What do roses need to be healthy?

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Trax

Active Member
We have 5 different kinds of ever-blooming tea roses but nobody here (at home) knows how to take care of them and I'm the only one that really has time to anyway.
We have a Blue Moon, Yellow Rose of Texas, a white rose, a orange rose, and a red-yellow-orange rose. I don't know the names of the last 3 but all 5 are looking really bad. The dirt here has a lot of clay so I mixed some compost into it around the plants but it hasn't helped much. The plants are mostly dead limbs but there are some spotted leafs. I have a copper fungicide so I'm going to try that. But what I really need to know is what need to buy to feed them with. Also, they're in a place where they get lots of sun but also get lots of wind. Does wind hurt roses?
Any information I can get about this will be very very appreciated! :)
 

Spider_Lily

Active Member
My soil is rich don't need much done to it.But I do add bonemeal in the Spring after I prune them.and later sprinkle epson salt's around and water in.
 

RonsGarden

Super Moderator
Staff member
I found, over the years that roses love growing in clay based soils!
I really never had to do much to them to grow and bloom, and rarely fertilized them. All they got was a good pruning in the early spring and then some cleaning up after the first flush of blooms! The rest of the time they fended for themselves! I did give them a good dose of epsom salts once a year
One thing they resent are sandy soils. They were short lived without me intervening with regular watering and mulching to help conserve moisture! In sandy soil they are too high maintenance, so no longer bother growing them in my present sandy soil gardens!
 

Trax

Active Member
Thanks! :) We have some epsom salt and I can get some bonemeal. I'm getting that I should prune all the dead branches off(?) so I'll try that too. I guess they are just suffering from a lot of neglect. I'll let you know how it all turns out!
 

RonsGarden

Super Moderator
Staff member
I think the winds you get maybe a big problem!
As the winds blow the canes move back and forth and the crowns (the area were they were grafted) loosens from the surrounding soil! You may need to stake them to help prevent wind blown movement!
Is it really windy during the winter months?
Winter kill is common as is dieback down to the crown area! Mounding soil around and over the graft area will be a big help! You can remove the mounded soil in the early spring once you notice buds developing!
By all means remove all and any dead, damaged, and old canes more then 3 years old down to a live node to encourage new growth on these canes as well as from the crown area!
At this point whatever you do to improve their growing conditions will be a big help!
 

Trax

Active Member
Thanks, RonsGarden!! :)
That will help a lot! We get incredible winter winds! It's not uncommon to get straight-line winds of 30-40 MPH that last a whole day or even longer and have below-zero wind-chills. Unfortunately, all 5 roses are totally open to north winds for at least 200 feet where there's nothing but mowed grass. But I could plant some clumping bamboo, on the other side of the sidewalk, to give them some wind protection. And I will definitely put mounds of dirt around the crowns and stake the plants. Btw, thanks for the info about canes, crowns, and grafting! I didn't know they were called that. Are all tea roses grafted? Anyway, I will definitely cut the dead canes back to where the plants are still alive. In fact, I can do that after I water the gardens in the morning. And I've already put bonemeal on the shopping list for this weekend.
Thanks a lot RonsGarden and Spider Lily! :) I prolly have a lot more to learn but at least now I can get started! I like roses and I sure didn't wanna see those die.
 

RonsGarden

Super Moderator
Staff member
All named hybrid tea roses, as well as climber and bush types are grafted onto wild rose stock plants! Using stock plants to graft onto helps make the plants survive our cold winters! So protecting the grafts with mounds of soil really makes sense in all the colder zones!
 

Trax

Active Member
All named hybrid tea roses, as well as climber and bush types are grafted onto wild rose stock plants! Using stock plants to graft onto helps make the plants survive our cold winters! So protecting the grafts with mounds of soil really makes sense in all the colder zones!

Thanks for that! :) Mom said she bought all 5 of these years ago and that they are all hybrid tea roses. She still had the labels for the last 2 (the Blue Moon and the Yellow Rose of Texas) but lost the other 3 and can't remember what they were called. But she said she got the Blue Moon rose bush from a plant shop in town and the Yellow Rose of Texas online from Gurney's.
So yeah, those dirt mounds make even more sense now! I don't know anything about grafting but if that's what has been keeping those bushes alive, I definitely want to protect that! The white rose might be dead. It only has dead canes and no leaves but I'm going to cut the dead stuff off anyway and hope it comes back. The Blue Moon rose looked dead this spring then suddenly sent up new canes and leaves and now even 2 small roses!
 

Dor

Active Member
I keep my roses pruned in the spring and after they bloom and start to look bad. I give them epsom salts and am going to plant some chives next to them as I have read it keeps bad bugs from munching on them. My Red Knockout takes care of itself and is continually in bloom year round. My Joseph's coat has a few blooms but my Tiffany looks great. I keep it deadheaded because it bloom well if I do that.
 

Trax

Active Member
Thanks Dor! :) I read about the Knockout roses somewhere but haven't seen any pics of them yet. I will definitely wanna see some of those and maybe (if I can get these roses I have to grow) even get some next spring. We have some chives in mom's spice garden near the parsley! I just got through cutting down some tall bamboo culms to use for stakes and am looking for the epsom salt. I know we have some and since the roses are pretty badly died back already, it's prolly a good time to sprinkle it around them.
Just one question. I found an old box of bonemeal in the garage. Does bonemeal expire? If it is too old, will it hurt to use it?
 

