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Why are the stems of my carefree wonder flopping?

14 years ago

Hoping one of the rose experts can help me figure out what is going wrong here. I have two carefree wonder shrub roses planted 4 feet from each other in a mixed border. One of them has a nice rounded shape and loaded with flowers and the other one has 50% of its stems flopping on the ground - its still blooming really nicely but even before blooming, these stems were sprawling/flopping so I am sure its not the weight of the blooms. Any ideas on how I can get it to grow as an upright shrub?

History - they are both from a nursery, planted last may. I only use alfalfa meal, soy bean meal, fish emulsion and compost to fertilize so far. Since the second one was flopping, I gave it an extra dose of alfalfa a few weeks ago. I only trimmed off the dead branches late winter. Am I feeding the plant wrong?

Any help is much appreciated!

Mo

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Comments (7)

michaelg
14 years ago
I don't know why one would flop and the other not. You can stake the canes up at the angle you see in the plant you like, and then cut them back by one-third to one-half after blooming, so they can stand up. They will grow thicker and stiffer by the month.

You may be fertilizing too much. This is a vigorous shrub rose that can take care of itself. One feeding a year should be plenty unless you have sandy soil.
mo13
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks Michael. I will try cutting them back after they are done. I will cut down on the feeding too, thanks.

Mo
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henryinct
14 years ago
My Carefree Wonder is over 10 feet and needs to be supported. If I can I will post a picture. The canes are relatively thin and supple and the bush will sprawl like a forsythia especially when it is weighted down with blooms. It does not ever die back in the winter so you need to severely prune it or support it because it will become very big.
mo13
Original Author
14 years ago
henryinct, 10 feet?? That would be quite amazing but do they still have that round mounded look?

Mine are only maybe 2 to 3 feet tall at this point. The plant that is sprawling had some minor die back this winter whereas the other plant didnt have any.

Mo
henryinct
14 years ago
Mo13. It is tied up to a post. It would be sprawling all over the ground otherwise. And BTW it isn't a climber, there are no laterals and the canes are weak. The single blooms and bloom clusters are very poorly supported at the cane ends so it droops down. It also produces huge quantities of big red rose hips if you like these. I leave them on and give the whole thing a haircut in the fall.
Jean Marion (z6a Idaho)
14 years ago
Roses are called 'shrubs' when they have a sprawling habit. Your other rose will probably start to sprawl too at some point... just depends on the angle that the canes grow...
michaelg
14 years ago
The plant that I observed for 8 years or so was self-suoporting with pruning by about 1/2 in spring and cutting back shoots by 1/3 or so after blooming.

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