Prepared two rose beds infront my veranda on this weekend. Though the roses were planted here 20 days back but this place was low lying and all water from the veranda floor after cleaning used to get into rose beds which wasn't good at all. So I had to raise these beds and put something around that stops water from getting in.

Bought these terracotta tiles to raise the bed from ground level and to save it from water flow from the tuft tile floor and veranda. Didn't want to do such a symmetrical D shape but it turned out like that finally.

I have filled the beds with dry leaves. I will give it another 2-3 inches layer of leaves and then put chicken manure on the top. So there will be a layer of dry leaves between chicken manure and the soil. Chicken manure is likely to quicken the decomposition of leaves and leaves are likely to dilute the effect of chicken manure. I am going to adopt this method in all my rose beds and I am hoping that by spring next year, all leaves would have decomposed (they do in Islamabad). What do you say about this Straw?

This is a corner of my house that was almost a dense jungle when I shifted in this house. There was all kind of stuff growing in this area. I got it fully cleaned, removing all bushes and small trees, leaving just one tree in extreme corner. The wall around the corner is already covered with ficus creeper. Where you see pots now, it was all bushes and shrubs that were so thick that one couldn't even move in. Cleaned them all and raised the corner under the tree with soil at two levels so that I can place pots there.

Good thing about this corner is that it is the first place in my house to get early morning sun and during noon, it has a shade. An excellent place for roses in hot summers. In winter, leaves of deciduous tree will fall, providing full day sun light to this corner. I don't want to plant roses in ground here as the soil is full of roots of the trees and ficus creeper. Roses won't grow well here and will stay in competition with much bigger plants. But pots can be placed here. Arrangement that you see now is temporary and I still have to do the final adjustments.

I think this corner can be developed much more aesthetically. Any ideas?

BTW, the corner shown above is becoming a favourite for my cats and dog during early morning hours. So far, cats seem to be winning in getting possession of the area though Maxus (German Shorhaired Pointer) has still not given up. Photos below show a tussle between Maxus and Brownie. Buttons, the persian male was sitting closeby but not interested in the feud. He is much bigger in size and Maxus never messes up with him. Overall, my dog and cats put up well with each other though there are friendly skirmishes whole day. A pleasure to watch actually....

Something of this kind is happening in my house whole day. The cats, Buttons, Brownie, Fluffy and Spotty playing with Maxus. I have observed that they never agree but also can't stay away from each other for long. Quite a fun.

best regards

Only some of the roses in pots are blooming nowadays.... lot of buds forming up though.

So much to absorb in this post, but mainly, your yard is gorgeous and going to be more beautiful by the end. I like the green backdrop the fig provides; it really shows off planting in front of his and hides any view beyond. I did want to mention not to cover the trees natural root line or any part of its trunk or it will die. I couldn't really see how you had arranged the soil "hill", so I thought I'd mention it.

Straw: You are absolutely right about the pot size. Austin roses in big pots do better. However, I am not sure about the sizes. Standard pots here are referred to in inches.

Ficus climber has roots all over the place. I think I will have to workout something for it. In a month or so, it is going to shed leaves anyway and that is the time I would see weather I continue with it or remove it. But as you said, it will be quite laborious to remove it because the previous occupant has planted a zillion plants, I think after every single foot. Ficus creeper is a cheap plant and usually people plant too many of them to create an instant effect, without realising that it will send roots all over the place in a couple of years.

Any idea about the pink DA rose in first three photos?

best regards

Vaporvac said: " I did want to mention not to cover the trees natural root line or any part of its trunk or it will die. I couldn't really see how you had arranged the soil "hill", so I thought I'd mention it."

That's a very valid point Vaporvac. Thanks for pointing out. All this rubble was already here along with lot of bushes. However, instead of removing it, I adjusted some of it around the tree and arranged it in a manner that I could easily place my pot at two different height levels. Roots of the tree are all over the place so they wont be effected much I guess. However, the trunk has been covered around 2.5 feet with soil. You are right it puts the tree in danger and I just missed this aspect when I was doing it. I hope the tree survives or may be I should start thinking about removing the whole thing which will take quite some effort. I surely don't want this tree to die......

best regards.

