Viewing post #459254 by newbiemomgardener

RoseBlush1 said:Yup... it's in the 90s this week and you will probably continue to stay in the 90s and low 100s well into September. I am not certain when the temps in the Valley start to cool down for fall, but I live in the northern California mountains and it can stay in the 90s and 100s through October because the Valley temps climb the mountains, but then again, it's the mountains and can cool off earlier.

You are right to be worried about the olive tree. I don't know if they have a dense aggressive root mass that will cause problems. Species roses are what are called forest edge plants and can handle some shade and some root competition, but for the most part roses don't like too much root competition. If there are a lot of tree roots near the surface of the soil, you will have root competition. The feeder roots of roses can be found within the first 6 inches of the soil.

Iceberg is more shade tolerant than most roses, but it still needs no less than 4 hours of daylight. It is light colored (white) and does not have a lot of petals. A rose that is light hungry will grow tall and leggy while it reaches for the light.

There are twos reason you may not be seeing any new buds, since the previous blooms "dropped off". The first is that repeat blooming roses do not always bloom continuously, but bloom in flushes. The second is that if you did not dead head the rose and allowed it to form hips, the plant "thinks" it has completed its primary function of continuing the species and has set seed and doesn't need to bloom any more. If you see any rose hips on your rose, I think you should just nip them off and not allow them to ripen and this sends a signal to the plant that it has to start and produce blooms to attract the pollenators to help fertilize the bloom so that the plant can set seed and complete the plant cycle. That is why we dead head the roses.

Smiles,
Lyn

Thanks Lyn.. but what do you mean by dead head, and how do i know what a formed hip look like so i know what to snip?