Lady of Shalott and roses took a long rest
I think we had the hottest, driest July since they started keeping records in the 1880's and it seemed like I didn't have any rose blooms for a long time but the bushes looked healthy and had dozens and dozens of buds. Finally! Blooms and lots of buds still growing! Yippee!
Here's Lady of Shalott! and my gardening companion.
Comments (13)
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Lady of Shalott Rose/Winter
Comments (4)Hi Barry Kate's advice covers some basic principles of winter protection for cold zones. David Austin sells both grafted and own-root versions of both of those roses, and if you just ordered these I would presume they were own-root, since it's too late in the season to be planting bare-root grafted varieties that DA usually sends. Either way, the best insurance you can do for the time being in the rest of the summer/fall is to ensure a healthy root system going into the winter. Keep it watered but not soaked, and if you can stand it pinch off any buds before they bloom to encourage the plant to send down stronger roots. Don't fertilize other than maybe a weak diluted fish emulsion or alfalfa, and I'd stop even that by August to avoid having weak spindly growth that won't be as hardy over the winters. If you do have a grafted plant and haven't buried the graft at least 2 inches below the soil line, you should consider either gently lifting the plant slightly to dig some of the soil underneath and burying it deeper, or mounding soil around the graft and a few inches above it (and sloping it off gently so it doesn't wash off with rains). Don't prune it heavily or even at all in the fall (except dead wood), since you want as much healthy cane as possible to have something to protect, and allow the inevitable winter kill to leave some cane behind. In general, I've found in my zone 5 that Austin roses are pretty hardy in general, and those two Austins have survived well for me without much protection. The basic principle of winter protection is to have an organic material that buffers the plant a little from the winter extremes but doesn't hold excess moisture against the plant canes (except of course for snow, nature's best insulator). You only have to protect the roots (in an own-root plant) or an inch or two above the graft (for grafted plants) for the rose to survive and grow again next spring. Roses that die to the ground but regrow are considered "root hardy" and all they'd need (if anything) for winter protection is a little insulation on the ground, like a few inches of dry pine straw, bark mulch, or non-matting leaves (like oak leaves). Most of my Austins would survive zone 5 without even that, but if you're in zone 4 it's liable to help a new rose through the winter with a little help its first year. Once you see how the previous year's canes survive the winter, you can judge how much you do or don't want to protect next time, since most roses become better able to survive the winter as they mature. You'll hear as many methods of winter protection as there are northern rose gardeners, so pick what works for you. You don't really have to protect at all if you've picked roses that are at least root hardy in your zone (and I suspect these are) or if you have consistent snow cover during the coldest months. Don't worry about temperatures or any winter protection until it's consistently cold even in the days - my rule of thumb is to wait till the highs average in the 20's. Protecting any earlier runs the risk of mice and other critters invading the cozy next you've built, and encouraging canker and other fungus diseases in the trapped warm air. My idea is to keep the roses acceptably cold, not really to try to keep them warm. It's not like you're going to be able to keep the ground in Wisconsin from freezing, and if you tried it would create conditions conducive to fungus diseases you don't want. Hope this helps for the time being! I plan to post something on general principles of winter protection as we move into fall, since I've been mulling over ways to describe the idea of what we do in winter zones that doesn't dictate exactly HOW to accomplish those purposes in the multiple equally-correct methods we might individually use. Cynthia...See MoreLady of Shalott pruning
Comments (9)Since the Lady is capable of growing 6 or 8 or 10 ft tall, I trimmed her back to about 5 ft tall at some point during her second year--to keep her more bush-like. Unfortunately, all I accomplished was causing her to lose her fountain shape. She also resented the trim of 1-2 ft off the top--wouldn't bloom decently for all the next year! She is starting to bloom again, but her not-fountain shape is not overly attractive. This summer I'm going to have to figure out what to do with her. I want a bush--but I may just let her grow as much as she wants. Maybe she will get back her fountain-shape. At any rate, she is in a spot where I could allow her to grow in a wild and woolly manner--even though that was NOT how I imagined her looking in that spot. Kate...See MoreLady of Shalott companion
Comments (20)Let me answer some of the questions in 1 post: My Lady of Shalott is about 4'x4' and I have a similar space that I am looking to fill with another rose. I have a yellow Doris Day next to it right now that I'm planning to move because it is a black spot magnet for me. The color combination of the Doris Day yellow and peach/orange is not soothing to my eye. I feel that another yellow rose would yield the same result. The backdrop to the Lady of Shalott is a white wall so a white rose would wash out. I have 4 Munstead Woods. It is one of my favorite roses. 3 of the Munstead Woods are in containers and I just planted one in the ground this year. The one in the ground is kind puny although It has only been one year, but I wonder if the MW's size would be dwarfed by the Lady of Shalott. I would appreciate views on this one because I would be willing to plant another Munstead Wood. I have Ebb Tide, Twilight Zone and Violet's Pride elsewhere in my garden. I guess I could plant another one next to the Lady of Shalott. I would lean towards Twilight Zone or Ebb Tide because their color is a dark purple....See MoreIs this really Lady Of Shalott? I am starting to have my doubts.