Khalid: 14" diameter pot most likely holds 3 gallon, or 11 liters. 18" diameter pot is most likely to be 5 gallons, or 19 liters. The ideal pots for large Austins would be DOUBLE the size of your 18" diameter pot, or 10 gallons.

ficus creeper is very invasive, like the "English Ivy Creeper" which took me at least 50 hours to kill, roots took over the entire bed, the size of a school-bus. I killed by hands, but I should had used "plastic Mulch film" to save time. Below link show a discussion on invasive ficus-creeper:

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/2029/

Creeper is a nightmare. Within 3 years it went from a tiny patch, the size of my hand into a large area the size of a school-bus. It chokes and kill any plants in its path. My Japanese Maple was stunt thanks to the English Ivy. I lost many azaleas bushes to English ivy. Creeper's roots will kill any plants, be it roses, or bushes planted in its path.

Any creeper-tiny root left before will spread so it's an ALL KILL, rather than partial kill .. there's no way to restraint it except for total kill.

When I was young, I volunteered at a hospital, there's a guy who's burnt from head-to-toe, since he used gasoline to killed creeping ivy which took over his garden. The safest way is still pulling the vines by hand, and using plastic Mulch-Film where you want the roots to die.

Just saw pics. of your roses. Really like the double-form of Casino (yellow) and the deep pink of Mary Rose. Your VERY FRAGRANT pink looks like The Alnwick rose with its deep bloom. Since it's a weak grower it could be own-root, and own-root are more fragrant than grafted for fruity scents.

http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/pl.php?n=49257&tab=36

Heritage is more shallow-bloom & lighter pink, plus less petals. Heritage is known to shatter easily, so it that bloom doesn't last long (less than 2 days), then it's Heritage.

Roses can be more fragrant depending on its rootstock, or own-root. My Pink-Peace as own-root is many times more fragrant (fruity) than Pink Peace grafted on Dr. Huey.

Krista in zone 5a, New York, with ALL the Austin roses & Old Garden roses, listed The Alnwick rose as the most fragrant, along with Comte de Chambord and Jacques Cartier.

Khalid, love your new garden! I'm glad you were able to take your roses with you. Your pets are wonderful. I have two dogs and a cat and I love watching them wrestle each other.

I love the idea of an elevated area around the tree. I wonder if you're worried about the dirt smothering the trunk, if you dug out the dirt around it and left a little space and built like a wall of bricks in between the trunk and the dirt so you could still place your pots and allow air between the trunk. Here is sorta a picture of what I mean.

Just build it up as high as you want and then instead of putting the soil in the ring, place it on the outside like you wanted. Just a crazy idea that I thought of!

your new garden looks like it's going to be a lot of work! But it is so exciting making it your own. Thanks for sharing your beautiful roses and cute pets!

filly: Thanks a lot that's a very good idea. Will try it soon to save my tree.

Straw: I think 18" pot should be bigger than 5 gallons. I have a 16 liter bucket and an 18" pot is much bigger. Actually its quite difficult for one person to move an 18" terracotta pot. A pot double it's size would be huge and would be hard to manage. But I guess 24" pot would be a very good size for large size roses. During winter this year when my roses go dormant, I intend replacing the soil. adding the chicken manure fruit peels compost to it. Your views about replacing the soil of pots that are two years or older?

Few pics...

Khalid: I posted this in the other thread: "You are right about YOUR 14" pot holds more than 3 gallons. Our 14" wide pots in America is really short, and not tall like yours. Also YOUR 18" wide-pot is really tall, which means it holds way more than 5-gallon."

THANK YOU for the bush-shots of Jubilee Celebration, that's on my buy-list for next spring. Alan Tisch. has very pretty leaves, and RIB leaves are healthy. I like that lighter color on Tradescant .. much better than black-red in HMF.

I like the deep color of your Golden Cel. that one is more compact as own-root. My own-root is about waist-height max.

Your leaves look very healthy now .. any changes in fertilization or weather? I wish I have the loamy soil like your pots for cuttings. Those cuttings are many times bigger than mine in dense peaty potting soil. I spent hours looking for "loamy & fast-draining pine-fines but zero luck". And my native soil is too dense & clayish to root cuttings.

Yes Straw: After I gave them diluted fertilizers, there is an improvement and fresh growth is good on most roses in pots and all roses in ground. I think after monsoon the roses in pots were exhausted as the minerals would have leached out due to frequent rains. A lesson for me..... roses in pots (specially those not in very large pots) need to be fed after or during monsoon.

Few photos....

Few more.... all the photos are of roses in pots. Roses in ground are doing ok after shifting, less 4 roses 2 of which seem to have died.

Wow!! Those are the best-bush-shots of roses. THANK YOU. Your leaves are normal & healthy and very large. I love your Dark Lady & Golden Cele. You have the best color on Golden Cel. I'm moving my Golden Cele to more sun.

