Hi everyone. I grew up in So. Cal where my parents grew hundreds of roses. I have very fond memories of helping my Dad care for them. Fast forward and here I am, in my mid-60’s just starting to grow my own.
I live in Colorado, zone 5, and the biggest issue for me is terrible clay soil. My local nursery has a rose expert and we talked about it. Best advice was to abandon any hope of planting in ground unless I was willing to move, as in remove, several cubic meters of soil and replace with loam. So, I’ve planted two bushes in pots. And, so far they’re OK with a couple things puzzling me.
One bush is a Chrysler Imperial and the other is a Mr. Lincoln - both hybrid-Tea (Armstrong). The Chrysler Imperial was planted in a pot with only high quality potting soil. It’s flourishing. Lots of buds an beautiful fragrant blooms. The Mr. Lincoln’s pot is maybe 80% potting soil that was mixed with native soil (clay). The bush itself is growing fine but it has only produced two blooms and no buds currently. What could be the cause? Is it that small amount of clay?
Second question. Both bushes have a ton of small wasps roaming all over the leaves. Now I understand that these are likely predator wasps looking for smaller bugs (aphids?) but they’re making it impossible to enjoy the blooms. I mean, no one wants to smell a rose if they’ve got wasps buzzing around their face. I’ve tried neem oil but that’s not stopping them. Any suggestions?
Thanks! I’ve got a couple more questions but I’ll stop with these two for now.
Welcome. I feel your pain regarding hard-pan clay soil. You should also consider raised beds. How large are the containers you have planted the roses? Bigger containers are better. How much clay did you put in the Mr Lincoln container? Sometimes using dense garden soils can cause the container to hold more water and not drain well.
Do you have a garage or at least move the containers next to your house and protect them from temperatures below 20 degrees?
Your beneficial wasp problem is unusual. Would it help to cut the roses and bring them into your home?
So glad you decide to grow some roses. Your journey will bring you much pleasure.
Thank you! Well I’ve thought about a raised bed but it would be a fairly large one (tall) and it would require getting a lot of dirt to fill it. My pots are about 26” tall and 24” wide. The amount of clay was, I would guess, maybe 20% of the total. I initially dug a hole, a large hole in the ground where I wanted to plant the Mr. Lincoln. The hole was about three feet wide and over two feet deep. The instructions from the rose expert were to fill the hole with water and once it absorbed into the soil, fill it up again and time how long it took to absorb again (essentially to empty itself). Well, I filled it up and while I was waiting for it to absorb the first time, I filled a wheel barrow with a large bag of potting soil and then mixed in what I would guess to be 20% native soil. However, that initial fill of the hole? It never absorbed. After leaving it for the better part of the afternoon, the water lever barely dropped. It was at this point that my expert said, forget planing in the ground. Go to pots.
For winter the recommendation was to cut them back and then wrap the pot and cover the top with moving blankets. That’s what she said she does with her potted roses.
As for the wasps, well, yes, I could cut the blooms and bring them indoors and we will probably do some of that as we love roses inside but we still want to have them blooming in the garden and even getting close to cut/prune means dealing with the wasps. Not a fan of that.
I think I’d still try a few roses in your clay soil. I have a wide variety of soil types in my central Michigan garden, and the bed on the side of the driveway that is pretty high in clay has some of my best roses! I use a website called Chip Drop to get (nearly) free arborist wood chips. If you have the space, you can pile these up and let them decompose for a year or so and then use as mulch. It’ll take time, but the compost definitely improves clay soil. Clay holds nutrients, so it is not all bad. Try a few cheapy bagged roses - get them from Walmart in early spring (don’t wait until they start leafing out) look for them in early March. Pot them up and let them grow a few months, then transplant to the garden. For about $10 each, you can experiment with little downside. One disclaimer…. I bought 15 of them last spring and probably 1/3 were mis-labeled (picture showed a nice red, ended up with a yellow for example).
Dan, thanks for the suggestions. while I do want to grow some of the classic Armstrong Hybrid Tea’s from my youth, I do want more roses in my garden so yeah, I’ll seek out the “lesser” ones and give your suggestion a go. Thank you.
I encourage you to do this early in the season. Bagged roses are pretty tender and if you wait until late April and May (at least hear in Michigan) the chances of success dwindle. The plants either dry out, or get water logged in the bags, suffocating the roots. Get 'em early, pot them up and they will wake up from dormancy rip-roaring ready to go. Remember that they’re grafted plants, so you’ll want to plant the bud-union below the soil line to protect it from winter hard frosts. Good luck!
Well, here in Colorado the general rule is not to do any spring planting until after Mother’s day as we can have below freezing temps well into May (overnight that is). I’ll may have to pot them and keep them in the garage. Another question if you don’t mind. The two quality roses that I currently have, when should I cut them back and winterize them? Should it be around the time of the first frost? And, it’s been suggested that I wrap the pot and cover it with moving blankets. Would you think that would be sufficient for them to survive winter? Our temps can dip below zero at times.
I’m not much of an authority on potted roses. I grow all mine in the ground, but our winter temps are very similar if not lower. We’ll usually get two or three sub-zero (F) days, maybe a total of 10 sub zero days each year. I do not cut my roses back until late winter, early spring usually when we start getting those few 40-50 degree days and plants just start to poke out a few little sprouts. When you cut the plants, it stimulates them to grow to “recover” from the wounds. You don’t want that to happen going into winter.
I have heard many folks put their potted plants into garage. Takes the edge off the cold and also protects from drying winds.
For all of my in-ground plants (about 200 bushes)… I do nothing for winter. I do not cover (did that 30 years ago once and created a perfect environment for mold and rot, not to mention critters girdling the plants). Many roses are tough and will not suffer too much from winter. I may loose one or two each year, but that just gives me an opportunity to plant a new one! Whatever leaves blow in from the yard is the only protection my plants get. I suggest experimenting with a few plants in the ground and see what works for you. I know plenty of rose growers that have an elaborate system for winter protection - that’s not me!
