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ROSE CARE FOR NOVEMBER and DECEMBER
by Betty Mott, Consulting Rosarian
by Betty Mott, Consulting Rosarian
With the first rains of the season bringing well-needed moisture to our gardens, I am reminded that winds will also be a factor to contend with during our stormy, windy winter season.
I have two climbers in particular that need to be dealt with for the winter. ‘Reve d’Or’ (noisette, medium yellow, double, 1869, 9.3 ARS rating), climbs up and over my open potting shed and twice last year was brought to the ground by gusting winds. I need to attach hooks on each side of the shed, and stretch rope across the top of the shed securing the rose for the winter months. Another rose, ‘Graham Thomas’ (shrub deep yellow, 35 petals, 1983 8.2 ARS rating) travels up two stories on the front of my house. She sends out 6-8 foot canes which become whips in the wind. These long canes get pruned down to a foot or so to prevent canes from being ripped off the plant. This shrub rose that acts like a climber will be properly pruned in January, down to 2-3 bud eyes along the lateral canes.
What a surprise to return from New England during the peak of fall foliage to find my fountains and galvanized rain collecting cans sitting under down spouts, spilling over. Close to five inches of rain was collected in my rain gauge which I had recently purchased at the Smith and Hawken’s “going-out-of-business sale”. After 30 years of business, it was sad to see the homegrown Mill Valley gardening business close its doors.
I have always wondered how inches of rainfall translate into how deep the water actually penetrates the soil. I retrieved my moisture gauge which I keep in one of my miniature potted roses which is in full southern sun exposure all day. Even though the potted rose is on drip irrigation the moisture gauge is used to monitor its water needs because of the intense heat in that spot. I had very interesting results. I first checked the soil around my roses with years of soil amending with organics and mulch. The water had penetrated clear down to 5-6 inches. In other parts of my garden, mostly clay, the moisture meter only registered down to 2-3 inches. Good healthy soil and mulch had once again paid off for my roses.
This is still early in the season, and I did temporarily turn off my drip irrigation, but I would highly recommend that you keep checking moisture levels before you shut down the drip irrigation for the rainy season. Although not common, we do have a few periods of frost warnings and plants need to be hydrated to survive these low temperatures, especially citrus. Soil in containers around potted plants does not hold the moisture as long as plants in the dirt so you do need to be mindful of that during cold snaps.
This will be the last issue of the Marin Rose for this year so I thought I would share lessons learned in my garden practices for 2009 and a few suggestions for getting your garden ready for the winter months.
One lesson learned with my first organic tea application was that R. rugosa does not like nor need Epsom salt. There was burning on the leaves when I used a concoction that included 1 cup of Epsom salts added to the brew along with fish emulsion, liquid seaweed, and alfalfa pellets. Master gardeners in our area have long proclaimed that we do not need Epsom salts added to our soil. It was my rugosa plucked from a beach in Chatham, Cape Cod that finally convinced me to drop them from my rose care regiment.
My most notable achievement this year was finding a deer deterrent that worked, had a tolerable smell, and was affordable from a local source. Accolades go to Martin Bros on Shoreline Highway in Mill Valley for their recommendation. They sell Deer Scram in three sizes (2 ½, 6 and 25 pounds.) You might remember in earlier articles that I was using a bitter tasting systemic tablet placed under the soil of the rose bushes. This worked fine during the rainy season when the bitter taste was freely flowing up into the canes. However as the season progressed and the deer came into the neighborhood more frequently the effects wore off and once again they found a gourmet feast in my front yard. Things I liked about Deer Scram was its ease of application (sprinkle over the dirt), appearance (dirt colored), and effectiveness (4-5 weeks with just a light reapplication every 4 to 5 weeks during rose blooming season). I found this product far more appealing than Liquid Fence because it was not applied to the leaves which left a residue, and did not have the horrible smell which seemed to be contrary to growing plants known for fragrance.
Other success stories include great results from applying fish emulsion. My roses really perked up after application without leaf burn in the heat of the summer. The smell is not great the day of application but dissipates in a day or two.
In closing, I would like to mention a few roses on the top of my list for 2009. These rose have performed spectacularly without sprays and chemicals and are worth mentioning. Disease resistance awards for roses grown in Mill Valley go to ‘Julia Child’, a yellow floribunda, ‘Reve d’Or’, a medium yellow noisette, ‘Sally Holmes’, a white shrub, ‘Irresistible’, a white miniature, and ‘Sweet Revenge’, an orange blend miniature. Outstanding fragrance goes to ‘Firefighter’, a red hybrid tea with disease resistance and generous repeat cycle. Great exhibition form goes to ‘Louisville Lady’, a deep pink mini-flora and ‘Show Stopper’, an apricot blend mini-flora. Enormous Sprays with unusual color goes to ‘Cinco de Mayo’, a russet floribunda and new kid on the block in 2009. Finally, ‘Lady of the Mist’, an orange blend shrub that always had a bloom or spray on it all year long. The blooms lasted forever in a vase or on the bush. It’s not that I do not love or appreciate the other 130 roses in my garden, but the above mentioned behaved perfectly all year without the use of sprays or chemicals in my garden.
With roses resting up for the spring and your winter garden clean up complete, consider making a holiday wreath and be sure to include rose hips. If you have the water, space, and time to consider adding more roses, enjoy the moment. New rose introductions keep getting better and better and there are some great new roses coming our way in 2010.
A YEAR OF ROSE CARE:
January
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Last Modified: 10/20/09