I salute you!

Jeri

Jackie, I know it's an unkind thing to say, but I'm so glad it was you and not me. Of course, falling down a steep hill while being sideswiped by Le Vesuve about a month ago has probably taken some of the starch out of me. I hope you'll post pictures of your gorgeous climbers next spring.

Ingrid

I need to do this to a few of mine along with some trees that are throwing too much shade on part of my rose garden and I am NOT looking forward to it. With running two businesses, I don't feel like spending my free time weeding and trimming sadly. I usually get like this in fall when I feel burnt out after spring and summer and I feel guilty that as a gardener I get like this :(

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Gosh, I wonder if I should get started? I know the SJHRG starts in November simply because they have so much to do. I think Mendocino Rose starts early for the same reason, the sheer volume of work to get through. Now you are getting started on yours. I will have a lot going on this winter in that may keep me out of the garden, so I wonder if I ought to be starting, at least with the Very Big Roses, quite soon. Of course, none of my Very Big Roses are quite as large as yours. The only one I had that even approached that size was moved about a year ago, and is just now starting to recover.

I'm planning to remove a particularly mildewy rose to make room for my new Climbing Devoniensis which I just got from Vintage. I could at least do that. And my Madame Plantier needs to be tamed, preferably with a chain and whip and gauntlets. I wasn't going to start until December, but if you have started Jackie, it may be time for me as well, especially on this busy year.

I'm actually giving a talk at our local library on the winter care of roses this January, so I need to take lots of photos along the way.

Rosefolly

I can't imagine getting on a fifteen foot ladder. I get woozy just patching my roof.

Jackie- I have a pergola I must attack soon- 7 climbing roses plus a grape. And a rats nest. Roses are growing off the top into the apple. One of the 7 isn't planted near the pergola, it just decided to throw a cane up and over that direction. The problem is finding where I can get the ladder up against the pergola in order to get up there to trim.

Rosefolly- we can't wait anywhere near as long as November. The OGRs got pruned in September. They are working on the Shrubs now, because they got missed last year altogether. The Teas and Chinas will be done by the end of the month. In November we'll start on the HTs and Floribundas or the HPs. And them there are the Minis and Polys. We need to get it all done by the time the ground is no longer sodden (March or April, depending on rainfall) so we can start planting in earnest.
Would like to get 200 new plants in this fall and spring.

Jill

a chainsaw is your friend.
still, kudos for the bravery.

Oh Jackie! You've seen my garden so you know how much I sympathize.

Jill, my information is way out of date then. Mel once told me they started in November some years ago. I thought the European OGRs looked remarkably tidy last time I saw them!

I guess I had better get started then. Soon.

Rosefolly

Campanula - thanks - electric hedge clippers also a friend! That's what I use on all of the roses that don't require ladders - it works great!

Jackie

It must have been an amazing sight though, with all those things growing and blooming together! Wow! I have a clem and rose together too but I've never had a lot of problem with keeping them in check. I have winter to do that for me, lol. Congratulations on a tough job well done!

Hi Jackie,
You Cal gardeners make me look like a major slacker. I only have to deal with one monster this fall, a New Dawn that has destroyed my expensive metal arbor, including all the welds holding it together. I'm too old to be climbing ladders! Still, I will don gauntlets, and with the help of my son in law and his electric saw (not chain saw), we will have to remove the thing. I so dread it. Diane

I had been thinking of adding 'Susan Louise' to my garden!!! I will be rethinking the possible folly
of growing that gigantic gigantea rose, where it would fill my entire backyard, with a small space for viewing its beauty.

Luxrosa

I saw a Susan Louise at Gregg's garden, and it was not that big - just an upright bush about 7 ft tall by 4-5 feet wide. I bought one, and I must have really insulted it or something. Four years later, it is not growing, and has achieved a total height of about 14 inches, with only one cane, and I think 2 blooms over that period. I have moved it twice - I think the problem was not enough sun - I am spoiled by all of the old roses that grow in my garden in partial shade without complaining. Anyway, It just got planted where it gets much more sun, so I am expecting it to grow next Spring.

Not at all like its parent Belle Portugaise, which is at least 15 feet tall, not counting the fact that there are arching canes drooping down from the top of it. I love that rose - the most elegant buds & blooms I have ever seen, and they are translucent & glowing against the sky (which is how you have to look at it - straight up!).

Jackie

I would love to trade for some of the cuttings! I have a monster to tame this afternoon. It is close to our roof of a two story house. My husband is not loving it. So much for getting it in the dead & dying section of Lowes.

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Susan Louise is a beautiful rose. Mine is about the size of Gregg's. It can be an awkward grower. The best thing that ever happened to mine is the year it got broken in half by snow. I would never have pruned a tea in that way but as it turned out it branched beautifully and has been a much nicer shrub since then.