Like you, I've thought about it a lot.

I think we'll each approach this in a different way, but I think we do each need to think about it, and decide how to act on it.

I'm thinking it might be interesting to publish an article on how different rose people across the country are dealing with periodic or increasing drought.

Jeri

You probably all know about it, but there is a place in New Mexico (or is it Colorado?) called High Country Gardens, or something like that. I used to get a catalog from them, and they specialize in xeriscaping. They show a lot of wonderful combinations for beds that are quite colorful and beautiful, and yet are low-water-use.
Laura

When I put my ogrs and others in the ground I always use a drip irrigation system to water the first year.
I use a Shrubbler® Drip System from Lee Valley.
It's very simple to setup.
I have put more then 25 on a line with no problems.
This gets connected to my outside hose bib on the house.
To time Time the water I put a shrubbler in to a one gallon milk jug and open in to about half way,turn on the water and use my watch second hand.
I use this system for the first year only. The following year I use it on new roses again.
This has always worked for me and the second year they get just what god sends them .
I think that it helps to establish the root system ,but that just my thought.
Been doing it for four years now.

Stanc

Stanc, what you describe makes very good sense for a climate that gets rain during the growing season, even if that rain is irregular. However it is such a different climate here. Our natural rainfall average is 15 inches per year, with wide yearly variation. Our climate is a Mediterranean climate with all of the rain coming in the winter. That means that without some form of irrigation, our gardens get no summer water. This is the reason that many California gardeners are giving thought to how we need to adjust our gardens.

Up north of me, Mendocino Rose has some established ramblers on just natural rainfall, but her yearly rainfall is twice mine, or more. And there are indeed parts of California where found roses get by on natural rainfall. That is part of the argument on pruning less severely to encourage roses to grow deeper and wider root systems that can seek out water.

But in really bad drought years we can get as little as 6-8 inches of rain all year, and are likely to have our water rationed then. It would be pretty hard for even large, well-established roses to get by with no summer water in such a year.

Rosefolly

I plant a lot of roses that I think would survive without any help or watering. I like to think I could move away for 20 years and come back here and not have to start completely over again. I have more harison yellow than anything because I know it will make it on 9.4" average rainfall once well established. Different roses for different areas.

Has anyone tried looking into the use of Graywater?
How do they grow roses in the desert?
Stanc

But in really bad drought years we can get as little as 6-8 inches of rain all year, and are likely to have our water rationed then.

*** In the past few years, as I read the charts, I've gotten somewhere between 6-7 inches of rain/year. And as Rosefolly notes, ALL of that has come during the period late November through February.
Some parts of the SouthWest receive Monsoonal rains at intervals during the summer.
We do not.

Roses are grown in the desert just as they are grown here -- with the aid of year 'round irrigation.
Some of our local water comes from local wells, with a blending of "imported" water (which originated probably in the snowpack of the northern Sierras).

Southern California managed well long ago as an agricultural area, with periodic drought shifting us in the late 1800's from a cattle-based economy to row crops and orchards.
Our aquifers were up to that, but an influx of population demanded far more water than the Good Lord allotted to us.

So we stole it. To be blunt.
Now the people we've been taking it from need it themselves, so we are S.O.L.
==========

Southern California isn't the only affected area, though.
Check out the The U.S. Dept. of AgricultureÂs national Drought Monitor Website (link below).

People in MANY parts of the country are going to have to be less profligate with water for landscape use.
Even if your water comes from a private well, you're tapping an aquifer that must be shared by many.

Jeri

Here is a link that might be useful: USDA National Drought Monitor

Laura, I meant to reply to your suggestion before but forgot. I do have the High Country Gardens catalog and may well order from them. However, I'm going to be very careful to do good research. Some of the plants they sell are very invasive in my area. I'm thinking particularly of some ornamental grasses (such as pennisetum), oenothera (evening primrose), and saponaria (soapwort). Planting these could end up creating more problems than it solves.

Rosefolly

Rosefolly, I remember seeing pics of your garden awhile back. Would you post pics of your gardens again as they are now? I'm trying to envision a terraced bed of lavenders and sages and different shrubs that are drought tolerant amidst what I vaguely remember.

I would love to see it again, anyway.

Paula and Jeri,

You do make a whole lot of interesting points. One of them is that your annual rainfall is low even in good years, and VERY low during drought. Paula, I had been going to suggest that you consider keeping your European once blooming roses as an experiment. I have a lot of them and in my experience they go through summer drought just fine, since they do a lot of their growing in the spring when they're gearing up to bloom. My roses went through four and half months with half an inch of rain in 2008 with no trouble.

