We had some hot days this August, but not as hot as in previous years. No triple-digit temps at all this year.

September is National Condiment Month and the thumbnail photo ia 'Paprika.' There are numerous roses named Paprika. In fact there are three of them even in our small database, but the one in the photo is the Tantau floribunda. It's a cheerful lttle plant, only three feet tall in my garden.

We had a humid August here in northeast Ohio, with some days that cooled down to the low 70's. Greatly appreciated, they did not last and hot weather came back. I'm more than ready for cooler days in September, but, always feel the door opening for winter and no more roses for awhile.
I, both, love and hate our summers. Love the fresh, local fruits and veggies and really hate the hot, muggy days and nights.
Pretty color on that rose, zuzu.

This summer has been the warmest we've had on the southern/central Calif. coast for several years. The past three summers have been very mild, but this July and August had many periods above average... I call them our mini-heat waves. I think that observation is true across So. Calif. My water bill certainly reflects this

The row of roses planted along the fence in front of the house is really struggling from drought, root competition, and excess shade. I have kept the plants alive by frequent watering, but most of the bushes are growing backwards and blooming very little. I suppose I should transplant them away from the trees, but I don't know where... either there is no source of water or too many hungry animals... thinking.
There is always the vegetable garden, but it is out of sight behind the house; what fun would that be?

Roses are still looking good in September in my garden.

Mini


Firefighter


???

porkpal said: The row of roses planted along the fence in front of the house is really struggling from drought, root competition, and excess shade. I have kept the plants alive by frequent watering, but most of the bushes are growing backwards and blooming very little. I suppose I should transplant them away from the trees, but I don't know where... either there is no source of water or too many hungry animals... thinking.
There is always the vegetable garden, but it is out of sight behind the house; what fun would that be?

Mine are struggling with a tremendous amount of black spot this year. I planted several new roses, two of them in the front of my house. They are Lady of the Mist and one lost many of it's leaves, the other every single one from black spot. They are making slow come backs and this heat and humidity isn't helping.
Porkpal, would it help if you put as good amount of extra mulch on the roses you are concerned about to help them retain moisture?

Mulch is always good, I'm a great believer, but these plants need sun and growing room. At least it is too hot for black spot! I think I may pot them up, temporarily at least, to see whether I can save them. Thanks for the suggestion.

I wish I could send you some of our rain, Porkpal, as we have had lso much that it's been hard to keep the blackspot at bay, in spite of my bi-weekly sprayings.

Alas, this past week was a trying one for a different reason, because I had to remove two roses due to RRD. One of my oldest and and most favored specimens of 'Cherry Parfait' (a workhorse of a bloomer) sent up a tell-tale cane of witch's broom and hundreds of rubbery thorns where I least expected to see it, down in one of the lower courtyard gardens where I've never had RRD before. It broke my heart as I've had that rose for at least 25 years and could see it in bloom from the sofa in my "outdoor" living room under the pavilion. So I dug it up and transported it to the town landfill, along with a specimen of 'Scentimental' that also sent up some witch's broom, and was located right beside the giant specimen of 'Bouquet Parfait' that got RRD that I had to dig up earlier this season.

Fortunately, I have two other specimens of 'Cherry Parfait' and two other specimens of 'Scentimental' elsewhere in the garden, so I can still enjoy their blooms.

The only silver lining in all this is that I now have several empty spaces in the garden to fill, so when I got an email from High Country Roses this week letting me know some of my "waiting list" varieties were now available, I ordered them for immediate delivery. These include 'Princesse Charlène de Monaco', 'South Africa' (which I already have but wanted another), and finally, after many years without it, I'm replacing the climber 'America', which is one of my all-time favorites. Here's a photo I took years ago of it blooming at my previous home...

America is one of the first roses I planted here. It was on a gatepost in front of the barn. The fence and gate are now gone, but America is still doing quite well.

Awesome!

My roses are struggling with all the wet- it was a rough year to find that even the areas I thought drained fine don't drain that well.

BUT- silver lining is my new bed looks really good. The ones I planted in early spring are doing so well. I was a lot more choosy with what I picked- hardier, more clay tolerant and so on. The blooms are less showy, but, better a less showy bloom and a healthy plant covered in blooms- even if they are simpler.

I'm not sure how many I will move and save from the bed I've found is too low- I may just let some die simply because they are 'a few blooms a year at best' roses. OR maybe next year will be normal again and all will be well. Hard to say.

I'm watching a rose for RRD- It's a Michaelangelo rose and it has no other symptoms beyond the thorns are light colored this year. It's in a weird area of my yard where everything struggles a bit- sand was trucked in back when the house was built and everything in that spot gets nutritional deficiencies. No additional thorns, leaves are normal shape, it's just yellow overall. Usually I would just give it iron and move on with my life. BUT- can't find a photo of what that rose looks like with RRD so may just pull it to be safe.

porkpal said: The row of roses planted along the fence in front of the house is really struggling from drought, root competition, and excess shade. I have kept the plants alive by frequent watering, but most of the bushes are growing backwards and blooming very little. I suppose I should transplant them away from the trees, but I don't know where... either there is no source of water or too many hungry animals... thinking.
There is always the vegetable garden, but it is out of sight behind the house; what fun would that be?

