted plants (for most varieties they offer both options). I was really curious, so that's what I opted for. I'd grown some own root Austin roses in the past that performed well, so I felt it wasn't much risk. The roots look fantastic!

It will be tomorrow evening before I can plant them. I made sure they were moist and wrapped them back up, put them back in the box and sat them on the porch. Its 43F and has been drizzling rain, and is supposed to remain above freezing tonight. Is that the best way to treat them? I could let them soak, or perhaps start soaking them in the morning? They are Graham Thomas and Lady of Shallot.

I've found that I can safely keep bare-root roses in the packing box for a few days in cold weather.

I may have told this story before, but back in the days when I bought Wayside's clearance roses from Krazy Keith's, I misplaced a box of bare-root roses behind my living room couch and didn't notice it until weeks later. I soaked the roots and planted the roses. All of them grew into nice rose bushes. Not one was bothered by spending weeks in a box, even in a heated home. Those were great roses, and I bet I only paid a couple of dollars for each.

Wow! And those plants had probably already been in cold storage for a long while too! These will be just fine- I feel better