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joan_plamp

Should I give up on these?

Joan Plamp
14 years ago

Hello, everyone - I'm new to the forum. I have a question about my roses in general.

I have about 50 roses in my yard, mostly hybrid teas, grandifloras, floribundas, and a few David Austins. I went for about 4 years without taking care of them at all, not pruning, spraying, watering, or even weeding. This year I decided it was time to "change my ways" and I'm trying to make it something that isn't a total embarrassment. (My neighbors were starting to complain :) )

I was surprised to find, after clearing away the giant weeds and pruning the dead stuff, that most of them are still alive, but many are struggling. A lot of them have nothing but one or two tiny canes coming out of the crown. Several of the others seem to have gone to just the rootstock, I guess, because they bloomed early with plain red blooms all over, then no new buds at all.

I have put long-acting fertilizer on them, and have started a regular spraying schedule with combined insecticide/fungicide, as well as regular watering. A few of them are putting out nice healthy fat new canes, but most are just tiny little green sticks that struggle to put out one bloom at a time.

My question is, will these roses with the tiny canes ever come back, or should I just shovel-prune them early next spring and put in new ones? I'd like to see if they do anything this year, but I hate to put so much work into plants if they will never look like anything decent.

I'm considering just putting markers on these poor plants with a red X to remember which ones they are next year, and replacing them, but that's a lot of money and I can't really afford more than 4 or 5 new ones in one year.

Hope this isn't too dumb of a newbie question, and thanks for any advice you can give.

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