Gaps in bed reworked last year: dead or slow?
linnea56 (zone 5b Chicago)
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
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Jon 6a SE MA
8 years ago
josephines167 z5 ON Canada
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Winters of past, last year - what did you lose?
Comments (63)CMK, I remember reading you have drainage issues. We had a little bit of that ‘wet without draining’ in early spring, a couple of times when it rained and the ground was still frozen. I thought I was going to have trouble and I don’t know why I didn’t. I normally have good drainage though, so that must make the difference. I’m sorry you don’t. :-( That must be a particularly aggravating problem. I wonder if you’ve ever considered raised beds? I had plants very slow to show up this spring, so I was considering that I might have lost them, and at the time, I was thinking maybe I should add more conifers, until I visited the Conifer forum in the spring and they were posting long lists of plants they lost! So, if you are thinking about it, I’d read some of their posts on which ones they lost. :-) Mnwsgal, sorry to hear of your losses too. I have never had much luck wintering over in the garage. And the snowplow frequently digs into some edge of the front yard. We have a bed that borders the street, but it has a rock edge to it, which I suppose must help. Of course, they don't actually see the rocks under the snow, and once they did plow into those. Wow, what a noise that made! And 12ft of rock edge had to be reset, but I didn't lose any plants. [g] I wish we had sidewalks....See Morelast 9 years of grafted vs own-root
Comments (35)Interesting Post! I've been an advocate of own-root roses for several years, but I have to admit grafted (if healthy) almost always seem to grow bigger (or at least as big). A main reason I like own-roots is they seem particularly well-suited to life in a pot, so Ceterum's question about growing them first in a pot might actually be a key factor to success. I know from experience that roses on Fortuniana (down here in the South, at least) will grow the biggest of all. That's precisely why I avoid it. Dr. Huey I don't like simply because the root structure is one of long central tap-roots that always find their way quickly out the bottom of the pot and aren't happy confined. But small doesn't always mean weak or unhappy. I heard a rule of thumb years ago that seems to be mostly true; that varieties which tend toward bushiness/many branches will tend also to develop good roots. I've had many own-root roses, about half of them minis but the rest mostly hybrid teas, and the HTs vary a lot. Many old and newer do great own-root; some don't. I've lost count of the roses I've given to neighbors and friends because they had gotten too big to be happy in pots. Once in the ground they quickly get even bigger. But back to Ceterum's question about letting the young roses mature some first in pots: Maybe that's the key. The one's I've given away after 2-4 years tend to do terrific in the ground; they've had lots of time to build up a good root system in friable potting soil and without competition from neighboring plants and trees. Incidentally, some of the hybrid teas I've grown own-root that did very well include: Paradise, Gold Medal, the old HT Mrs. Herbert Stevens (really more of a tea), Lady Luck, Fragrant Plum, Tiffany, Helmut Schmidt, Touch of Class, Artistry, Timeless, and Olympiad. Radiance is OK own-root, but I wonder if it would do better grafted. Some new ones for me that look promising are Deep Secret(kind of slow its first year but now looking bushy and vigorous, though still short, its 2nd spring), Dame de Coeur, Lagerfeld (still kind of gangly but growing big--I only got it last fall), all 3 I just got from Roses Unlimited, including Jardins de Bagatelle, Chrysler Imperial, and Papa Meilland (Ceterum had cautioned that PM may take 3-4 years to come into its own, but already it had 3 flower buds and it just came in mid-March. JdB has already produced 4 gorgeous blooms and seems to want to repeat rapidly, even continously! CI looks great too. Alec's Red is 1 year old and small but healthy and blooming well. A few HTs I thought were happier grafted include: Fragrant Cloud, Mr. Lincoln, Valencia, Just Joey, Double Delight, and Honor. The others I'm excited about are all mini floras or minis, so I guess they don't count for this discussion, since they're always own-root. But Man! Leading Lady and Whirlaway might as well be small hybrid teas, the blooms are so big and perfectly formed!...See MoreHi again since last year this time! (Lots of Pics)
