Hi all! I'm new here, and already amazed at the vast amount of information and inspiration. I have four rose bushes that have survived and sometimes even flourished despite my less-than-expert care. I hope I'll learn enough here to give them the care they deserve.

Jana

Hi, Jana. Welcome to NGA. Please don't hesitate to ask any questions you might have.

Jana! I am pretty new here too, joined in Feb this year, but can only confirm what you have already discovered - this is a great forum for info and inspiration and also for sharing your garden experiences. Nice friendly bunch of folks as well

Jana ...

Four roses - only? Since you live in the rose capital of Texas, in fact some say of America, we will be happy to enable the expansion of your rose collection.

porkpal said:Four roses - only? Since you live in the rose capital of Texas, in fact some say of America, we will be happy to enable the expansion of your rose collection.

Right??? I was actually scared to get started with roses because I had heard so many stories about how difficult they were to care for (even here in Tyler, a lot of folks leave the rose-growing to the professionals). But my husband bought a couple for me for Mother's Day one year and I picked up another couple at a big box store on a whim one day. I only know the true identification of one of them, so I may be posting some pictures soon to get y'all to help me identify the other three.

Thanks so much for the warm welcome, everyone!

We always like pictures.

I grow roses because they give me lovely blooms with a minimum of care which most plants do not. There are many types of roses. You can choose roses to suit the amount of care you want to devote to them. I grow mostly Old Garden Roses because they do well in spite of neglect. Others here specialize in Hybrid Teas or Floribundas. To each his own.

Jana ...

Roses are weeds if you get the right roses.

There are the roses that need a lot of TLC because they are weak plants to begin with and no matter what you do, they will never be good plants and you will always struggle and think it is your fault that they don't grow well. Of course, the marketing of those roses indicate that they should do very well for you.

There are roses that simply will never grow well in Texas, but roses are regional and these roses just are not suited to your climate. They are wonderful in some areas and complete dawgs in your climate, but they are marketed as if they will grow well in all climates. That's just not true.

There are some roses that grow well own root while others have to be budded because they really need the extra vigor provided by budding.

Most of the instructions I've seen on many of the nursery sites set the new rose grower up for failure because they don't take into consideration what it takes to bring a baby rose into maturity. There is so much misinformation out there. They make it seem like a lot of work is involve and really all it takes is a lot of patience.

No one knows all of the answers, note even the experts, but keep asking lots and lots of questions. Some times, you will find we even disagree on the best approach or the best rose and that's because each of us brings different experiences from our rose lives to the rose forums to share with you.

A perfect example is Porkpal's love of old garden roses. They would never succeed in my climate. Oh, well. They work very well in PP's climate. That's roses.

If a rose doesn't make you happy, don't be afraid to get rid of it and get a new rose. There is always another rose that might do better for you.

There is a lot to learn, but for your first lesson, it's easier to start with a healthy plant. Most big box store plants have had their roots butchered. You might start your rose adventure by getting your rose from a reputable nursery.

@RoseBlush1, thank you so much for your reply! Yes, I have begun to realize that a couple of my roses probably aren't going to be a good fit in the long run. The other two seem to thrive under neglect, though! I really needed to hear what you said about letting a rose go if it's just not working out. Not that I'm going to run out and pull anything up right now, but remembering that it's not the end of the world if a bush doesn't succeed makes it all that more enjoyable.

Just ask all of the questions you want. It's more fun that way ...

Jana!

Lyn is so right, gardening is all about experimenting and seeing what plants are happy in your garden- where one fails, another will prosper and there's no use wasting garden space on a plant that may never be happy. Enjoy the journey! I enjoy "getting to know" whatever rose I'm trying, even if they end up getting "shovel pruned".

Hi guys,
I'm not new here, but I am pretty ignorant when it comes to roses.

Can I ask some some questions (that I probably should have asked a long time ago, before I did the wrong thing ) here ?

Ask away, DD.

It will probably be best to start a new thread with your questions so they get fresh attention.

Jezer said:@RoseBlush1, thank you so much for your reply! Yes, I have begun to realize that a couple of my roses probably aren't going to be a good fit in the long run. The other two seem to thrive under neglect, though! I really needed to hear what you said about letting a rose go if it's just not working out. Not that I'm going to run out and pull anything up right now, but remembering that it's not the end of the world if a bush doesn't succeed makes it all that more enjoyable.

Jana, sometimes you just have to be ruthless with a plant that consistently gives a less than stellar performance. I blush to think of when I first started gardening and how many plants I let die from ignorance and lack of care--including a dozen or so Roses. During that time, I also found the ones that would thrive no matter how much neglect they were subjected to. A couple of those are now starting to wane after six or seven years, so , in the next few weeks, I am going to discard what were previously faithful performers (Just Joey and a NOID pink). Which will be unpleasant. However, they will make room for two more that might have a better track record for a longer period. Gardens constantly evolve, don't they?

Ha--I don't really want fresh attention!
Nor do I really want to hijack the thread with a plethora of dumb questions...
Sorry! carry on--

To avoid fresh attention and charges of hijacking, DD, ask your questions on the August 2016 chat thread. There's no way to hijack a chat thread.

The thread "August 2016 -- Photos and Chat" in Roses forum

lovemyhouse said:


Jana, sometimes you just have to be ruthless with a plant that consistently gives a less than stellar performance. I blush to think of when I first started gardening and how many plants I let die from ignorance and lack of care--including a dozen or so Roses. During that time, I also found the ones that would thrive no matter how much neglect they were subjected to. A couple of those are now starting to wane after six or seven years, so , in the next few weeks, I am going to discard what were previously faithful performers (Just Joey and a NOID pink). Which will be unpleasant. However, they will make room for two more that might have a better track record for a longer period. Gardens constantly evolve, don't they?

Debra ...

There's probably no need to discard them. Just wait until next spring and give them a hard prune. Old wood is less efficient than newer wood. Often, a rose that begins to do poorly after several years just needs to be rejuvenated and pushed into producing new wood.

I had a couple of roses I was going to shovel prune this spring and pruned them right to the ground. Then I got sick and didn't get around to digging them up. They started putting up new growth and they are looking look new roses. They are clean and healthy plants with lots of bloom. I have used rejuvenation pruning with a lot of roses, but this is the first time I have ever pruned a rose to the ground !

I am still going to dig it up and give it away next spring, but if you want to keep your rose, a good hard prune won't hurt it. A friend of mine calls it the "Do-or-die" prune.

@RoseBlush1

Lyn, cutting them back would use a lot less energy than digging them out, so I will try that first.
Thank you.

RoseBlush1 said:

A friend of mine calls it the "Do-or-die" prune.

That's a good one Lyn - got to remember that