PP .. you are working against the physiology of the rose by doing frequent watering vs periodic deep watering.

The anchor roots of a rose serve two functions. 1) to anchor the plant ... duh and 2) to push moisture up to the top growth of the rose. If the anchor roots do not get enough moisture, the rose will abandon the top growth and use the water it receives to maintain the roots for survival.

The roots will follow the water, so if your regular practice is deep watering, the roots will go deep, too. If you are only doing shallow watering with your frequent watering practice, you are only watering the feeder roots which can be found it the top 10" of the soil. They are not designed to support the top growth.

Last summer I had to abandon my garden ... I grow 100 roses ... for 4 months. I left on June 1 and returned on Sep 29. My roses did not get any supplemental watering during the hot temps of summer. I am talking about temps in the high 90s to low 100s. I only lost two roses. One was growing in a container and the other was a micro mini which did not have a large enough root mass to survive. Yes, they were stressed, but they survived. Each of my roses get a deep watering once a week. No more than that. If I was working to bring them back, I would probably give the larger roses a deep watering twice a week.

I have followed the deep watering practice for well over a decade, so I know the roots of my roses go down far away from the surface, and because the moisture down where the anchor roots are located doesn't evaporate as quickly as moisture near the surface, the roots had moisture available to them even while I was gone.

It's something to think about.

Smiles,
Lyn

@RoseBlush1 ,
Lyn, I'm a bit confused with your statement:
"They are not designed to support the top growth."
If they aren't designed for top growth what purpose do they serve?
I have no doubt that anchor roots provide moisture for growth as well as survival during dry periods. My own oldie bushes went thru my terrible three year drought cycle without any watering. They obviously found moisture underneath. Because they are not too far away from one of the greenhouses, water plus nutrients from indoor beds probably provided for their outdoor needs.
Active metabolism of all kinds occurr in that upper 10" top soil. That is where synthesis of aminoacids plus nitrogen biological transfer happens. So does the natural chelation of iron , making it available to the roses. One shouldn't forget that it is the biology of the soil which provides for the needs of vascular plants. I'm now convinced by now that NPK plus the component of "available" nitrogen is just a waste of time. There's now plenty of literature showing that if the biota of the aereated part of soil is sound then they'll provide for the necessary nutrients, without the addition of a single ounce of NPK or anything else. The mystery lies then how to keep that upper segment of the soil viable. It would seem then that one should be providing both frequent low volume moisture water every day for the top soil AND deep watering once a week to guarantee survival during stressed periods.
The physiology of a rose is intertwined with the physiology of the protozoans, earthworms, Mycorhyzae, bacteria, microinvertebrates etc. each playing its part underneath. Transfer of nutrients does not happen only via osmosis. Some of the fungi grow mycelia into the feeder roots . They provide useful aminoacids to the vascular plant, these hand over to the fungi other metabolites. My argument is to forget about the rosebush as an isolated plant that has needs . Instead is to view it as part of an integrated web. It is the living web that needs moisture. My hypothesis is that perhaps a drip system plus deep watering once a week during stress should keep the system functional.
For us that destiny led us to grow roses in less that optimal conditions, mine being to generate a garden above a glacial wind swept sand dune, creating top soil has become a mandate. It took me years and a lot of loss to figure out how to overcome the drawbacks of my location. It takes 10 years to generate topsoil in the quantity that a garden asks for. A lot of my broadleaf trees that are now mature generate enough dry leaves in fall so as to provide food for that underground web. My strategy of lifting all my roses and maintain them alive inside 8 gallon containers has proven me successful because I can not still rely that open planting in the ground is now beyond serious risk whenever I'm faced with a new drought sequence. I'm rumiating about lining up deep two feet deep beds for my roses, with the addition of raw sheep wool at the bottom as a way to retain moisture. But of course, most people have clay instead of sand. So as I have read so many times, location, location! Each of us is facing challenges of many types, of which changing climate is one. Each solution will be unique, because if we integrate our working capacities to that web that final combination is singular.

Lyn, our soil is very sandy; deep watering just runs through so it still needs to be frequent. I know not to rely on light watering. That is one reason I was considering pots.

porkpal said: Lyn, our soil is very sandy; deep watering just runs through so it still needs to be frequent. I know not to rely on light watering. That is one reason I was considering pots.

I used pots for rescuing my roses during the drought . Just like you I find conventional watering just a waste. I'm about to establish a drip system to keep my pots moist so that I don't need to hand water them every other day in the peak of our rain-less summers. I use sheep wool to maintain a moist water retaining layer at the bottom along with dryleaves. Earthworms do the rest. I do not use any chemical fertilizers.

