Welcome Ingrid. I don't know your rose, but maybe give it some time.

Carol

You might want to put your zone up there.

Hi, Ingrid! Welcome!

Some of my roses have been slow starters - there are quite a few that are in their 3rd year and are really starting to take off. Maybe some more time, like Carol said.
Sis

Hi Ingrid -- Welcome!

It sounds like you're looking at the output from a very immature plant.
Unless I am rabidly curious to see color, I generally disbud young band-grown plants for the first several months.
I figure they aren't really going to show me a typical bloom, so I'd rather put the energy into the plant.

Jeri Jennings
Coastal Ventura Co., SoCalif

welcome Ingrid---As the others have said ----sometimes it takes a couple of years for a rose to reach it's potential

good luck --would love to see some pictures.

Florence

Hi Ingrid welcome to the forum. I don't grow this rose but I did see a nice photo of it in a book called Impressionist's Roses by Dereck Fell. He was touting it as a replacement for an antique rose that is either difficult to find or not reblooming. I could see why you where under-whelmed by the first bloom on a band because it appears to be a rose with small(but numerous)blooms.

Hi Ingrid, welcome. I do grow this rose and it is like Pam says, the blooms aren't huge but they are numerous. The foliage is clean and it blooms all of the time. My plant was a small ownroot plant 4 years ago. This is her today.

Centenaire de Lourdes

The Pink bush on the right of the photo

{{gwi:290690}}

A "few" blooms

{{gwi:296300}}

{{gwi:296301}}

Give her some time, I think you will like her.

Carol

Hi Ingrid, and Welcome! You have some great roses and nice rose weather in San Deigo. I really love Carol's Centenaire de Lourdes. Like everyone else has said just give your little band some time and I think you will love her.
Diana

Lordy those are some great rose pictures.

Ingrid, it is very helpful if you put in your zone. If you do, people with your same zone experience can help you better.

There is nothing like having a same-zone rose grower to help you out. But we have to know where you are first!

Hi Ingrid, and welcome!

Carol, WOW everything looks beautiful!

alida

You are impressed by our niceness? Well, don't go on any of the spray/don't spray threads :)

But welcome, it sounds like you found your spot. I didn't know anything about OGRs when I came here and now I have many. It's very enabling.

And Carol, your garden is gorgeous. If I'm ever up your way I have to come and see it in person.

Hello everyone, and thank you for the warm welcome. Thanks also for the tip about adding the zone, which I've done. I did take all the buds off the band as they came up except for one so that I could get an idea of what the flower looks like. Carol, thank you so much for the wonderful pictures. Your Centenaire is absolutely gorgeous, as is the rest of your garden. Seeing is believing, and now I can't wait to see mine grow bigger. Given the quality of your roses, do you do anything more than mulching and watering, which is all I've done so far? I want my roses to look like yours!!

Me too...I think Carol may have psychic plant powers...

alida:)

Ingrid, welcome! You'll find that this forum is endlessly fascinating, enabling, and can become a pastime of its own. Can you post a picture of your "McClinton Tea"?

Carol: Marvellous shot, as usual! What is the big-bloomed rose in front of the fence, second from left? Do you have any close-ups of it?

Jesse

Carol---that is a beautiful rose and your garden looks lovely---

Florence

Hi dig4joy

My Centenaire de Lourdes is only about a foot tall at this time since I bought it as a band in early spring and I only allowed one bud to stay on the plant. However, after seeing Carol's wonderful bush I'm much encouraged and feel certain that I'll like this rose after all. I'm in awe of the size of her bush, not to mention all the blooms, and have asked her what her secret is.

Thanks for responding; I'm really enjoying hearing from so many people.

Ingrid

Ingrid, I basically do the same as you, water and mulch. Plus I add compost/manure in the spring along with alfalfa meal and timed released fertilizer. That is all. The most important thing and the hardest thing for me to learn was to give the roses time to establish and patience! My growing conditions are very different from yours so it would be helpful to get advice from those who grow roses in your area. I think that California has it's own unique challenges while we in the southeast have a whole different set of problems. In a few years we will be looking at photo's of your big ole roses :-)

Thanks to all of you for your kind comments and any of you are welcome to visit if you are in the area. Hope you don't mind some PM deformed leaves, a little blackspot and a whole lot of JB chewed blooms and foliage. :-)

Jesse, are you talking about the orangish looking bloom?

Carol

Welcome Ingrid! Yes, this is a very nice forum. The only thread that seems to really heat up is when we all get into whether we should be using chemicals in our gardens or not. It's sort of like discussing religion or politics with relatives. Even then, it stays reasonably polite, unlike some relatives. It's a GREAt group of people.

Sandy

Carol, thank you kindly for your advice, which I intend to follow. I'm not someone who wants to fuss endlessly with all kinds of rose concoctions so your plan sounds very doable. I do think that growing roses that are appropriate for your climate is very important, so it's fortunate that I'm not terribly interested in growing gallicas or albas, in spite of their beauty. The rose that started my passion for old roses is Mutabilis, when I saw a magnificent specimen in the UC Berkley Botanical Garden years ago. I always have a plant of it, no matter where I live.

Thank you Sandy, for the nice welcome. I think people who love old roses by definition are good people. I too have opinions about spraying since toxic pollution has such far-reaching consequences but then I don't live in an area plagued with black spot, mildew and Japanese beetles.

Hope you're all having a great weekend.

Ingrid

You are most welcome! I don't have the time or energy to fuss with alot of concoctions either. All I know is that this regimen has worked for me and my roses seem happy. I envy the fact that you have room for Mutabilis in your garden. I think it is beautiful but way too big for my small garden!

Carol

Delighted to have you with us. I look forward to hearing your own garden stories.