Lady Emma has a wimpy reputation (both grafted and own-root) for many people. I agree that rain leaches out nutrients from pots. I recently gave Geranium Red rose SOLUBLE diluted MiracleGro 5-20-5 and it's branching well from the phosphorus.

I put alfalfa meal on top so nitrogen-fixing is done through bacteria on decayed greens.

It's the phosphorus which that wimpy own-root can't do acid-phosphatase and need to be supplied, along with potassium.

That own-root refused to pump out new growth despite my putting high nitrogen blood-meal NPK 12-0-0, it's from lack of phosphorus. Phosphorus works together with nitrogen. Plants get phosphorus from mycorrhyzal fixing the phosphorus plus roots secreting acid ... but wimpy own-roots can't do that.

Most mycorrhyzal species need pH below 7 to thrive, but multiflora-rootstock or wimpy own-root can't produce enough acid for roots to utilize phosphorus, thus SOLUBLE fertilizer is needed, be it chicken manure or MiracleGro. Since my weather is so cold now, I can't use organics, and have to use chemical. Organics need heat to break down.

Straw: Lady Emma has beautiful blooms and a wonderful scent. I wish it were more vigorous and hardy.

I am planning to plant few alfalfa plants in the backyard and use their leaves (fresh) in the pots and beds. Do you think an area of 10 ft x 8 ft will produce enough alfalfa leaves to feed the beds and pots?

Few pics taken today and yesterday...

Belle Epoque had most beautiful buds

Wow!! Your roses are so tall compared our tiny ones in cold-zone 5a. Your foliage looks really good, and Belle Epoque is the prettiest apricot, I wish we have it here. Casino is stunning. Question: Does it fade to white like Austin roses? Thanks.

My own-root Nahema was below my knee so I'm leaning toward climbers, they become waist-height here, but the mini-rose are ankle-short here !! Tiny chipmunks used to eat my mini-rose so I gave them away.

Your Jub. Cel. is very pretty, and the foliage are healthy & large in your pots .. look good !! The branching on Black Prince bush is very good, so you have plenty of phosphorus.

I took own-root Jubilee Celebration off my buy-list when I find out that it's only 1 foot x 1 foot, or 0.3 meter x 0.3 meter for a warm-zone, which translate to 1/2 size for cold-zone. That one is too wimpy as own-root for my cold-zone.

I replace Jubilee Celebration with The Dark Lady as own-root for buy-list next year. Hopefully it's not too tiny. Climber Casino, Mary Rose, and all your Austin roses are hardy in my cold zone.

Straw: You are right, some of my roses are quite big and they are in pots. I just wonder that how big they would be when I would plant them in ground. Graham Thomas, Nahema, St.Swithun, Spirit of Freedom all are in pots and 7-8 ft high already. F

I think Jubilee Celebration grows much bigger than 1 ft. Mine is already 3 ft tall.

With every passing day, more blooms coming up....

Khalid: Thank you for those nice pics. & I'm impressed at how large and healthy the leaves are. Your Chartreuse de Parme is beautiful, same with Belle E.

Own-root roses are much smaller than grafted, and my cold-zone makes roses 1/2 the size of warm-zone.

So I have to go with REALL BIG roses if I want own-root in a cold-zone. Some of the wimpy own-roots like Love Song, Bishop Castle, Jude the Obscure are sold for $40 each at Heirloom roses since it takes longer for them to root.

The problem with our winter & growing indoor: STERILE potting soil is used, that doesn't have mycorrhyzal fungi for fast root-growth.

Rooting OUTDOOR with fast-drainage & loamy soil plus mycorrhyzal fungi resulted in THICKER roots for me. But I have to mix that in a month is advance. If you click on the below link, you'll see how Jobes' fertilizer NPK 3-5-3 (with bacteria & fungi) makes a big difference in Julia Child's flowering.

Ingredients in Jobe's fertilizer NPK 3-5-3 are "Protein Hydrolysate from feather meal, bone meal, composted poultry manure, sulfate of potash and various bacteria, endomycorrhizae, ectomycorrhzae and archaea."

https://www.amazon.com/Jobes-09426-Organic-Granular-Fertilizer/dp/B002RBGO0U/ref=lp_3032347011_1_10?srs=3032347011&ie=UTF8&qid=1477666753&sr=8-10

Here's what Jobe's fertilizer for roses contain: " A consortium of three microorganisms - bacteria mycorrhizal fungi plus a unique species of archaea that breaks down complex materials."

That the same microbes in compost. One person reported the best result with rooting was with coco-coir (for fast drainage) and compost. I like home-made compost better than store-bought-compost (mostly cow-manure with antibiotics, salt, and that nasty quick-lime added to deodorize).

