Im seriously thinking about giving up on our soil and just doing container planting >_< I managed to plant a rose today (my Iceberg) and it took me at least an hour! Weve got probably 2 or 3 inches of decent soil on top, then it changes to hard clay. NOT fun! So do you guys think it would work, to put my roses and shrubs and stuff in containers, with just the flowers being planted in the soil (since the flowers dont need to be planted as deep as shrubs/roses)? I just dont have the patience for clay soil. *sigh* Not to mention the soil is difficult for me to work with my bad back and bum leg.
I'm not sure how roses would do in containers.I know how you feel on the clay we have it in certain parts in our yard and it is rough on you.I hope it all works out for ya!!
I wish I could ship you half of my sand in exchange for half of your clay then we'd both have "perfect" soil.
This website should give you a few tips on how to work with a clay soil Jen. http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/pages/g00012.asp You can actually buy contaiiner roses these days which will do very well in pots. Just make sure they're not plastic pots as the roots need to breath.
I've grown the miniature roses in pots successfully. You might just amend the soil in the large holes you are planting in instead of the whole bed.
We have roses in containers for the same reason, clay. We tried digging large holes and ammending the soil. The clay acted like a vase when it rained and the rose roots sat in water for days until it drained, but then again we have a high water table here. Our roses do fairly well in the containers. They have to be large. Have you thought about building a raised bed or a berm for the roses? That is another option. To make the soil better for your other plants try tilling in some coarse builder sand, peat moss, pine bark fines(soil conditioner, is how it is labeled here) and, or compost. Hope this helps.
I think a raised bed might be a second year project (after I can save enough money for it). Our clay is simply awful. I would need a -lot- of sand, etc to get it decent, which would cost way too much $$. So Ill just go with containers this year, then see what I can do next year.
Dan raised roses in containers for years so he could move them if he moved. They were beautiful. They had to be fed and watered regularly though. He got some pretty large blooms from them. Dooley
Thats what I like about containers, is that I can move em around if I want I would like to have some roses out front, but theres not a lot of room for em, so containers would give me extra room, eh? ^_^ And once they start going dormant for next winter, I can simply move em out of sight ^_^ Lovely idea And I dont mind giving em a bit of extra care
