I know exactly what you mean. In the beginning I felt so guilty when a perfectly healthy rose was consigned to the compost pile. By now the number of roses I've said good-bye to is 28, and I don't regret a single one (except for the money I've spent of course). Some of them were good roses that did not do well in my climate. That's actually my main reason, the failure of a rose to grow and bloom well. I've gotten a lot more careful about what roses I choose, and I hope there won't be too many more to eliminate. With the water shortage we face here I'm not planning to buy many, if any, new ones, although I'm constantly tempted.

Ingrid

I usually try to find someone who wants to try whatever I'm discarding but I'm not afraid to dig 'em up and toss them.
Mostly it's because of poor performance so I too am a bit more critical of what I buy.
There's a nursery here that has a great selection so I can actually go see the blooms in my climate before I buy.
For the more exotic stuff RVR is in my zone and climate so I figure anything they can grow I can grow.

lucretia1, I know just what you mean. I am getting used to using a shovel on some of my hybrid iris that are just taking over everything (shading the mini roses, for one thing) and it just kills me to do it. They are the only thing that seemed to thrive on my neglect. Fortunately I found a good home for them (a lady I know is re-doing her whole yard and she took them).

As to the roses, I will be doing some shoveling next spring. I have a few roses that have died back to Dr. Hueys, and while they are nice and healthy, I hate them. I also have some HTs and Grandifloras that are struggling due to lack of care for several years (only one or two tiny canes left), and I will give up on them if they don't start growing decent size canes this year. I hate like anything to kill these babies, but I feel I have to "get tough" and just replace them with something that doesn't look like it's on death's doorstep. Why put so much work into something that just isn't what you want?

I got that advice here on this forum - thanks to all who gave me the courage to do it. :)

Keep your shovel sharp, and your determination strong!

I totally agree. Why spend time, fertilizer & water on a rose that you're not happy with.
I have to be careful not to shovel prune one in front of my husband though. He'll take it & go plant it somewhere else -- silly man!

What you say it just so true! This year I have had less mercy than ever before. I had several fatalities over the winter and found that while getting rod of those poor things any rose that wasn't passing muster became easy prey to my shovel. In fact last weekend I got rid of two more that have been annoying me. One pretending to be the rose Blaze but wasn't and Mme. Plantier. I just could not get excited about this rose. Fortunately while I was getting ready to dig up Mme. my neighbor came over and admired her so I gave it to him on the spot! So she gets a second chance in a new home.

Like Peggy though I have be somewhat sneaky about my rose removing. My husband is a patient man and never wants to give up on a rose no matter how pathetic it may have become. I don't share his tolerance for lack of performance.

Kate

I am a firm believer in getting rid of roses that are underpreformers or that just don't please you for whatever reason. I just shovel prunned a virused Don Juan that was a poor bloomer and just didn't cut it for me. Last year I had gotten a small own root unvirused one from Heirloom and I can really see a difference in the flowers.

I also gave away my Quietness this week to the guy that cuts my grass. It did wonderfully here, grew well, was very healthy, everything everyone always raves about it for. It opens a very pale pink and then faded to white. It just didn't have enough color for me.

Last August I had a move roses around project and dug up 16 roses. Some were relocated in other areas of the garden as I moved things around. Some were donated to the same landscape guy (who by now has a small garden of my rose castoffs) and some went in the garbage for various reasons. Either virused, grew too big or no one really liked them. Whatever. I remember after it was all done, I was so pleased that they were gone!!!!

Ingrid, I'm in your zone, so a list of the ones you sp'ed would be most useful and I could avoid the heartache. I am suffering now since the days started getting warmer, so many roses just look awful for me. Or hold their shape but look bleached.

My DH won't get rid of anything at all no matter how nasty it looks. He will still try to fix it and has gone so far as to revive "dead" plants. It's awful, I'm at the point where I am about to pour bleach or herbicide or something just to kill off everything that is just limping along. Hopefully I won't get caught.

maele, here's my list. They're a mixed bag, including old roses. They didn't all do poorly; some of them just didn't please me for various reasons.

