Mulch will probably keep you weeds down better than a groundcover. But a thick groundcover that would be low and spread easily around your roses is creeping phlox. It'll spread really well in full sun, which is probably what your roses are in anyway. If you have 3 year old mulch out there, it's probably too thin of a layer by now to block out the weeds. The idea of mulch is to cover the ground so weed seeds can't make soil contact and germinate. However, if you're fighting perennial weeds that germinated in past years, mulch won't get rid of them. Many perennial weeds have the type of roots that when pulled, any bit of root left in the soil will grow right back. So pulling them is a losing battle. I've used Bayer All in One Weed Killer For Lawns to spot spray in my gardens with a hand held trigger spray bottle. As long as you don't do it on a windy day, you'll probably be fine. It kills most broadleaf and grassy weeds. What I'd do is spray the weeds with that, and then the next day cover them all up with cardboard, or mulch or something. Then as new weeds pop up through the mulch, spot spray them right away, before they can go to seed or spread by runners. It will probably take all season to get the weeds under control, but next year will be better as long as you cover up the soil that the weed seeds are freely germinating in. Deanna

Hi, Rosefan, and welcome to the forum! Sounds like you've got the bug, lol! Don't worry, we all do. For your yellow one, you can cut out dead wood at any time. So just take out any black canes. Otherwise just keep it weeded, watered and fertilized and just dead head the spent blooms just below the hips. That will give it a chance to grow out where it wants to and you'll get a better Idea of how it grows naturally. Tess is a beauty! If you wish to you can spray for the rust but I can't suggest anything because I don't know what would be available in Ireland. Ask at a nursery for a good fungicide that works for rust. As for not blooming I'm not sure. Lack of sun will slow down rebloom. Is it putting on ANY new growth at all? Maybe since it's very new it's concentrating on the root ball? Rambling Rector is a BIG one so I hope you gave it lots of room. Sorry about your little one's disappointment. It's not uncommon for the cheapie bagged roses to be mislabeled. You can move it to another spot and replace it with a good healthy Zephy in the same spot. There does seem to be a bigger problem with replant syndrome in Europe than there is here in the States but since you just planted that other one so recently I don't think it would be any problem. I would check with some good local nurseries or online to find a Zephy you can trust to be the correct rose. Standards will depend on your winters. Because the grafts are at the top of a tall trunk, and the graft is the part that needs winter protection, you may not be able to winter them there in the ground successfully. Not knowing anything about how bad your winters are I couldn't say for sure. To do some kind of pillars you would need structures for them to grow on. That could be quite pretty though. I hope I answered some of your questions but, please, don't hesitate to ask more!

Hi Brandy! Turning colors is what rugosas do best in the fall up here in the north. Most of mine develop into a yellow of some shade or other, some are bronze, a few are definitely orange. So yours are right in step with the season. I'd say you're in a warmer, more protected area there in the city, so your rugosas aren't as far along as mine are yet in the fall color department....but eventually yours could look like this: If some of your hybrid rugosas have a bit of blackspot at this time of year, don't worry. This late into the season diseases are not going to affect them going into winter. I commonly see some on the less rugose rugosa hybrids and other OGR's like the gallicas. And BTW, I've got lots of old apple trees here - no problems transferred to the roses that I've ever witnessed. I think you're doing fine. :-)

If you root a cutting from the portion of the plant above the graft, then those cuttings should produce own-root plants of the "flowering" portion of the plant. As long as you aren't simply rooting suckers, you should be producing a clone of the overstock, instead of the understock. Assuming the baby rose plant isn't another sucker -and it obviously isn't if that picture is of the seedling- it will be a unique, hybrid variety that is probably self-pollinated, but could have been pollinated by a different rose via an insect. The likely seed parent is whatever rose is nearest to the seedling, but the pollen parent could be any number of roses if it isn't the seed parent as well. As far as I know, only species (wild) roses produce seeds that are identical or true to the parent. Jay