Trax

Active Member
Just to give an idea of what I'm dealing with, this is the rose garden and what I did this morning to try and save it:

This is before I started. Lots of dead limbs and 4 roses.
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A lot of the leaves look like this. I'm going to spray them with Funginex.
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These are 2 Yellow Star of Texas roses that managed to bloom! I will have to cut them off though cause I want the plant to work on making new limbs and leaves.
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These are 2 Blue Moon tea roses but they will have to be cut off too. They are very strong and smell like a bottle of perfume!
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This is how the tea rose garden looks now! I cut off the flowers & dead limbs and staked them up with bamboo poles that I cut out of the bamboo garden this morning.
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This is how I put the stakes in to support them.
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I will be adding bonemeal, epsom salt, and mulch this weekend, maybe even today!
 

RonsGarden

Super Moderator
Staff member
Looking good Trax!
Using mulch on the soil will end the fungi cycle! Winds bring the spores, the leaves become infected, they yellow and fall, it rains and hits the spores on the soil surface which then splashes up back onto new rose leaves...
Using copper sulphate will work well on helping to break this cycle too!
By the way, do not compost those infected leaves. Dispose of them in your regular garbage, and wash your hands, and any tools you use to prevent re-infection.
Use a bleach solution to sterilize your tools after every use! Half capfull to a gallon of water is great for this chore!
 

Trax

Active Member
Thanks! :) I didn't even think about re-infection so I'll definitely use the bleach method! We don't have any copper suphate but I bought this when i thought I had a new banana plant with yellow Sigatoka. It says it has copper ammonium. Will this work?

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Dublinah

New Member
~good soil
~epsom salt
~organic fertilizer, I'm a fan of Bradfield Organics Rose Natural Fertilizer.
~slow root watering: a soaker hose works well.
~pruning when needed.
I'm a fan of Bradfield Organics Rose Natural Fertilizer.
Good luck! :cool:
 

RonsGarden

Super Moderator
Staff member
Thanks! :) I didn't even think about re-infection so I'll definitely use the bleach method! We don't have any copper suphate but I bought this when i thought I had a new banana plant with yellow Sigatoka. It says it has copper ammonium. Will this work?

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Yup! That will do the trick!
 

Crabbergirl

Super Moderator
Staff member
I trim my roses back in Feb. Not sure for your zone if that is a good time but it works well for us in the south. I have a mini climbing rose and this weekend I noticed it looked like some one had "pruned" my rose and left all the stems hanging in the trellis. Really odd. Tim NEVER does yard work , not even sure if he knows the handle from the blades so it wasn't him and there is no one else around. Really odd. :(
 

Trax

Active Member
Thanks for the info, Dublinah! :) And you were right, RonsGarden! I only sprayed them once (top & bottom of leaves) and there aren't any more leaves with spots and they are making lots of new leaves!! :) I'll post some more pics later when I get some time!
Crabbergirl,
If you mean February cause that's when spring starts there, then I'll needa wait till about mid April cause we've had snow storms before in the second week of April. Thanks for the advice! :) I will definitely trim mine back this spring cause they are starting to look a LOT healthier!
Somebody pruned your roses!? Wow! Somebody pruned the flowers off of mom's Peruvian daffodils last spring and we still don't know who! You should prolly ask your neighbors and see if anybody saw someone doing that.
 

Trax

Active Member
An update on my progress with my rose project. I lost my white tea rose so I needa get another one but the other 4 are still alive! :D Here's how they look now. I took these photos yesterday:

My Blue Moon everblooming tea rose. It has never looked this good! :D
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My Yellow Star of Texas everblooming tea rose. It has some new red leaves on it too!
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My unknown red/pink tea rose. I found out that you can identify a tea rose by counting the flower petals and wether it blooms all summer. This (and the last one) is definitely a tea rose, yay! :D
5141176662_7ac3ef5cba.jpg

Okay (just checked) Blue Moon, white, red/pink, red/pink/yellow. I'm adding this note so I don't forget which rose is which in the garden. :eek:

And my unknown red/pink/yellow rose. It doesn't look good right now but it does have tiny new red leaves and buds on the stems, yay!
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I should prolly add some mulch since it's getting cold now. Btw, since I've been taking care of them, mom says they are mine now!! :D

To see a bigger photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gopikom/
 
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GardenBear1

New Member
Trax, your roses are looking good, by next year they should be bigger and bloom more, I don't do much to my roses, I feed the in the spring and add epson salt a week later, I cut back most of them in late fall, to keep them in shape, climbers I let them do what ever they want and only trim as needed, I have a few that have no name because I've got them people who didn't want them in there yard, or at a discount from lowes or home depot
 

Trax

Active Member
Thanks GardenBear! :) This summer was my first time to try and grow roses. These were in a really bad place with almost no sun and it always flooded when it rained. But I've been doing everything people here have told me so I cant wait to see what they do next summer! :D Do you have any pics of yours?
 


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