update on my winter damaged tree roses

15 years ago

hi, everyone. I am at work now but will soon post pics of my tree roses tomorrow night ... but here is the absolutely lovely pics of Evies that Evie sent me of her gorgeous tree rose.

I am doing a comparison/call for those who live in the Midwest area and if any are still stuck in dormancy like mine.

One of my tree roses is finally! starting to have real baby branch stems... It has layers of very pale green opening out (pineapple style). I am now certain it will fully live but whether it will produce any flower this year is only 20% chance, my guess? because it's so slow to leaf out.

The other tree rose I am still freaking out over... My basal buds have dried out to brown, one of whom only a pale pink still remains... Another stem which I desperately tried to prune when the brown started to spread suddenly started to spread yesterday but I dare not prune because there is still a very red bud below the brown. Maybe that bud too will die like the other bud. Tomorrow morning I am going to soak a sponge with a plastic bag as Karl taught me as a last desperate attempt speed the leafing for the sick rose tree. There are still quite a few buds on that sick rose tree but only 1/2 the amount of my healthier tree rose and the buds are darker red, not the brilliant red of the buds on my healthier tree rose. The sick rose tree only has 3 green branches to it and have not died back at all yet (knock on wood)

What worries me is that both trees are very badly dehydrated I feel from root shock and freeze shock. I'm going to be asking Karl if there any safe nourisher I can use for this issue at this stage. I am thinking root-based dehydration because even though the trunks are green, they have some thinner crack marks and the union grafts are very grey looking, wrinkly . I also read somewhere online that very young tree saplings (not tree roses) subjected to winter shock appear to be fine for a few weeks then give up the ghost... I am clinging to the hope that so long as there still are buds to my sick rose tree, there is still hope.

Evie thanks so much for the beautiful tree rose piccies... Be sure to send the 2nd tree rose when it starts to bloom. It is soooo lovely! I'd love to see the entire tree too so I can see how you're pruning it and maintaining its shape...

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Comments (4)

karenforroses
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Serena, do you leave your tree roses outside over the winter? I grow mine in large pots and keep them in my unheated garage, giving them a little water every month or so. I just took them out yesterday and they are well-hydrated and sending out lots of new growth along each of the branches. All my 'garage roses' are in much better shape than the roses in the ground and will be two to three weeks ahead of them in bloom. (Maybe I'll have to build a bigger garage!). If you aren't over-wintering your roses in the garage, you might want to try one that way next year and see if it does better for you. Hope yours recover and give you a summer full of beautiful blooms!

karen
evie1955
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
You're welcome Serena. Both of my trees are blooming but they are about 4 years old now.

I know yours will survive, just give the msome time:)
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Hi, Bill...At my local nursery I found this absolutely amazing sea tea product called Garden-Ville Sea Tea (fish emulsion, humate, compost tea, molasses, seaweed extract). For sick ailing roses I will water it down (instead of 1 TBS. per quart, I use 1TBS. per 2 gallons + 2 extra qts. of water for severe injury or for very young tender plants...). For healthy young roses that I received from Roses Unlimited, I use 1 TBS. per 2 gallon for the first week-and-a-half. I have tried the control test of using B1 vitamin nourisher versus the sea tea with transplanted baby lavender being my test subject. One goup I used B1 for transplant, the other I used the very diluted sea tea. The B1 showed no effect (no change) but both roses and the baby lavender love the super-dilute sea tea... I saw frail leaves double in size within a day. Sea tea will jump start a sick rose, unless of course you receive a rose cutting band in which a band is uprooted too young, yellow from dehydration with 1/3 shriveled leaves. (which I experienced with one of the baby bands I received from Heirloom Roses-still clinging to life but would have died two weeks ago under normal circumstances ). For my tree rose, I can’t stress how horrible my second transplant was. I lost over half of the feeder roots from falling wet soil that was still stuck to the pot, and I even lost a few sections of anchor roots… but now it is full and lush with only one upper stem that has a slight droop on its leaves… Everything else is fully upright and buds again! still increasing in size. For my tree rose I keep the soil moist always, that way the injured roots don’t have to work so hard to bring moisture back up to the grafts. Also, Sea tea I found to be terrific for jumpstarting a bareroot rose to start leafing-- but again there has to be multiple buds and they have to be a certain size before I start my application. For both ailing larger roses and healthy big new roses, I also feed more often-once every 4 days with that super dilute mixture For my baby bands I only water once a week with the super dilute sea tea, the rest of the week it’s just plain water to keep the soil spongy-moist. Once my roses have been firmly established (careful day-to-day observations of growth rate, size, and age of the plant) I return to the full dose incrementally (this can start up anywhere from a week-and-a-half to over 2 months for a baby band). My other surviving baby band is flourishing but it is too tiny to withstand more than that 1/10 mixture once a week. My tree rose is actually ready for the gradual increased dose as of Thursday when it gets its scheduled feed. I increase the dose, wait, observe, increase if I see plenty of new growth. Note: I stay away from any other fertilizers until my plants are firmly established for at least a month of stability following the advice of Karl . P.S. I credit Karl for the wonderful organic fungicide GreenCure for helping keep the cankers at bay for my tree rose…
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serenasyh
Original Author
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Here are the pics of my tree roses that I took yesterday. One of them is doing so well. Two days ago I watered both with a very dilute fish emulsion after getting the o.k. from Karl... (instead of 4 Tbs. per gallon I used only one Tbs since I don't have any leaves yet on any of the tree roses).