Comments (39)@strawchicago z5 so I have an update. After visiting the International Rose Test Garden this past week, I happened upon an entire row of roses identical to mine and was really ecstatic about my luck. They were labeled "April Moon" but that is wrong as it is a white rose. I happen to be friends with one of the rose judges, and she checked her list and confirmed that that row of roses and my own are, indeed, At Last rose. The person I got the rose from confirmed that she used to get roses from Delbard/White Flower Farm and that it is the correct one. For what it's worth, Carding Mill was next to it and was gorgeous, but the fragrance was completely different (myrrh--and stronger). So now I also want to get Carding Mill--it was glorious. But very different. For those that are wondering about 'At Last' rose, I cannot recommend it enough. I know it's not one of the more glamorous varieties out there, but even when it's surrounded by diseased roses it never gets an ounce of blackspot or PM. And it blooms constantly here in PDX (see posts above for my photos)....See More
User
8 years agoThanks everyone for your kind comments.
Marlorena I have no idea how to grow Lady of Shalott so I would appreciate any help. It was bare root this year. I have yet to learn to prune it for next year (usually prune in February) though for fun I did try pegging a couple of the long branches. That was interesting. Out of the curved branches tall (12 to 15 inches) straight shoots grew, and several blooms at the ends of them. I think I read about pegging on this forum or followed a link, but forget the correct terminology. I just wanted to see what would happen.
Hi Cynthia in Nebraska
Aw, my gardening companion is Albert. He is a bit of a rascal. He hasn't been allowed on the roof deck for most of the summer because birds have been building nests in the mixed flower pots and I didn't want to stress them with Albert roaming around. They finally left last week so Albert is now joining me outside. The birds were called Junco. I never realized how hard Mommy and Daddy birds work. They were busy! They would also sit on the rail or trellises when I was out watering and click at me but after awhile they would just watch me. This morning all I saw were two hummingbirds flying around the fuchsias.
Hi Sharon2079
Please do share pictures of your gardening friend. I have a Garfield look-a-like also but he doesn't come outside. He's a bit shy.
I had written in the Spring how I take care of the pots and will try to find that post and learn how to link it here.....nothing special. Other than a couple weeks of too hot I think it was just a good summer for flowers.
I sure appreciate all of you taking time to comment on my few roses. I wish I had more to share but this is as far as the hose will reach! LOL!
nippstress - zone 5 Nebraska
8 years agoBarbara, I'd agree that your Lady of Shalott is stunning and needs no help to look gorgeous. Thanks for the introduction to Albert! He does look quite capable of giving your Juncos a run for their money, if not heart failure. I never realized till this year that birds lay more than one set of eggs a season. After some robins repeatedly tried to build nests on some bricks jutting out of our front porch wall, my husband and daughter fashioned a platform for them. Now they've just finished their second set of eggs, and we had fun watching the fledglings below just before their first flight!
Here is the first batch of robins just hatched
And here are the more recent fledglings ready to fly!
Cynthia
User thanked nippstress - zone 5 NebraskaUser
8 years ago
nippstress - zone 5 Nebraska