New to roses -- anyone growing in NoVA?

15 years ago

Hello all -- I'm a newbie to roses and purchased my first two miniatures at the supermarket this spring and fell in love with how easily they prospered in my garden. Yesterday I purchased three real roses or larger roses and was wondering if any Northern Virginians were growing them in their garden and if they were hardy in our zones? I bought Floribundas "Lovestruck" and "Cinnamon Twist" as well as a Hybrid tea "Peace". I have them potted individually in 5 gallon clay pots (they are heavy!) and was wondering if I would have to "bring them indoors" for our winters? Also, they have a minor case of black spot so I went to my local Home Depot and purchased Immunox Plus and sprayed the plants today; does anyone have good/bad experiences with Immunox Plus? Is it effective? How often do ya'll spray your plants? I tried to find Bayers 3-in-1 but they were sold out so had to make a last minute decision. Any help would be very much so appreciated. Thank ya'll and have a rosy day. =)

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Comments (3)

catsrose
15 years ago
Welcome, paxfleur.
Your roses should winter over. However, don't water them when it gets below freezing because you will freeze the roots and also probably break your pots.

Roses generally do not like to live too long in pots, so if you can eventually plant them in the ground they will be much happier.

You will find there are two camps here re: spraying: those who do and those who don't, with a few who do only in desperation. I'm of the no-spray and would never spray for a minor touch of BS. Most sprays have fairly to very harmful environmental consequences and the systemics do in the good guys as well as the bad. There's a lot of info on this forum re: the chemicals used in sprays and fertilizers, so you might want to read what people have to say before you apply anything.
hartwood
15 years ago
Welcome to the wonderful world of Roses! We all start small, then things grow from there.

Blackspot is a fact that we deal with around here -- without a preventative fungicide spray applied regularly, most of our roses will have it. I spray my roses with Bayer Advanced Disease Control every two weeks to help prevent blackspot and mildew. I don't know the spray interval for Immunox -- check the label to see what it is. The idea is to prevent the blackspot spores that are around from causing blackspot disease on our roses, so try to spray on a regular schedule if you can. I'm not familiar with the two floribundas you got, but Peace will definitely need to be sprayed. (It's one of my favorite roses, and well worth whatever effort it takes to keep it nice.)

I have had hybrid teas and floribundas in pots for as many as 4 years in some cases, and I can tell you that the roses will definitely perform better for you if you are able to plant them in the ground. At the very least, upsize those pots. A 5-gallon pot is too small for a full-sized rose. (They'd be a great size for your minis, however.) Mine are/were potted in the largest size plastic pot that Walmart had at the time.

I'm a little south of you in Fredericksburg, and I have never brought my pots inside for the winter -- not even into the garage. I scoot them as close together as I can in a more-protected place in my yard, away from the prevailing winter winds if I can, and I bid them farewell till spring. I check periodically if they need water -- though they need very little water during the winter since they're not growing. I figure it this way . . . if I have to baby a rose for it to survive here, it's probably not one of the roses I want to grow. I'd rather select roses that will survive and thrive in our climate. Last winter, my pile of pots contained at least 60 roses of varying sizes (some relatively small one-gallons, up to large hybrid teas) and I lost only one. Last winter was a bit more mild than usual, however.

If you would like to meet more rose growers in the area in person, consider coming to my garden social on October 19. We have other GWers coming, as well as rose people I know from rose societies and various other rose-related activities. Send me an email from My Page, and I can give you details.

You will find the Rose Forums a very nice place to be. We're a bunch of people who love our roses, and we welcome others to come aboard and talk roses with us.

Connie
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mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
15 years ago
The pots will have to be kept in a frost-free place. Not the roses - the pots. Plastic pots can be left out in very cold temperatures, but clay will break. It took me a long time to figure out this was the real reason garden books recommend bringing in potted plants so early.