At this point in my thinking it occurred to me that our area's average annual rainfall is around 40". And last summer's drought was preceded by a five week deluge that brought 20" of rain. Unseasonal, yes. Inconvenient in a lot of ways: absolutely! But still, a LOT of rain. Drought here isn't the same as drought in California, and I need to keep that in mind when I proffer advice.

Jeri brings up the question of where one's water comes from, and that's a point worth thinking about. I remember a forum discussion on drought and water use from a while back where one participant said that using water doesn't mean it vanishes forever, it just finishes up downstream; or words to that effect. Well, where does the water you use come from, and where does it end up? How does it get employed along the way? What does it cost to clean it up and reuse it during its journey? Bluesibe sent me a magazine that discussed water use in California. One of the interesting points made in one article was that it costs money and energy to move water from one place to another, so that by conserving water users also conserve energy.

We don't have well, so have to depend on treated water and on what Nature brings us directly in precipitation and runoff. Our treated water used to come from a spring from a nearby mountain; last year we were switched to the town water system, which draws from a local dam fed by runoff from the Apennines. So it's water from the neighborhood. I'm not crazy about using treated water for the garden, I think it's wasteful, but that's what we have. We are very conservative with the watering; this may be possible because we do have periods of abundant rainfall.

Paula, thanks for starting this discussion.

Melissa

I don't know if there are native plants that could help out. Flowers, grasses, shrubs, trees- all can be good choices. I am doing as many natives here in my garden, with limited areas such as vegetables/roses for more limited watering. We are in a different climate obviously, but natives anywhere are used to their own climate.

Paula, I agree with Melissa about keeping your once blooming roses. I'm certain that they will survive on little or maybe even no summer water. it wouldn't hurt to experiment. I think you could also grow ramblers like I do without summer water. Michael almost never waters his bed of climbers. These are LFCs, Zephrine, and Crepe Rose. Remember my story about the bed that I thought was getting drip and wasn't? It didn't look so hot but the roses survived from July til the rains and lived to bloom again that spring. I fantasise all the time about what I would do if I didn't have the water that I do now. I would most certainly continue with my garden, maybe even at the size it is now. There are so many things that are beautiful and drought proof.

All of you have given me much food for thought. It would be a much less radical change (and far easier to do> if I simply left the once blooming OGRs where they are and moved their thirsty companions. I could easily integrate the best of those into other beds. Then I could plant xeriscape plants with them. If they would live on once a month water I could recommend them to other gardeners in my area. At this point my albas are thriving but all my gallicas except for Charles de Mills are struggling. It may well be the lack of chill more than the lack of water. Trospero predicted this but I wanted to experiment for myself.

As for pictures, Duchesse, I haven't made any changes yet so there is nothing to show as yet. So far this is all taking place in that garden which grows in my mind.

We in the Southwest have to be very intelligent gardeners. We must be more creative than most. Water is a luxury, or can be certain years. Often we see many gardens in our part of the country that try to be English in nature and that can be a challenge in years of drought. We can still have our roses, only we have to mix it up and plant many natives with them for a more natural garden for the area.

Luckily there are many nurseries in our western states that feature native plants. Our gardens can look good with a finite number of roses and native plants. We can also have romantic mediterranean-style gardens. There are many plants native to the southwest that are favorites of hummingbirds and butterflies too. A nice benefit of growing many natives.

You know on the flip side I have a friend in Seattle that goes nuts in spring, 'cause it rains non-stop there and she can't garden the way she wants in day after day of deluge. She celebrates whatever sunny day she can get!

Chance

I get more natural water than you Californians do here, but I think the principal is the same. I have cut back on supplemental watering of established plants to once or twice a month during the dry spells of summer. Some of the roses which were not on my soaker hose system and too far to carry buckets got no water. I haven't lost any established roses this way. This means my roses go dormant if we get our usual hot and dry summers and some roses which would otherwise repeat (such as HPs) won't without adequate water. I also plant a lot of native plants for our area which are generally drought tolerant once established as well. Ornamental grasses and many herbs also seem drought-tolerant. I have to water my new and transplanted roses more often, and the small vegetable garden is a water hog. But I am replacing some of the space for vegetables with more herbs and trying some perennials such as asparagus.

I think it's a good idea for you to see which roses survive in your purple bed, and replace any water-thirsty perennials and dead roses with mediteranian and desert plants suited to your climate. Good luck on your endeaver, and I'm sure you'll feel good about your decision not only with your reduced water bill but thinking about your reduced impact on the environment.