Evie, I am now 100% confident that one of my tree rose will make a full recovery. Each of my 2 tree roses have 3 basal bud unions (completely separate from each other spaced along the trunk). This morning I counted a minimal of 15-20 basal buds, all a beautiful bright crimson at the base and at least 9 basals already pineapple stemming out. Besides the multiple basals, I have dozens of flourishing buds and starter stems on every single cane, even along the damaged parts.

But, everyone! my sick ailing rose tree has only 3 "healthier" buds total on the entire plant now (since last night) and each of a dark, musky red; not the vibrant red of its sibling tree rose. Originally it had 2 basal buds that had a decent red to them but 2-1/2 weeks ago they died back to a sad brown.. only a slight tinge of pink remaining on one, the other I am sure is dead. Before I applied the fish emulsion and now the sponge/plastic bag effect from Karl, I only had 3 green canes. The rest were either brown or only partially green. I am hoping that the both emergency applications will revive the sick rose tree. Beneath the plastic this morning I thought I saw more green on 2 sicker stems but have to wait and see..

Here is my sick rose tree. Note the canker brown stem in the middle... I'd cut it immediately but there is a bud right below it that still has red in it.

{{gwi:250049}}

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The 2nd picture show the 2 dying basal buds.

Now here is my healthy rose tree.

{{gwi:252694}}

{{gwi:252756}}

but it's doing even better than these photos show! Not all the sides are visible, and the new tiny ones are not quite as visible, but it is one fighter prolific rose. So many buds now...

KarenforRoses, I was the dimwit 1st-time gardener who started with tree roses as my very first garden victims. I bought them this March 2009 without knowing anything about roses and ran to this forum for emergency help when they were felled by a sudden ice/snowstorm.

Evie I borrowed your lovely bow idea!

Anyways, I am hoping on this post to get more pics too of Midwest Tree Roses to see what they ought to look like at this time of spring... Evie since both of yours are blooming I would love to see the two full lengthwise...

P.S. I am very embarrassed about my yucky patio condition but the previous owners basically ruined the wood by not applying coating and using the worst possible latex paint, so I would have to sandblast the entire thing, which would be very expensive...plus all that blasted paint would add more toxins into the environment so I'll just let it be. But a few years from now I'd like to have climber roses along it.
karl_bapst_rosenut
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Get rid of the black cane. It won't get any greener. The black will spread around the cane and any growth above it will die. Better to bite the bullet and cut now so all the strength can go into the good canes. There's chance new growth will come from the base of the cut cane.

update on my winter damaged tree roses

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karenforroses

evie1955

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update on my winter damaged tree roses

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karenforroses

evie1955

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serenasyh
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