The container roses are all looking pretty good, for the beginning of April. Over the winter I cleaned up the container roses, and planted the two new ones that I bought. They all have a fresh layer of arborist chip mulch. With the current weather, they don't need much care right now. Growth has been pretty good so far this season. Behind the fence, there are two more rows if roses. Mostly hybrid teas or floribundas but also a few English roses. I'm not confident that this old rose will survive what I did to it. Roses can be tough, but... Here it is now, a week after transplanting it. The canes are green, and the new growth isn't wilted. But here it is when I dug it from its previous location. I think the red circle shows the main underground trunk. I had to cut it off because it was under a boulder. I don't know if there are more roots in the mass of soil that I moved with it. Every day I look and ask, "How is it possible you are still alive?". If it does live, it will get lots of TLC this year. Today I dug out and discarded a rangy polyanthus - type rose. It was too hard to control its wild growth, and the flowers didn't amount to much. In another part of the yard, behind some shrubs and trees, was a rose bush that needed a better location. I THINK the David Austin, "Scepter'd Isle" but not certain. I pruned it, dug it up and moved it into the spot that I had just cleared. It had good looking roots, so I think it will be OK. With some TLC. It needs some mulch. In a few days, when I'm able. Most of the rest are random rose bushes that we collected over the years, and that survived being moved from the old house thirteen years ago. Several were started from cuttings, and most of the rest were bare root bushes from the grocery store over the years. There is still a lot of cleanup work ahead in the main rose garden. I wasn't able to for a couple of years, and blackberries and other weeds invaded. I'm gradually getting there now and hopeful for a nice year with many colorful and fragrant roses.
Wow !! You have a lot of roses!! I thought I had quite a lot but you're way ahead of me. At last count I had 23-25, don't really remember exactly. I think the one you left the main trunk behind on will be fine. I have one with a very old gnarly trunk too. I bought it that way and the old trunk just keeps getting bigger and gnarlier but it has a wide root system coming off of it. I think those roots are feeding it more than the ones from the old trunk.
We might be in the same range. I've never counted. Plus there are some climbers around, and a few mini roses from the grocery store that I repotted. Some of those do great, and some not. Despite downsizing much of the garden over the past two years, I added two David Austin roses this winter. I wanted stronger scented ones than I had. I bought Desdemona and Munstead Wood, both listed as very fragrant. There are a couple of climbing roses on the vegetable garden fence, too. They started as prunings that I stuck into the ground in vegetable beds.
While at the mega grocery store, I wandered among the racks of bare root roses. I had one in mind, but they didn't have it. Still they had "New Day", a hybrid tea from the 70s, which is yellow and listed as having a spicy fragrance. Internet photos show the color as light yellow to deep yellow, so who knows? I had it in the shade for a couple of days, while recovering from a knee injection. Today I planted it. I soaked it for a couple of hours and did some minor pruning of shredded stem tops, otherwise no major surgeries at this point. I always plant in unamended soil. I figure that's what they will be in anyway for the long run, and it avoids interfaces between soil qualities that might affect hydrology and root circling. Even though, roses are pretty resilient and might not care. Mr. Duck and Ms. Duck follow closely for bugs slugs insects and caterpillars that might be loosened in the freshly dug soil. I watered in well. It's a gloomy, rainy day, good for the foliage to adapt without any scorching sun. Tomorrow might be the same. I also mulched with arborist chips. I did the same with the Scepter'd Isle rose that I moved a few days ago. Sorry about the blurry photo. It's hard to get the auto-focus to focus on stems. There appear to be buds swelling below my prunings, good. So the rose garden renovation is going pretty well so far. Still a lot to do. I think I'm about halfway through he hard work parts, then it can just be puttering. Last year I wasn't up to keeping up with all of the gardens. That I'm doing it now, makes me happy.
I wasn't able to completely clean up the rose garden / back yard / duck yard, but I made tremendous headway. Lots of blooming now, including some that I dug up, pruned tops and roots, and replanted in either new locations or containers. They are very rewarding. @MIKE ALLEN used to post about his rose garden, and how much they meant to him. He had some medical problems and hasn't posted since last Oct. Mike if you are reading, best wishes to you and here are some roses. The back patio, containered English roses. Two are new to me this year (Desdemoma and Munstead Wood), two are dug up, cleaned up, pruned, and planted in containers (Vanessa Bell and Silas Marner), one is continuing from last year (Darcey Bussell). The newest ones, their first flowers. Desdemona - very fragrant, a rich scent. Depending on the time of day and age of blossom, etc, Desdemona looks white, creamy, or sort of pale shell pink. Munstead Wood - I bought this because of the rich, deep red color. Quite similar to Darcey Bussell, but maybe a bit richer color, and the fragrance is much more pronounced. Then the old ones that got "refreshed" and joined the patio container garden last winter. Vanessa Bell. Such pale yellow, almost white flowers. Nice tea rose fragrance. Good bloomer and pretty trouble free. Silas Marner, which inspired me to read the book. The constant rains and chill the past couple of weeks took a toll on the flowers. I think it will set a lot more as the weather dries out and heats up. Not much fragrance. The the one I left in last year's container, Darcey Bussell. Prolific bloomer, beautiful deep red blossoms, but not much fragrance. On the front patio, two more great bloomers, with big, nicely formed, colorful flowers with good fragrance. Boscobel Bring Me Sunshine. Not an English rose and I lost the tag. This little rose might be a floribunda. I found it under a tangle of giant blackberries and Canada thistle, dug it up, removed weeds from the roots, pruned carefully, replanted. It seems to be responding This one is "Happy Child". Vigorous, floriferous, and some fragrance Another lost tag. Dug up and moved many times over the years (most of them have been). Maybe Tamora? Wonderful myrrh fragrance. This is an old variety, "Playboy". It's amazingly floriferous and vigorous, on its own roots. I think it's considered a floribunda. A lot of roses in the duck yard are just beginning to bloom. Also some were starting to bloom, then shot up again after I gave water from the duck pond. More to follow.
I think that one is Camille Pissarro, but it could be George Burns. Somehow Camille Pissarro sounds right. Or maybe "Playboy"? The last one I showed? Without intending to, I wound up having a lot of rose bushes. One or two a year, over about 25 years, adds up LOL. Quite a few were cuttings and I was just growing them out of curiosity, "will this one grow?" No risk in those - free plants! The David Austins were all bare root, mostly mail order.
Daniel— your future looks very rosey, Man, oh man you really have a talent for growing roses. They look gorgeous. Chapeau.
