Since it's fall I decided to change the theme and look of my blog. Didn't realize I could change the font as well as the theme so there ya go. Hope you like it and it will change with the seasons of course, this one may only stay until December.
On with the show! Since there's not much to do with my garden there are plenty of things people can do in theirs that I don't have. One of the big topics around this time of year is what to do with roses.
I have grown roses several times, worked at a nursery where we sold them as well as pruned and planted them so I think I have a good corner of knowledge on their care and feeding. In my complex though, there are some sad examples of roses that are just existing because no one has really cared about them for decades.
When a rose gets to this stage in your garden start looking for a new one to replace it. The first one on top may be salvageable if it gets some care and feeding, the other three... not so much. A lot of people get very attached to their roses, I know, I dug up four of them from the yard at my house when I had to move. But I picked those out dangit and one was an antique rose. I'm glad I saved them and hope they are all still surviving wherever they ended up. Doubtful but I like to hope.
The one on the top right and lower left are truly not worth keeping. One or two spindly branches and I don't believe they actually bloomed this year. My hand was twitching to get my pruners and deal with them but honestly, more work than is worth and not my job.
You can look up how to prune but it's a lot like taking online classes for cutting hair, nothing beats getting something in front of you to practice on. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a 'game' type simulation for gardeners to show how to prune and you get to try it on a virtual bush and get graded on it? Anyway, if you have a good two to three year old bush you have likely been taking care of it all along but what about moving into a new place that has existing bushes? I had to deal with that when I moved into a house and had a very small knowledge of how to prune roses, mostly gleaned from the pages of Sunset Western Garden Book that was my mom's. I did okay but there was one beast of a bush in the corner I don't remember pruning at all. I was raising kids and a dog or two and actually dealing with the garden was hit and miss.
Pruning at an angle is not really critical but pruning on the correct side of a branch is. "Outward facing bud" is the rule and about a quarter inch above and at an angle. That's been the rule for decades of rosarian advice.
No matter where you live, that is a universal rule but how far back and when is the difference.
Hard snow areas roses have to be cut back now, in warmer areas like mine we do 'hard pruning' in December/January. But why? Remember the pictures and weather reports I've been doing? That's why. As far as they're concerned it is still growing season as we won't be getting any serious cold and wet until late December and they start shutting down for good. That will last maybe a month or two and then they wake up again. Seriously.
This time of year there will be some roses that have formed rose hips, seed pods that is and keep those on as that tells the bush to shut down and stop blooming. This is a good thing in our area as you have seen. There are some roses that have continued to bloom all the way through winters when we haven't gotten enough cold and wet. Climate change is real folks, believe it.
Anyway, take a look out in the garden if you have roses and decide what needs to come out, where you want to cut and whether to save it at all. Now is the time to pick out new roses for sure. I miss seeing all the new varieties and old favorites coming through the nursery. Seeing how different each variety grew and who was thornier than another. There is no true thornless rose, no such thing, they get thornier as they age so when they're younger they may seem like they're thornless but they aren't.
Thornless blackberries on the other hand, do exist, I know, I bought and grew one for a year. They are unfortunately very prone to spider mites and you have to be very on top of them if that happens. Mine didn't get enough sun and succumbed after two years to mite and insufficient room. They only get about four or five feet tall and wide so not the huge rambling wild types and therefore can grow in a container just fine. I just might get one actually as I have the room to plant one now. Hmmmm. If I had the money to spend on one.
More on that later. Now is the time for oohing and aaahing and oh that is wonderful! Looking in catalogues and going to the local nursery.
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