I think you'll find that a drip system will be your best friend! I have dry summer heat (commonly 90+) and no rain at all from May to October. I put my English style garden in a year ago and installed a drip system. I've gotten pretty good at it although I admit I had the main line professionally plumbed. I have different size drippers on different types of plants. All the roses have drippers that put out multiple streams of water ( call them spider drippers because of the pattern they make). I also mulch very heavily to conserve water and keep the ground cooler. My roses look really good and since it's on a timer I can't forget to water. Mine runs at 7am so it's before the heat hits. The only caution I'll make is that as the weather changes you must remember to adjust your timer. There is also an off switch, so when rain is expected you can turn the whole thing off.

My water bill is very reasonable and California is in a notorious drought.

Good luck to you! I don't think you'll regret it. It saves a lot of money from evaporation.

Debbie

rosecorgis, your system sounds ideal but there are one or two things I'm wondering about. Do your drippers ever get clogged and how are they situated in regard to the mulch? Are the lines buried so that they can't be seen? It certainly sounds more economic and time-saving than hand watering, which I do, although I do use mulch to save water. Like Sherry it takes me about two hours and there are times when I just don't feel like watering every time it needs it.

Ingrid

I'd try something like that, but our water clogs up drip emitters badly.
For the misting emitters in our little greenhouse, DH trades them off regularly, and soaks them in vinegar to dissolve the solids.

Jeri

Ingrid... drip is the bomb.

Mind you, it DOES need minding (ha!), but you'll find it's more efficient and you also get much less weeds.

I know a lot of folks on this forum use 'pro' drippers, but I just went with the stuff at Lowe's, maybe next time. I procrastinated a lot, so I suggest just DO IT! If there's something you don't like, you can always change/improve it, tubing isn't that expensive and anyway you can reuse it and the drippers.

At our mountain place we have water hard enough that you can 'bout stand a spoon in it, so they do clog from mineral build up. I found out early on, that I liked the 'flag' drippers because I can rotate the end to loosen up any buildup (which I find by periodically making sure all the drippers are working ok - once every week or two with this water). This year I bought a duplicate set of drippers and changed them out, the originals I plan to take apart and soak in vinegar (warm is better) to clean off the mineral deposits, then swap them out next year.

One tip if you have a hilly yard, best to run your main line up the hill and then branch it off and run your 1/4" line. For example, I have a run up the hill that then follows the fence downhill in an upside down "L" which then has 1/4" lines feeding the roses down the fence line. If you do it backwards, you have less pressure & flow at the top.

Hi Ingrid,

My drippers do sometimes get clogged. I lost a black eyed susan to that this summer. Now I make a point of turning them on manually during the day once a month while I make the rounds and check that the drippers work. It doesn't take too long.

The flag drippers are great - they're very easy to unclog. The type I like for roses are also easy because the top unscrews sending the water straight up (usually right into my face). I haven't tried the vinegar trick - I'll do that in the future. I get some of my parts from Home Depot but get my emitters from a local irrigation supply store. They're cheaper in bulk that way and have more choices.

I run the main line on top of the ground but under the mulch. The small 1/4 inch lines that run to the emitters come up from under the mulch then end about 2 inches from the roses (my mulch stops about 3 inches out).

I couldn't garden the way I do if I didn't have the drip system. I work about 10 hours a day so I could never hand water like that!!

Give it a try! I think you'll find it economical and easy for you!

Debbie

Debbie, do you have a link for the drippers you use for the roses? Or mfg and part number would be ok. I've seen a couple pro brands of drippers from other threads but never figuered out which emitter was used.

I'm still watering every evening (now into the dark with daylight savings gone) and seeing wonderful results. I intend to keep it up until the water bill comes to see how huge it will be and if/how well the improvement continues. If the improvement is good/substantial, I can't very well turn back to less watering (I may as well not have roses if they're not thriving). I've already been thinking about de-selecting some and replacing them with more drought tolerant plants. Admittedly, I can only think of a handful right now, but I'm willing to make changes that will help the majority of the garden - and our wallet.

Thanks for your responses about drip systems. I've been getting the "Drip Works" catalog. It really is all Greek to me. I'm hoping DH will supervise. :))

Sherry

I tried drip irrigation for a while and was not pleased with the result. With our hard water, the emitters were clogged alot of the time. And I wasn't real crazy about the drip hoses strung around through the flowerbeds. Tried covering them with mulch one year, but you can't see if they are running or not if they're covered. If you don't catch a clog in time, your plant can suffer. If your soil is on the sandy side, the water will run straight down from the emitter and the root zone will not be evenly moistened all around. Also, the organic fertilizers I use were not breaking down as they would with overhead watering.
This year, I have used regular sprinklers with the best results I have ever had. We have a very arid climate, hot 100+ temps throughout the summer. I water once a week when there is no rain. But on the other hand, I have a water well and live in a small rural community, so the $$$ is not a problem.
It surprises me that you are having trouble watering enough, I always thought it rained all the time in Florida.

Thank you for the info, lagomorphmom and debbie. Considering that even now in November we still have such hot days (I can't remember it being like this years ago), and water is becoming ever more scarce, a drip system really makes sense. You've answered my questions very clearly; I really appreciate it.

