Hi, sharing a few pics of my roses. All my roses are grown 100% organically, no chemical pesticide / fungicide ever used and since last one year, no use of synthetic fertilizers too. I feed my roses with homemade compost. I have been experimenting on getting an NPK value in my compost that is rose specific, ie. rich in N & K (almost equal percentage), enough Ca and Mg, little P and trace elements Mn, Fe, Zn, Cu, Bo, S etc). So basically it's a N, K & Ca rich compost. Ingredients come from my kitchen waste but added in a manner that I achieve something close to the desired NPK. My roses are doing well with this compost and I do not feel need of feeding my roses with anything more. I give my roses a top layer of compost and now I am experimenting on feeding them with compost tea. I believe in creating an "Alive Soil" that has the chain of mycorrhizae fungi, beneficial microbes and worms well established that optimizes mineral intake to the plants instead of overfeeding the plants with all kind of minerals that prompt extraordinary growth and make roses vulnerable to diseases. I had to be a little patient in the beginning but now the system is working well for me and my roses are healthy, capable of fighting many diseases and pests at their own and producing more and bigger blooms than ever before.
Nowadays temps in my area range between 105 to 112*F during hottest part of the day, staying around 100*F most of the day. At night the minimum temp generally doesn't go below 78*F. Many roses are in the survival mode and producing small size blooms with little fragrance. Few are performing quite well in this hot weather too and I will keep indicating those rose in my posts. Sharing a few pics..... most of these pics were taken in April as many of these roses have small size mediocre blooms nowadays.
Lovely strong fragrance that reminds me of tropical dessert. Performs better in dappled shade in my area.
Lovely tea fragrance, not as strong as Jude the Obscure but it holds on and even at 105*F and higher, my CPM has some fragrance. At this temp, many other roses become almost non-fragrant. Vigorous grower in my area with abundance of 4-6 feet long canes.
Love the fruity fragrance of LEH but overall performance of LEH is just average in my climate. Blooms fryout within hours when temps are above 100*F. This bush is on multiflora root stock while my most other roses are on centifolia root stock which performs much better in my area as compared to multiflora or Dr Huey root stocks.
Very long bloom life and a delightful fragrance is what makes this rose special. Blooms last for 4-5 days in temps over 100*F which is simply outstanding. And of course, La France comes with lot of history too. Propagates very easily through cuttings in my climate and forms a nice own root bush in just six months. Doesn't rebloom that well.
A delightful sweet old rose mix fragrance that is moderate in intensity but holds on even in high temps. A prolific bloomer..... prefers dappled shade in hot months for optimum performance. Blooms last whole day in temps over 100*F which is very nice.
More to come.......