Rosefolly

Carol, yes, I was asking about the big orangish bloom--looks yummy!

Which time-release fertilizer do you use?

Jesse

Welcome, Ingrid. I am just learning, too, and am far from your zone. The first flush on my grafted Austins looked pretty good on the perkier ones, some are languishing, also my once-bloomer Harison Yellow put out two blooms that looked small and deformed. People say that is normal, so give yours some time.

Carol, how do you know how much compost, manure and alfalfa meal to use for your area along the fence which is roughly comparable to one of my strips? I don't want to overdo it. What kind of manure, and is the alfalfa meal in pellet form?

Ingrid, you did say San Diego County, z10, I think, so you are in a great place for more than just roses, but probably deal with things we don't here in Iowa. I think you can grow bougainvillea and plumeria there.

I'm going to try that spring regimen and just drooled over those beautiful photos posted by Carol. Thanks, Carol. I don't know if Lourdes will grow in my zone or not.

Carol, are any along the fence once-bloomers?

Aliska, the part of the strip you seen in the picture is only a part of that particular bed, you are seeing about half of it. We haul in literally tons of mulch, compost and manure every year. We have a pick up truck and we just keep hauling loads until the beds are all done :-). I figure that particular area is about 1 and 1/2 truck load of manure/compost. We moved to this subdivision and the builders had stripped all of the top soil and the ground was pure clay and almost impossible to dig in. We started amending the soil and it has been an ongoing process. We use cow manure and/or mushroom compost. I really don't think that using both would be necessary. One or the other would do. I buy the alfalfa in meal form. You can usually find it at a feed/seed or farmers supply here in the south. If they don't have it in stock, they order it for me but the alfalfa cubes work too. I don't make tea. Too much trouble. I just throw it on the ground around the plants and water it in. How much alfalfa I use depends on the size of the rose. The big ones get two coffee cans full, Medium size ones get one and small ones may not get but a half. Sometimes more or less. I'm afraid that I am not very precise about these things. None of these roses are once bloomers. I wish I could grow them well but it is just too hot here and they don't like it. I may just try Alchymist one of these days though.

Ingrid, everything I tell you or anyone else about how I grow roses, I learned here on this forum. Everything. I take the information I get here, weigh it and pick out what makes sense for me and my garden. I am amazed at the amount of information that the people here have and are willing to share. Most of the people here have been growing roses for years and their gardens are extraordinary. This is a great place.

Jesse, I use Osmocote. The rose you are asking about is a modern HT. I grow a lot of the older HT's but this is one of the few newer releases I have. I liked the color, the fragrance was good and the foliage stays nice here, which is no mean feat. It's Tahitian Sunset.

{{gwi:235797}}

Carol

Welcome, Ingrid! I haven't been here long either but I have learned a lot so far! Everyone has been very helpful w/ suggestions for disease resistant roses for my hot, humid area. I only have a few roses and just one in bloom, that is Robusta- a red single. I look forward to having several more roses to enjoy by next summer.
Carol- thanks for the marvelous pics! Your roses look wonderful on that fence! Brandy

Arrrgh, Carol. Pickup loads. I have a little Honda. I was going to buy a kid's sled, or try to find one to drag bags of the stuff, I have no room to store a wheelbarrow unless the basement.

Thank you for answering my question so precisely. I like your style. I'll print out that info. My soil you don't hit clay until 8-10 inches down, but I know I need to do something because it bakes like bricks anyway. Maybe I won't need as much of all of that.

The city sells compost and mulch cheap, but I'm leery of using their mulch which is probably any old tree shredded up; they do treat for termites. We have a Farm and Fleet, and I'm sure I could pick up the alfalfa and some of the rest of it there. Maybe I'll slowly start stockpiling some so I don't have to drag it in all at once come spring.

Thank you so much!

Welcome. Please do not hesitate to ask questions but CarolFM (South Carolina) has given great advice on patience and not expecting too much too soon. I remember when Carol was new here and she was growing those little springs, how tiny they were (mine, too, but you can see hers), and look at them now. Carol has a garden that is just gorgeous and she has been patient and kind with her roses and we rosegrowers. Now, she is such a great person to go to for advice. You would never know her roses are but a few years young. Her knowledge is timeless.

Ingrid, I picked up Centennaire des Lourdes at Ashdown while there on a visit. I didn't know anything about it. It is a great rose, always blooming and no BS. Welcome to the forums.
{{gwi:207059}}
Carla

Patricia and Carol are spot on with the patience thing. My Maman Cochet, new last summer, just sat and enjoyed its tiny-ness. Right now, it's gangbusters.

Carol, thanks for the Tahitian Sunset ID. The color is nice, and I think I've smelled a TS somewhere in a public rose garden. I may have to reconsider Osmocote ... We're going to Ashdown in post-JB time this summer/fall. Maybe we can take you up on the open invitation :-)

Carla--another pretty Centenaire!

Jesse

Welcome to the Rose Forum. Everybody here is nice. Occasionally someone gets in a snit, but if you ignore them, they recover. Beware of the evil enablers who reside here. They come in two categories: blatant and subtle. It is their intent to see you part with all of your money and lawn space.

I will simply echo what many have said above: often it takes a few years for a rose to show its stuff. Patience is a virtue in the world of roses.

Thank you Carla and harryshoe for your nice welcome and that beautiful pic of Centennaire. I'm very much looking forward to seeing it grow up now. The message that has really hit home is to have patience and give the roses the time they need. I'm becoming an avid follower of the rose forum and the picture gallery; it's added so much to my enjoyment of roses and I love having people to share my passion with. Most people don't have the slightest idea what an old rose is! I'm sure you've all run across that. Thanks again everyone, you're a wonderful group of people.