Ingrid

Greybird, unfortunately, it doesn't rain all the time. It's just humid all the time (which I like). This summer we had a lot more rain than in the recent past - often 2 or 3 times a week. I would water so that they'd be watered every other day, one way or the other. Apparently, that was not enough by the looks of my plants now. There's really no comparison. The rain pretty much stopped in mid-October, and we'll get maybe 2 - 3 inches per month on average until late June. Sometimes we get a few months worth in one month, and then it's real dry for long stretches.

When I got home from work, I stuck my fingers in the ground in a couple of places. The top 3" weren't even damp but not quite dry, so I watered again. It is becoming very apparent that the roses need it. It is making a huge difference. Jean Bach Sisley is no longer a see-thru bush, and they're all leafing out like I haven't seen except for early spring. I'm just amazed. I water each plant by counting one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two up to 15 or 20. That should be putting at least a gallon (maybe more; I need to measure it in a bucket) daily. Even the potted roses are doing better (they were leafless sticks for the last several months watered every other day). Roses growing in my garden definitely need daily watering - and it's only in the mid-80s during the day and down in the 50s at night. And still they dry out too much to keep the roses satisfied. I have read many times that water, water, water is the main thing with roses, especially in Florida, but I had no idea they required it daily. You folks with clay need to count your blessings, because you are definitely blessed. Which is not to say that we here are not blessed. We have other blessings that need to be counted, too, but moisture-holding clay is not one of them. I guess all that sunshine accounts for a lot of our blessings :))

Sherry

Sherry, could the new leafing out they are doing be due to the cooler fall temperatures? Just seems like daily hand watering sure would take a lot of time out of your day.

Sherry , I think once your roses mature - think two or three years from now - you will find that you're not watering nearly as much .

We had a " normal " summer rainfall this year . Central Florida is coming out of a prolonged drought of many years so any rain seems different than previous years . November is our second driest month of the year with December ranking number one . Couple that with higher than normal winds and I see a lot of watering in my future !

Sherry - Have you checked with your local Extension Agency to see if they have any irrigation experts there who could help you ?

Greybird, the leafing out (more accurately, budeye swelling/new growth starts) started with last Wednesday night's rain. We had had cooler weather for about 2 weeks prior to that with no change in the plants.

gatormomx2, I'm quite happy to hear that maturity brings some drought resistance. I have not checked with the Extension Office. I should do that, but their hours of operation seem to conflict with mine. I will call them though. This summer was closer to the normal of my memory, not pre-drought normal, but better than we've had in some years. I haven't noticed much wind lately here.

I'm thinking that my 'every other day' watering was allowing these young roots to be permanently damaged by drying out in between, and they couldn't recover from it enough to support foliage even with the next day's water. (They did continue to bloom some.) Does this sound right to anyone else? Suddenly, my Rosette Delizy's yellow is closer to light egg yolk yellow with some red. Haven't seen those colors all year - just pale yellow. Everything is looking SO much better today - like I've never seen. I'm really happy to have stumbled upon this.

Sherry

Sherry, down here we are sooo behind in rainfall! We didn't have much of a rainy season. I wonder if that T.S. Ida will bring us some much needed rain this week...

Sherry,
On behalf of those of us who garden in pottery-quality clay....you're right. I'm almost always smart enough to be conscious of how lucky I am. Our clay is the only thing that allows us to have five hundred roses, and water them with one hose.
Hope your roses keep it up!
Melissa

Peggy, hopefully, you'll get the tailend of it. I didn't even know there was a storm out there. It doesn't look like we'll get any of it, but definitely the panhandle, and north Alabama and Georgia should.

Melissa, the roses are still improving. Duchesse d'Auerstadt (the poor leafless thing) is sprouting new shoots all up and down her canes. It's so exciting. Crepuscule has been in the same state, and he's slower about sprouting but they're coming. It's really incredible.

Sherry

I also thought I had been watering my roses enough - and then we put in irrigation with drip emitters on the roses. The difference was amazing! I think it wasn't only a case of not watering enough, but not watering consistently. I think it's harder on the roses when you are inconsistent. With the timer on the irrigation, it made all the difference. Like many of you, our hard water does tend to clog the emitters, although we have a new kind that doesn't clog nearly as much. My husband goes around and checks all 180 roses in the spring and again mid summer, and sometimes has to replace an emitter head.

Hi, Sherry -

I'm afraid I'm like Greybird: I thought it rained A LOT in Florida. Now I know...

If you decide to replace some of your roses, due to high cost of water, with drought-tolerant plants, maybe you could arrange all your remaining roses together in a central spot - or in a line, say, around the house, so that the heavier watering would cover just them; and then fill in the outer perimeter with your drought-tolerant plants. By the way, I have seen daylilies listed as drought-tolerant plants. Ornamental grasses are great-looking, too. AND - I have seen some airy-looking plants with blue flowers that look wonderful with roses (can't remember their name, but I seem to recall that they, too, were drought-tolerant. Sorry, not very helpful, I know...)

Anyway, I hope that you will find the cost of water to be do-able, because I know how much you love those roses!

Laura

Karen, that's very encouraging, and I do think consistency is the key. I'm gonna have to get going on the drip system.

Laura, I'm hoping I don't have to go there, although tonight I saw on the TV that we're down to watering once a week - "cooler weather means drier weather so..." Ya think if I water at 6:00 in the morning anyone would notice? 5:30?

The rose bushes look SO good!

Sherry