Heideroeslein, Alfred de Dalmas, Tamora, Intrigue, Excellenz von Schubert, Ley's Perpetual, Secret Garden Noisette, Mme. Jules Gravereaux, Teasing Georgia, News, McClinton Tea, Felicia, Spirit of Freedom, Natchitoches Noisette, Sweet Nothings, Cl. Mme Cecile Brunner, Gruss an Aachen, E. Veyrat Hermanos, General Tartas, Huilito, Route 66, Lady Hillingdon, General Gallieni, Monsieur Tillier, Janet, Centenaire de Lourdes, Clementina Carbonieri. Abraham Darby will probably joint the list soon because of thin octopus canes even though the blooms are gorgeous.

I'd have kept is probably 'Excellenz von Schubert.'
Its only flaw here is chlorosis, for our conditions are so alkaline -- but it's due for a big ol' dose of sulfur.
And now that the plant is several years in place, it's producing some sprays close to football size.

But what was the trouble with Mons. Tillier?

Jeri

I SP'd my first rose this week, a Fair Bianca that just hasn't flourished in the morning shade of an apple tree. I'm glad to hear it gets easier.

Like others, I have a hard time killing a rose that grows and blooms decently. But it's getting easier. I'll still try to find takers, but I'm no longer waiting as long for someone to adopt them. I've given some away that performed terrifically but couldn't excite me, either due to color or bloom form or some other attribute. Vista--too short stems for cutting. Winsome--awsome bloomer but I couldn't get over that garrish magenta color. Lagerfeld--the opposite problem, a lavender so pale as to look ghostly gray. Ok with some color schemes perhaps (I don't do "schemes") but once my brighter lavender Blue Moon started blooming and my new crystal white Pope John Paul II just sparkling in the garden, poor Lagerfeld looks washed out next to them. Plus it needs some pampering and spots too easily from rain. I did find homes for all these with a neighbor down the street, plus Dame de Coeur, which has wonderful color and heat tolerance, but unimpressive blackspot resistance, no scent at all, and completely forgetable bloom form. Sorry Charlie, it went out.
It's been getting easier to toss ones that are not disease resistant, since I don't want to saddle poor unsuspecting rose novices with sickly plants. I don't expect blackspot immunity, but if I spray and they still blackspot a lot after 2 seasons, they're gone. Peter Cottontail was my worst offender in that department in the past couple years. I think I'm about to shovel prune Prairie Sunrise. Pretty sherbet orange fragrant blooms, but they only last 2-3 days and can take 2 months to rebloom. I'm not getting enough blooms. Maybe its the heat we're having, but if that's the cause, that's still no good for here.

Mike

Sophy's Rose was moved to a different spot in April, and she's still sulking and about 7 inches tall. She's put out a couple of stunted misshapen blooms, but not much new growth at all from the base--in fact, she's still losing some ground to canker. The only reason she hasn't met Mr. Shovel is because I don't have an immediate replacement for her, and I hate empty spots.

I try to find takers for healthy roses I shovel prune and I am soon just going to pitch them in the garbage. How to explain the rose displeases you but there is nothing wrong with it in the disease department ? Even my friends look at me like I have two heads. I bought a nice yellow tea this year but the bloom shatters too fast to let it take up space. I have a good friend who loves yellow roses I offered it to. I explained Why I didn't want it and she felt that was not a problem and I had meant it for a gift to her all along and wasn't I sweet? I'll take the credit but if you didn't like an article of clothing would you not get rid of it? Why is it difficult to understand I am just that fussy about a 'simple plant' ?

Jeri, Excellenz von Schubert bloomed very little for me and was too big for its spot, although I loved the color. The blooms also didn't last very well. Monsieur Tillier was beautiful but it fried in my heat and the blooms didn't look good for even half a day. It didn't matter how much water I poured on it, and as you know water is becoming a very precious commodity here. Some of the roses that I would have loved, such as Ley's Perpetual and Mme. Jules Gravereaux, never grew more than a foot and never bloomed. Very disappointing. News died almost as soon as I received it, Lady Hillingdon bloomed very little and was spindly. Route 66's single blooms fried almost instantly and Huilito has to be the homeliest, lankiest and thorniest rose ever bred. The noisettes died in the heat. I know I did the right thing by actually being relieved that they're gone and not feeling any regret. I was going to give Spirit of Freedom more of a chance but then it mildewed severely and I let it go too. Besides, my goal is to have fewer roses. Unfortunately I just had to have four new roses from Vintage so I'm not decreasing the number as much as I would like. But it's such fun to watch the new roses start to grow and put out buds.

