Hi Ken,
I met you once at a rose society meeting. It's a loss for S. Florida to lose you but a gain for N.Ga. My husband and I vacation just outside of Cleveland too. We love that area and the people. We would have made the same move if we didn't need jobs which aren't too plentiful in that area.
Even on vacation I can't keep myself from gardening. I saw some nice coleus there and asked the owners for a couple of cuttings. I went back to the resort and dug up some dirt, serious red clay. I filled it, put in the cuttings and poured a glass of water on it. It probably took a half hour to drain. Be prepared to ammend my friend. Best of luck to you and your wife in the beautiful N.Ga Mountains.
Nancy

Congrats on the new house and move! I hope you have a wonderful time in your new home. Red clay yes, hurricanes, no?

Red clay isn't all that bad when you're not in a drought, Ken. Congrats on your move and hope you love it there.

Carla

I love my red clay. Personally I believe it gets a bad rap as a medium for gardening. The whole trick to is is IMHO the amount of organic matter it contains. I've been very lucky here at my house....the house has been here for 30 years and prior to being developed this area was primarily an Oak and Hickory forest. As a result the soil here naturally contains a ton of organic matter. Of course I've added to it. I have just spent the last few days weeding and am amazed at the amount of worms I've run into.

Be very careful if you are moving into a newer home. They have a tendency to scrape away all the natural topsoil when building developments these days. A practice that if I were made Queen of the World would be abolished.

Enjoy your new home!

Carole

Congrats on your move! I have no advice to offer, but know a move like this is an exciting and sometimes daunting experience.

Best wishes to you and your wife, may all go smoothly and your roses like their new home as much as you do.

Congratulations, Ken, and yes, I am jealous. That's the prettiest part of Georgia. You'll love the cooler temperatures and so will your roses. As a matter of fact, one of my neighbors had a lot of clay in his yard and his roses were prize winners. Simply gorgeous! Next time I go to the Smokies, I'll stop by and admire the view! Good luck!

Rosemary

I'm jealous! I went to camp in Clayton for 3 summers. I still dream about the mountains and the streams. The cold nights and hot days were wonderful. I would love to move there for retirement. My husband could play golf and I could garden in much less humidity. Good luck and keep us posted. Buff

I agree red clay gets a bad rap (I have it too). Just look at all the trees and undergrowth covering the mountains--it can't be all bad. However, if I am planting in a particularly dense area, I will make the hole extra deep and put coarse gravel in the bottom. That way, if there is a particularly hard rain the day after I have watered (summer thunderstorms), the roots aren't standing in water. Eventually both the amended soil and the roots permeate the gravel and the roots will work their way into the clay and loosen it a bit. In the meantime, there is a buffer zone.

Roses love red clay, and perform very well in it, but I recommend that you add lots of compost and use raised beds. Roses on fortuniana do very well in our climate, and many rosarians, here, will not grow roses, unless they're on fortuniana. You should not need any winter protection. Welcome to our neck of the woods.
Ray

You'll be about 103 miles due south of my gardens. As the crow flies. Or, you can't get there from here. Too many mountains in between. It's about a five hour drive.
And you'll be on metamorphic rocks, so you have to have a soil test to see what the character of your soil it. (Metamorphics are so varied that you could have two or three different clays on one piece of property.)
Did you ever visit the Antique Rose Emporium when it had a branch in Dahlonaga, just down the road from Cleveland? There are still pictures of it in some of the books Mike Shoup has written since then. They grew some really big roses there, even though they were own root.

About fortuniana as rootstock: the rose fortuniana grows like a weed in these parts. That's the good part. The bad part is that it doesn't stop growing in winter, so it continues (when it's rootstock) to keep pushing out new growth all winter long. In mild winters, that is good. In cold winters, that's bad.

The link below has weather history for your Cleveland with averages as well as highs and low (and although average snowfall is nil, the record snowfalls will surprise you.

Ann

Here is a link that might be useful: Weather underground almanac for Cleveland GA

Hi and welcome to the "neighborhood"! I live about an hour & a half south of Cleveland. We know it as the home of the Cabbage Patch General Hospital. LOL! :)
Make sure you visit the Georgia Gardener's forum here if you have any questions. It's not as lively as the rose forum, but there's always someone willing to answer questions.

Here is a link that might be useful: Georgia Garden forum

Another neighbor here, I'm about 20 miles south of you right down 85 in Buford. I have mostly red clay and most of my roses are on Dr. Huey or own root. I have amended my beds, but I leave about 80% clay and am now putting down compost and composted manure every spring to improve the soil.

YOu can probably plant the roses this fall, or wait until spring. I usually fertilize the last time in Sept, then when we have our first freeze or see that the roses are dormant, top them to remove the longest canes and make the yard look a bit neater. Then spring pruning is usually February/March. We don't really have to do any winter protection, but early spring has been dangerous the past two years. The roses sometimes leaf out early and then we get late freezes that zap everything.

Our winters never get too bad, but you get a break from gardening in that the roses do go dormant. But I love working more in the winter. Because it does get very hot here in the summer. And we don't have any ocean breezes to cool us off!

But yes, it's nice and quite up here. You'll love it.

PS buy some rain barrels....

I am east of you, just over the state line. Red clay has some benefits I suppose, but the benefits are hard to remember at planting time. I once had to use a pickaxe to dig a planting hole. That is too much red clay. Oh and let's not forget that when it gets dry it gets dusty. Oh and all the permanently red stained sneakers. I personally wish I had more silt. My amended beds do finally have earthworm communities, which makes me happy. Welcome! Check out Gardensmith Nursery in Jefferson if you can.

Is Gardensmith still open? I'd been told it was closing. Really hope it's still open since all the good ones seem to close right after I find out about them. :( I got to go there one time about 3 years ago and it coincided with one of the worst thunderstorms we had that year, so I didn't get to buy anything! LOL!

You know, I haven't been this year--now you've got me scared! I hope, hope, hope it's still there!