Mine should arrive soon and I'm glad all is well with yours. I had some trouble feeding bands right before a heat snap so keep your eye on the forecast.

What kind of trouble did you have feeding them?

I fed them some diluted organic water soluable fish/seaweed kelp and then the heat came and the roots and foliage took a hit. Most wilted and I kept trying to flush the soil with a slow hose. 6 bounced back and the leaves returned to health but 2 still suffered. One Marie Pavie lost all her leaves and one of the 2 canes. I thought she would die but she regrew leaves on the remaining cane. I had her in the shade while I watched the last cane and worried about overwatering. The other rose shot silk had badly beat up leaves but never lost any canes. The new leaves look good but the plant grew slowly for a time while it recovered from the shock of the root damage.

I decided to pot my new vintage bands in good potting mix and wait until all fear of heat was past. I have a sheltered place to put them when the winds start to blow. Bands are extra work but worth all the effort. I am so happy that Vintage has so many VID roses to choose from.

Thank you, I will keep an eye on them and feed them very lightly to water in. Next week, temps are supposed to rise again so I'll move them to the north side of the house with some morning sun until the heat passes.

Jenn, I just looked at the forecast for the area, and in my 'hood it will be about 100* on Sunday, and then in the high 90s until Thursday, and Friday will come back down to about 84.

Hope that helps...

Best-
Herding Cats

Sigh... another week in the 90s. I'm glad I'm not working so I can keep a close eye on them. I'll put them in the 1-gal pots tomorrow morning when it is coolest.

full shade and no fertilizer until it cools down.

hoovb - not even a little when I water it in? It won't be hot until Sunday. Not even early morning sun? I don't work so I can be here to move them around.

A few days won't matter re: fertilizer. Early morning sun, like pre 9:30 am is good, but again, a few days or a week or two is not going to matter much. You are inland, it's hotter/drier there. You've spent $$$$$ on new roses, why stress them?

Good point, hoovb. Initially I set them among some Daylilies that gave them dappled shade until late morning. Then, I moved them into bright shade. I will hold off fertilizing until this next heat wave passes.

Hoov covered it well. I've received scores of Vintage bands over the past 15 years, and my suggestion is to get them into gallon pots asap. Keep them in the shade initially, and gradually bump them up to more and more sun over the next week or so until they're in full sun. One philosophy that I've always followed about new rooted cuttings or bands is that you shouldn't fertilize them after repotting for awhile because you want to encourage them to send out new roots in search of nutrients. It's worked well for me!

Susan, hmmm... interesting. Have you ever tested that with a control group? It would be interesting to know if all bands given no fertilizer for a while produced abundantly more roots than those that were fed, or vise-versa.

I put mine in 1-gallon pots this morning, and watered well but did not feed them. I'll keep them in bright shade until this week's heat wave passes. I may wait a full 2 weeks before starting the light feedings, letting them settle into their new homes. The weather forecast calls for 75 again by next Saturday; that's a nice change from 105 just two weeks ago.

you are using good potting mix, not the cheap junky stuff so I think there should be some goodies in there to get them going at first. I like to add just a little pumice in the soil I buy. I don't know why but they seem to like it. A grower at the farmers market in Orange grows his plants on pumice + peat moss + a wee bit of sand. He says it lasts longer in the pot and keeps the roots healthy because the materials break down slower so more oxygen is available to the roots. I had super results with gardenias and strawberries on this mixture. So now I put about 1/4 of it and 3/4 a high quality mix in 1 gal. pots for bands. He also says redwood compost will do the same as peat for keeping oxygen rich conditions longer. The other thing I learned is that the commercial nsys use a mix that is only designed to last 6-8 months. Long enough to push the plants to bloom and be sold. After that, the mix degrades to muck and kills off the roots. He suggests that this is the reason that so many planted 1 and 5 gallon plants fail to establish or do poorly when you plant them in the landscape. He suggests removing the mix for plants that go dormant and planting them bareroot for the best results.

We talked almost an hour about this topic. His dad was a farmer and nurseryman for the majority of the last century. He said that nurseries used to sell in native soils or dig up plants to sell in burlap or in bare root in fall and winter. He said he has grown plants in 90% sand with constant irrigation and feeding and because the soil has excellent oxygen capacity, the plants thrive. Redwood compost is also slow to degrade but because of it's expense, it stopped being used for commercial potting on a large scale.

Sorry to go on so long but I wanted to share so you could try for yourself if you want to. With the bagged mix + the 1/4 peat/pumice/sand formula, I get good results and the plants are ready to get out of the 1 gal pots before the soil wears out. The roots grow pretty fast and I don't worry about overwatering because the mix has plenty of oxygen and stays fluffy.

kitty (may I call you kitty?), that is very interesting - thanks for sharing. Unfortunately I already put them in the 1-gal pots yesterday morning using 100% E.B. Stone potting soil, and I don't want to disturb them again now. If I need to pot them up again before planting in the yard, I'll use a grittier mix since a larger container will hold so much soil.

I think the EB Stone is great mix. I was just rambling on about what I am doing lately. I mostly go by Kit, but I like Kitty too.

I appreciate it, and will do that next time. I considered putting them in a cactus mix I buy at OSH but opted for some good pure potting mix instead.

This week's heat wave is over and today's temps were much lower than predicted with a nice cloud cover. I've given them a couple of hours of direct sun early morning only until 9:30, and yesterday (the hottest day) they rested in full shade all day. Angel Face already has some nice red foliage.

The 10-day forecast promises cooler temps with a few days in the low 80s. Fall is here!

I have a question about the redwood compost. I was told not to use redwood debris (I live amongst them) around some plants, as the redwood material has juglones, which prevent growth by other plants. Does the juglone chemical deteriorate as the material becomes compost? How does it all work? I have to say, I put fine redwood bark down as mulch in my main planter bed - where I did a version of lasagna gardening last summer due to a lovely layer of rock hard soil and several inches of actual 1" or so rock gravel that is 3+ inches in some areas and virtually bottomless in others - and things thrived in it, but this was before I was told about juglones. So, I FULLY admit to be ignorant on this topic. I was told redwoods and walnuts produce it, and that's the extent of MY knowledge!

I thought juglones were only contained in black walnut products. Never heard them mentioned with redwood compost products, which I've used in my garden for years.

http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/hortcult/fruits/blkwalnt.htm (West Virginia Extension Service) says:

**Other trees closely related to black walnut also produce juglone, including butternut, English walnut, pecan, shagbark hickory, and bitternut hickory.>>

I can't find anything that says redwoods also have them, so I don't know if the friend who warned me was correct or not. I do note, however, that there is nothing growing immediately under MY redwoods, but that may be simple root and water competition. I just don't know.