Ingrid

Well, I'm giving all of my roses one more year to show me they belong here. Going soon though are Daybreaker and Brass Band. The reason: crunchy blooms in heat. Of the ones that are blooming, most of the others are also fried except for Angel Face, St. Patrick, and Olympiad, and I know from experience Iceberg will be fine when it reblooms. If I ever find a red without burning on the edges Olympiad is out of here too. You can't see the black edges from far away but I expected more from it and so far I'm disappointed with that, even though it still is one of my favorites. On the other hand, I could never part with Abraham Darby, he will get the prime afternoon shade spot and extra water, no problem. And he WILL APPRECIATE IT.

We all have different growing conditions and different likes when it comes to roses.The under performers and roses we don't like need to go.I had to spend half an hour digging up a three year old knock out and it was gone with in half an hour after I LEFT HIM OUT ON THE BUSY STREET.I gave away jackson perkins 3 year old grand prize and two year old love.I wasn't happy with them and have a big list of roses I wanted to try.
maele-I would love to have bass band though.It has been on my list for three years and none of the venders I ordered from had this rose .
Dana

I too have a difficult time using the shovel----The past few years my DH veggie garden has become too shady but the soil is amazing---So I named the area "Elba" and instead of SP we move the sad specimens out there----It has been interesting to see how many so-called dead ones have revived and bloomed---Maybe it is the excellent soil or maybe just the move to a new area--

The ones who need a lot of sun do struggle but I feel they at least have a chance.

Florence

I'm so glad you started this thread, Lucretia!
I'm facing my first shovel prune, and I'm annoyed at the rose for forcing my hand... it's such a cute, shiny, glossy, dark green little bush. With pretty white buds. And then the buds open into these horribly ugly flat blossoms with proliferated centers. I'd love to give it to someone else, but I think it may just be objectively ugly.

I'm tempted to move it someplace where it'll bloom less, and then do a Morticia Adams on it whenever its buds start to open...

Thankfully the other rose that I threatened at the end of last year has gotten its act together!

Lara

Ingrid, I always forget how much warmer your area is than ours. We're keeping cool days and a good sea breeze, for which I am pathetically grateful.

As to shovel pruning -- it does get easier.
We had a 'City of San Francisco,' which came to us as a "freebie."
It was an abundantly healthy, vigorous plant, with a pleasing habit and disease-free foliage. And it bloomed A LOT.
Why did we shovel it? Because the blooms were such a jarring color that we couldn't stand to look in that direction. It was Glaring. Blaring! Jarring!
Probably it would have been a fine rose for someone else, but for us, it was "EEEEeeeewwwww."

Jeri

I have been decreasing my collection each of the last three years. I've sp'd about 12 with Angel Face currently just hanging on by a thread. I'm down to about 40 now.

There is no thought of replacing them. I find it so much easier to work in the garden with space between the roses. I sprayed for BS last weekend and had a half gallon left over.

When I retire (whenever the economy recovers [laughter]), I may wish to take more on. For now, the shovel prevails!

I know what you mean jerijen! I have planted a Maria Stern hybrid tea. It is a beautiful rose, don't get me wrong, and it has some mosaic virus, but the real reason I might SP it is because of its color. It looks soooo bright orange that it looks like those traffic cones you see on the street! It almost looks like a fake plastic rose. Of course these are my first blooms from her and we'll see if they fade at all, but so far no fading in sight. The pics don't do it justice, they look faded in the pics and are actually brighter and deeper.

{{gwi:292848}}

Amazing, isn't it?
I don't think I could live with it, either -- and yet, I bet this would be a dream of a rose for some folks.

One rosarian's ceiling is another rosarian's floor.
:-)

Jeri

I had Maria Stern and shovel prunned due to RMV. I thought that the blooms were stunningly beautiful. I love orange roses. Not the soft orange like Westerland, like that too but, the really orange like Gingersnap and Chrisma. Its a good thing that not everyone like the same thing or the world would be a boring place.