Gee Paula, could this mean another road trip to Mostly Natives? While today isn't a good day for this with all the lovely rain I think we should consider it in the future.
I am really trying to learn about better long term choices for my yard and the 'spare' acreage in the back (park).
Karen

Organic tosca, highcountrygardens.com is an excellent source of native plants for the southwest. They are based in Santa Fe and have good mail-order and on-line service. They have plants that are gems that will attract many hummers and butterflies to the garden and are very colorful and drought-tolerant. I love that nursery very much.

Chance

Paula,
In my experience many Gallicas suffer a hot sunny spot while a lot of Albas appear not to be bothered. Even among once-blooming European old roses there's plenty of variation.
Melissa

Paula, keep in mind that many Gallica roses are of Mediterranean origin, and you might want to see about just leaving them in that garden. I've seen abandoned homesites in the Central Valley that still had roses (they were huge), that survive just on rainfall. I think if you are going to water as often as every 4 to 6 weeks that you will probably be fine with several of the roses you already have in place, particularly if they're well-mulched.

--Ron

Yes Karen! Let's go back again to Mostly Natives. I enjoyed seeing everyone there and it's one of my favorite nurseries.

Living here, I've been kind of waiting for the shoe to drop and it has. Even with the rainfall we are receiving now, may not be enough.

Rethinking the garden, what works and what doesn't is part of gardening/canvas process. I will be cutting back on watering this year and looking to change out some plants and downsizing a bit.

This is all so tricky, as my garden is finally maturing. But we all know that gardening is not static.

Paula and Jeri, you always give me food for thought.

Carol

I've been reading the High Country Gardens e-zine Xeriscape Gardening for four years. It is a good read and eyeopening. It's a free signup and they don't send it too often.
For near total drought, look to the species roses. My species garden sits on a clay knoll with no irrigation. Parts are so dry that grass won't grow. The roses there survive (including one of my found boursalts).

Two plants to look to are Sedums and Alliums. One of my more miserable summers, garlic chives were a riot of blooms. They fill spaces, but are easily controlled. Sedums don't seem to need water.
Native plants continue to surprise me. I thought my sweet autumn clematis was dead to drought. It came back, it was just taking a year off.

And I do use grey water on roses; when we replumbed the house, the grey water diversion was designed (by us) into the system. Grey water works well on roses on manetti and multiflora rootstocks. No guarantees with roses on Dr. Huey.

I've considered using grey water. So far California regulates it so strictly that it would be difficult to do so legally and I'm not technically clever enough (or bold enough) to flout the law. I do believe the time will come when this changes and everyone will use grey water as a matter of routine.

In the meantime I want to harvest all the water that falls on my property and store it in the soil. Since I live on a hillside it I have the opportunity to cut swales. I'm thinking of doing this in the area outside my fence. It would make a great setting for an orchard provided I protect the young trees from the deer and the gophers.

Rosefolly

Here is a link that might be useful: Swale to harvest water

That's very interesting!

In a modified way, our terraces work like that. With the soil higher on the outer edges than the inner edges, water stops and soaks in, rather than running off down the hill.

The only place we see runoff, here, is where water from further up the hill flows into an electric company right of way on the neighboring property.
There, DH has set up barriers across the right of way -- likes of sandbags -- to slow the downward flow of water, and allow SOME of it, at least, to soak in. (We'd do more, but it ain't our property).

Jeri

What a great idea, Paula. I just sent the link to the YouTube Swale video to my friend in Santa Barbara. Her entire back garden in on a hillside.

I was wondering about planting depth and drought. I know Gregg Lowery is always saying to plant the roses as deep as possible, but I have always planted them as one gallon plants (it is easier for one thing). A one gallon rose can only be planted so deep. I know that Jeri often pots up to 5 gallons before planting. It would seem that if one waited until the rose was established in the 5 gallon container and then planted in the ground, the depth of planting could be greatly increased. Then, the rose would have a better chance of surviving in a drought. Does this make sense?
Joanne

Yes, that does make sense Joanne.

And yes, we do still keep them in pots until they are asking to PLEASE get out of the 5-G.
I know that's not for everyone, but it is ideal for us for a number of reasons.

Of course, we also must plant in pots in the ground. Using 15-20-G Squat Nursery Pots with many extra drainage holes. It's not ideal, but it does protect against gophers more fully than anything else we know of.

Jeri