@porkpal
Recently I have been watching videos produced by Dr.Elaine Ingham and her team. Most of her research was done in Texas. I didnt catch exactly where, but at least she is quite knowledgeable about conditions in your state. I remember you mentioning having horses at your place and I asssume that you have plenty of horse manure to play with. It may be an alternaive substitute to raw wool for the bottom layer. Now, I know , that what led my bushes to their demise was not lack of water, but lack of AVAILABLE food. The soil food web was killed by the succesive dry periods and the viable populations declined.My roses died of hunger not from thirst. Pots keep everything together inside. Those living organisms are kept within the limits of the container, plus with the needed moisture not beyond it. I don't overwater my pots either. Mainly because during the dry season our commercial vegetable garden takes priority above my ornamentals. I'm considering also building a reservoir in the upper parts of the property so that with adequate tubing and regulation I meet the needs of what I cultivate. I gave up long time ago about keeping an english green lawn in between. I still enjoy visiting my rosebushes every day although what I step in between is bare sand.

porkpal said: Lyn, our soil is very sandy; deep watering just runs through so it still needs to be frequent. I know not to rely on light watering. That is one reason I was considering pots.

PP ...

I am going to address your post first and when I have a bit more energy, I'll come back and address Arturo's posts.

I perk tested all of my rose holes before I planted anything because my house pad was cut out of a slope that serves as a watershed for the Trinity River. Altho' I am gardening in rock instead of sand, I had to address the same issue that you mentioned ... the fact that the water runs through so fast that the roots did not have time to absorb any moisture.

I did some research on perched water tables to learn how to slow the drainage in that part of the garden. It's kind of a complex issue, but I figured if I learned how nature solved the problem, I might find a way to make things work for me in my garden.

I am not a scientist, so I thought if I could understand the concept, that would be my starting point. Of course, there a lot of variables that impact both the drainage and creating an environment for the roots to develop so that they can support the plant.

I could not prepare a whole bed to plant my roses because the drainage varies throughout the garden. In some areas the drainage was too fast and others too slow. So perk testing each rose hole was necessary.

I had to work on each rose hole until I obtained the rate of drainage that would hold moisture around the root system long enough for the roses to absorb the water they needed and still allow the excess water to drain away so that they were not subject to root rot. It was a LOT of experimentation.

Proper drainage was only the first step. I've been building soil in my garden for over twenty years. Because I am gardening in rock, I have what is called a no till garden.

Others who know soil science better than I do, may be able to provide more information.

Smiles,
Lyn

Yay! My new batch of bare roots are on their way!
Felicité Parmentier
Alba Semiplena
Archiduc Charles
Papa Gontier
Mme Antoine Marie
Gloire de Dijon
Duchesse d'Angouleme
Duchesse de Montebello
Gallica complicata
Yolande d'Aragon
Sutter's Gold
Rugosa rubra
Rugosa alba
Multiflora Adenochaeta
Harrisonii
Trep. Antigua de Cristel ( an old garden climber not identified from late Mrs.Cristel's nursery)
Plaza Soria ( found tea)
I'm also expecting as well for another 13 bare roots that are replacements for those that gave up their ghosts during the drought years.
Once potted and kept indoors until late spring freezes are over, I'll start my 2027 e-mails with Mrs.Cristel's disciple, Mrs. Jimena Macallister who has built a considerable stock of budwood, in her own nursery. I have spotted already about 100 cultivars that I care for... . Apart from these she has her own breeding program which means that her new roses will become available 2027/28.
I 🙏 and hope that I'm provided from above to keep my project on-going and expanding.
Arturo

Wow, that's a lot of roses, Arturo. Let us know how they do for you, I almost got Felicite, but, got Konigen Von Danemark instead. It's a wonderful rose and laughs at fungal diseases.

@LittleAnnie ,
Patricia "that's a lot of roses, Arturo"
Well, all of these will be new roses for me. I tend to rely on just a few nurseries, so I almost never purchase roses locally . Most rose farms are very far away, 1000 miles or more, in a much warmer and different climate than mine. So those coming from my north, (warm), will need to be adapted to my place. Obviously they send them bare roots. Some years ago a vendor sent a batch potted in 1 gallon pots . I bought quite a few locally from a very good local garden center. I lost every single one of them. That was the last year that my local garden center brought their products.
With what I'm understanding about the soil web and the creation of mull. I'm gradually understanding what were my mistakes Although rosebushes are very tough, newcomer bare roots plead for special conditions. That's where my potting comes in. 30 odd new bushes each year is what I can reasonably handle myself.
My collection is about 350 pots by now, so yes it is a lot. However once the preparation is done, the keep up is far less demanding. The best part of it is taking a stroll every day through my lines of pots, stop by one, have a whisper with it, then spot another one further away and shake my hands with it because it showing flower buds or a new basal break.
"Konigen Von Danemark instead. It's a wonderful rose". I've yet to discover who may have it here. It has been under by rose radar screen for years. I simply over albas. Mrs. Jimena has three more albas in her nursery that I'm after: "Cuisse de Nymphes Emué", Alba maxima, and another found in her town, Tandil, that she named provisionally Alba tandilensis. If I get her to graft them this spring, then if all goes well them I might receive them bare root by 2028. Meanwhile I'll urge her to search for budwood within the country or beyond of KvD.
Arturo