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standard roses

20 years ago

hi everyone, I have a friend who has standard iceberg roses
they were all a uniform height when she firt planted them and she has had them for 5 years, but this year and last she has noticed that they arent as tall as other years(the main stem)does any one know whay they seem to shrinking,she says they are healthy enough, I actually asked her if she had pruned the tops lower this year, but she said no, she used to look out at them through her window but now has to stretch up to see them properly, its a mystery to me, any ideas please ????
lorraine

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Comments (4)

Sparaxis
20 years ago
Perhaps she is aging and getting shorter herself? LOL I can't see how the main stem (trunk) could possibly get shorter unless there is some geological shift happening in her garden.
lorraine_b
Original Author
20 years ago
HI JAN I THOUGHT THE SAME THING BUT NO SHE ISNT GETTING SHORTER, AND SHE HADNT EVEN HAD A DRINK EITHER,I ASKED HER IF THERE WAS ANY GROUND MOVEMENT IN HER AREA BUT SHE DOESNT THINK SO, SO ITS GOT ME PUZZLED TOO, LORRAINE
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janineJ9
20 years ago
Is it just possible that Jan, like I do at my place, has yabbies living under the soil creating tunnels and causing the whole plant to sink? (or perhaps a whole nest of something worse, like termites or other ants?) Just a thought but I really haven't got a clue otherwise.
Janine
Rosalie
20 years ago
Dear Lorraine, I have a 3ft patio standard of Bonica growing in a large tub and it appears to have done the same thing.Like your friend's plants it is coming into it's 6th season. The whole thing though, it seems is an optical illusion. I haven't got yabbies, termites, land subsidence or tectonic plate movement under my pot either. What I did do is get out my tape measure and measure the height of the trunk, which was still the same as it was when I bought the plant. But what has happened over time, is the trunk has thickened and the top branches that make up the framework have thickened, so now it seems more squat and dumpy and SHORTER than normal(or than it used to be). No one laugh, same thing has happened to me over the last 5 years, so if roses do it too.... who I am I to question the mysterious workings of nature.
All jokes aside though, it has to be something like the optical effect due to the natural aging of the plants, or sinking of the root ball mass. Check out yabbies, termites, slaters(which can be horrible little critters for tunneling your potting mix out of pots). (If she is still convinced her bushes are shrinking/sinking perhaps she'd better check with the local council about the incidence of subsidence or sinkholes opening up in her area and keep a close eye on her foundations at the same time.) Cheers Rosalie

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