Straw: Thanks for the information regarding mycorrhizae fungi. I am now eagerly waiting for my chicken manure, vegetable / fruit peels, egg shells and tea bag compost. I hope that compost will contain enough beneficial fungi. Do you think it would be better to mix that compost in the potting mix or add a 3 inch layer as a topping?

Few photos.....

The other tow bush that are quite closely located and blooming at this time are Oklahoma and Bronze Star...

Liv Tyler has very little fragrance at the moment.... not impressed

best regards

After the monsoon, I fed my depleted roses in pots with potash, gypsum, trace elements supplements and a nitrogen fertilizer, they seem to be growing well.

Augusta Luise doesn't have buds yet but the bush is growing very well. Look at the fresh leaves.

Most of my roses are low on fragrance nowadays....finally a bloom with strong fragrance..

best regards

Maxus is a very loyal dog .. he's such a cute baby !! My Mom used to have a dog who's a very good listener .. it's a meek & sweet beagle who followed us when we went for a walk. But that dog got hit by a car and was partially lamed. I still miss that dog.

Today I was at the dentist office and read National Geography magazine about a young girl/scientist who found that citrus peels and avocado peels have fantastic water-retaining properties and can be used to save the drought in South Africa. So the fruit peels' inside your compost, if mixed into soil, will retain water well. The more air-space you create inside your soil by chunky compost, the more oxygen roots get, and the better they grow.

I'm impressed with how healthy and large your foliage are !! Your new place has much better soil !! I appreciate all the pictures of the entire bush you took, they are valuable in HMF where few folks take bush-shots. Black Prince is a pretty bush.

Liv Tyler as OWN-ROOT has very strong myrrh & apricot scent in my alkaline soil .. Since your Liv Tyler is grafted on Centifolia, the acid produced by that rootstock will lower the pH, thus the scent is weak. It roots easily, and is very vigorous as own-root.

Pat Austin and Benjamin Britten are "partial-shade" roses, known to do well in less than 4 hours of sun. Pat is VERY VIGOROUS as own-root, and also healthier as own-root.

Lovely colors on Chartreuse de Parme & The Painter & The Prince. Auguste Luise has such beautiful leaves. What do you think helped with the nice leaves? Fertilizer or soil pH? Thanks.

Straw: I think my doze of 1 table spoon each of potash, apple cider vinegar (organic), gypsum, nitrogen fertilizer (36-0-12) and trace element booster containing 4% Zn, 2% Fe, 2% Mn, 1% B and 1% Cu by weight, mixed in in a bucket that contains 16-17 liters of water given once a week to my roses has done the trick.

However, this has only been done to roses in pots as they were all exhausted after heavy monsoon rains and needed replenishment, specially of nitrogen. The same has not been done to the roses in ground. I just filled their holes with a 4-5 inches layer of dry leaves and sprinkled like 3 cups of chicken manure on top recently. However this was done only a week back so I don't think the effect is due to this doze..... I think you are right, it is the soil at the new location. The new soil that I have used in the holes is good..... as I said many soils from rivers and streams in my area are full of minerals.

Few photos taken today when I came back home after a week....

Wow!! Those are the best intense orange color on Belle E., same with Bronze Star, and intense yellow on Casino. Your new soil is rich in minerals .. the foliage on Black Prince is very good & lots of branching !!

Agree with you that the Dark Lady is compact & full of blooms ... like a mini-rose at Chicago Botanical Garden, but blooms are quite large. I really like your intense color, is your weather cooling off?? I think it's from your new soil & new garden.

Thanks Straw: I think it's time for a new thread..... something like Fall Roses. I have been out of Islamabad for some time and have taken lot of pics after I came back. Will post them in new thread.

best regards

Came back to admire the healthy leaves on Auguste Luise and the best bloom of Chartreuse de Parme ever !! I hope you post those in HMF. Jay-jay in HMF mentioned to me lately that he wishes folks post more than just close-up of blooms, such as foliage, thorns, and bush-shot.

Nurseries often send the wrong rose, and when folks wait until the blooms come out, then it's too late for replacement !! Like this June I bought 10 own-roots from Roses Unlimited, some didn't have name-tags, and I was confused, then I saw your William Morris pics. of its leaves, and that helped to idenfiy.

Straw: I keep posting pics on HMF too. Will post more now. Absolutely agree with you that a closeup bloom photo only clarifies few things regarding a rose and on many occasions, wrongly influences our decision when buying a new rose,

best regards