Comments (11)Thank you all so much! It's nice to get to share with others even though it would get done the same way even if it were only the 5 sets of eyes living in this house who saw it. The family tree tree has been really fun to put together and can't wait until the nieces and nephews get to see it. As far as how long it takes, I would estimate probably a good 4 weeks (not constantly, still have to work and then have 3 kids at home) depending on what needs reworked, re-lit or just added to. I love all of it (with the exception of pulling lights that don't work off pre-lit trees), so I just take my time, tweak and add to until it's time to start taking it all down. It all gets stored next door in the little house we bought a few years ago to control the "rental situations". We also have our office over there so it works out great for me while waiting on customers to fluff and re-light garlands and trees. Electrical tape and paint is a good idea on those cords....that may be my project next year. I've also thought about whipping up some of those fabric cord covers in a solid color to match the walls. It gets ridiculous with the strategic planning of the extension cords and then not really being 100% sure of what is on what breaker. We've been at this house for about 10 yrs now also, and we are now starting "Phase II." It was so bad when we first bought it that are goal was to make it livable and then to go back and really start adding the features we want. By the time we get this darn thing done, we may very well be dead! LOL Again, thank you all so much for your kind comments and I'm so glad you all enjoyed! Alex...See MoreHow do you get the soil ready? Slow and not so slow methods...
Comments (27)Hi Cori Ann - I'm a big proponent of the "mulch and don't wait" school of enriching soil, but I start with decent soil in the first place. It's clay, but loamy clay, so once I can get past the rocks and whatever else was growing instead of roses (like, horrors, a LAWN), I have decent stuff to work with. I do the usual lasagne method over the top of the grass or whatever, since I am wayyyyy too lazy to double dig anything (once at my old house, and never again). When I have a new area I want to turn into a garden, I give myself maybe a day's lead time (but fine if not) to do the following: - lay down cardboard, paper bags and/or newspapers, and cover with organic stuff like leaves, compost, vegetable trimmings, or whatever - usually 3-5" thick at least - Add some cheater topsoil to jumpstart the breakdown process - maybe 1" - top with leaves as top mulch, not necessary to shred if you have something to hold them in place (too much like work) or mulch if you're not cheap like me. A good additional 3" or so of these will break down over the season to enrich the whole bed. - Go ahead and plant where I jolly well want to. Dig a hole through the lasagne layers into the crappy soil, and mix all of the above into the planting hole, chopping vigorously at the vicious little grubs as you find them (good for the soul as well as soil). I always add some extra manure and compost as well as alfalfa when I plant (even in established beds), mixed about 1/3 with the rest regular soil, so this prepares the hole a little extra. - Let the worms do your work for you, to even out the discrepancy between your Cadillac planting hole and Nova rest of the bed. You don't want to create a huge sink if you have super clay soil, where all the water pools in your good hole and rots your rose, so by conditioning the rest of the soil while you plant you get the best of both worlds. Not having to wait, but not really leaving the rest of the bed on its own either. - When some of your roses die (as half of them will in zone 5 for me), plant the new rose in a slightly different spot from the old one to expand the Cadillac-ness of the rest of the bed. - Keep everything mulched with leaves or other organic material indefinitely to keep feeding your soil for a minimum of work, and maximum benefit with minimum wait time. Make those worms WORK for their grub. I've done this dozens of times in soil that you couldn't get a pitchfork into without serious sweat, and ended up mid-season with soil good enough to flip with a hand tool. The copious amounts of organic material mixed in with some real soil does it for me, and I don't fuss with waiting at all. Of course that's my soil and yours may differ. Cynthia...See More
Esther-B, Zone 7a
8 years ago
sherrygirl zone5 N il
8 years agolinnea56 (zone 5b Chicago)
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agojosephines167 z5 ON Canada
8 years agolinnea56 (zone 5b Chicago)
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agojosephines167 z5 ON Canada
8 years ago
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linnea56 (zone 5b Chicago)Original Author