Oh BethC!!! Lol! I had two problems like that and I waited 2 years before just calling it quits. My cream veranda I'm so frustrated with and I was just out in the garden admiring all my new bloom and that darn CV! Just problem after problem!!!! I just don't have the heart yet. :'(

It took me a while Beth. Now that I have a garden filling up with roses that I don't need to spray I'm so happy. I wasn't getting any younger and thought weeding was enough of a job. It was getting to the point where the garden was beyond a full time job. There once was a rose or two that I got rid of because I did not really like it. That was harder that the others. Hope you have a wonderful season.

Guilt stops when new plant obsession begins....you are in good shape,. Many suffer for years fretting over troubled plants and hating that garden doesn't look as they envisioned. U r ahead of the game,

I have no guilt so I do not know how long it takes...lol

Hope your new roses do well! :-)

Beth, if you put the roses in your city's leaf/compost trash bin (as long as they don't have a contagious disease), your roses will serve the purpose of becoming mulch. No waste. Guilt gone. Such is the circle of plant life. By having only disease resistant varieties, you are doing nature and yourself a big favor. Fantastic you!

Like Jim I don't get guilty with SP at all. I expect my roses to work as hard as I do or else they are gone! Ha!

I must admit I do feel guilty. Guilty that I spent money on it, had it shipped all the way here, and guilt that I didn't do enough to make it survive and thrive! I almost shovel pruned Pink Peace last year because the Rust was soo bad, in fact it's getting really bad right now too as the warm days and cold nights are here. Same with Touch of Class, a powdery mildew magnet any time conditions are right. I just can't let it go though because her blooms are ridiculously beautiful. There may be a healthier rose, but it won't be as beautiful to me so that's why I think its worth it to give a little pampering to certain finicky roses.

I would never use anything toxic on my roses, that would make me feel a lot guiltier than getting rid of diseased roses. Quite a few of mine are mildewed now, some have rust and some have spotty leaves, but they get over it when the weather is warmer. If a rose doesn't get better at all it's gone and no regrets or guilt.

It took me several years. I kept a non-flowering Ruskin for seven years before I threw it out. It's hardest with somewhat rare roses, imported roses or roses from friends. Yesterday i SP'd two roses without a second thought.

For several years I tried to give away roses I no longer wanted; like finding a home for kittens. Then I decided that if a rose didn't perform well in my yard, it wouldn't do much better in a neighbor's yard down the street. It irks me to order a band and grow it on for several years only to watch it BS then SP it. Maybe if I were killing cheap roses it wouldn't irritate me LOL.

No guilt. Life is too short to suffer over my roses, past or present. Grow roses you love and that love you back! I agree with Jasminerose4u - compost is a very honorable 'next life' for those that don't make the cut.

The local rose club is a great way to pass along plants you don't need. One year I potted a bunch of them up and gave them away as they were about to bloom.

Cecily's analogy comparing finding homes for roses to being like finding homes for kittens is just too apropos. And like it's impossible for me to even think of killing kittens, I can't bring myself to kill a rose, lol. There are VERY few I just didn't like, so if I can't find a new home for them with an unsuspecting friend, I have the option of moving them to "out of sight, out of mind", since I basically can enlarge my garden at will. Then if they happen to whimper into the Great Garden beyond the sky, I don't feel guilty; after all, they got their second chance, lol. And I've often been surprised when an under-performer suddenly perked up and started living up to its potential. I can't say whether it was the shock of transplant, being moved into a more congenial spot, being a year or two more mature, or if they realized it was "do or die", lol. Anyway, I'm not often faced with guilt.

(sanguine) John

It takes a while--people with truly spectacular gardens tend to be ruthless, pulling and replacing even healthy and expensive plants in their quest for the truly spectacular. Not everyone is that kind of gardener. But it does get easier. The more you think about what your really want from a rose, (in my case it is fragrance and repeat), the easier it is to remove what simply doesn't meet your criteria.

Ugh, I need to work on this too. I simply cannot get rid of a rose unless its 100% dead and I really cant afford the space for the ones that don't perform well. Sometimes I wish I could start my garden all over again and just plant the winners. I'm currently thinking of getting rid of Paul McCartney because its huge, but the blooms have terrible form so far. I'm hoping it will improve with age though.

You get over it. If the rose is healthy, put it into a local rose society raffle or donate it to a public garden. If it's disease-ridden, ask the local society if they have someone who wants to take on a chemically-dependent bush. If the rose is more dead than alive, you can try resuscitating it in a container or in the ground whichever is opposite of it's current growing spot. Consider whether the current spot gets enough water, sunlight, free space for good root growth. If the rose is just sucking up water and nutrients without adequate blooms or growth after the 3rd or 4th year, show it the shovel and make a decision. You don't have to kill a rose bush or wait for it to die. Shovel pruning is simply removing the offending bush.

Ah Jim, I love it! Does the shovel stay happy when it is digging holes for new roses too? I have 16 to go in the ground next week and I'm wondering if the aged wood handle on my shovel will handle it or should I just buy a new one. Maybe if I give my shovel a happy face it will get me through the task!

I have a love/hate relationship with my McCartney rose. More of a dislike now, though it is a decent rose and has a nice fragrance. My bush is a gangly monster, and refuses to behave in any kind of sane-looking fashion. I cut it back, it grows enormous. It has thrived in spite of years of neglect, so I don't have the heart to SP it. Though I'd LIKE to.

Our shovel stays very happy BethC until it has to shovel dog poo then it gets alittle frowny...lol

The roses that get SP here either go to my friend, sister, mom or someone... Seldom a rose gets trashed...

Love the shovel, Jim. I have a friend that trained her dog to poo in the shovel. Both my friend and the dog are pretty clever.

I've learned to put rose's in their proper spot. They are nothing more then flowering shrubs. I grow them to make me happy. If it doesn't perform the way I think it should after 3 years, it's gone. It doesn't bother me one bit.