hi, mehearty, I hope this is not too obnoxious/rude to add my questions to your post. But I too have questions /concerns about the brown canes... I had one damaged tree rose branch that unlike the other black frost burn spots on my other tree rose branches had seemed to spread? rot? and wondered if you had this same problem? and wondered if cherriej and veilchen had any comments at this... There used to be a lot of green in the branch in spite of the damage, 2/3 green but the upper 1/3 black... I had hopes for it because of the green but then one day, much too my horror it had spread down to 1/3 black and 1/3 a yucky brown with only a bare 1/3 green left...the brown was so close to a new emerging bud that I panicked and cut it off...The part still remaining was very healthy white and green outer shell, but I made one cut then took it away and made several (investigative) cross-section "autopsies" of the removed branch. The upper black was black on outside but ash-white on inside, but the brown areas were yucky brown on outside with slight juice but yucky sallow center on the inside... Did I cut out a diseased stem...or did I jump the gun too soon. Was your brown like mine in terms of spreading downward? Thanks and much apologies if I'm being rude... I'm a total beginner gardener (never grew anything in my life except for a beautiful orchid)...and in March bought two tree roses that got snowballed and iced (poor tree roses).

Unleash many of Mr. Austin's creations in environments more benign than even the best of the British types and watch out! I lived through the experience of discovering his newly introduced to our country, "mannerly five foot shrubs" quickly becoming house eaters in Southern California. Remember, the first bastion of "English Roses" and the initial push to introduce them to American gardens began right here. One of the first American collections of them was planted at The Huntington Library where I was an active volunteer at that time. We were all amazed at the intense vigor the majority exhibited. Mr. Austin was reportedly amazed when he witnessed the proportions his roses achieved in their first season (and even more so with subsequent seasons!) here. I battled Golden Celebration for far too many years, first attempting to encourage it to develop into a large, free standing shrub, then to constrict it to a house wall when it demonstrated its complete resistance to being "shrub like". It refused to be contained in either situation, rapidly throwing itself in every direction and refusing to provide any color until it fully blocked access to any point past its position. Not even the stiff winds experienced on occasion in its situation could keep its exuberance in check. Perhaps, had there been a huge lawn with a very tall, long fence to permit it to eat, it might have succeeded, but in that normal sized, suburban garden in a fairly typical, upscale, Los Angeles bedroom community, it was much too enthusiastic and demanded far too much space and water. It sulked if not provided regular flooding. It made extremely efficient use of increased water when it was provided. Crown Princess Mag. was the same, as is Graham Thomas, Pilgrim, Charles Austin, Yellow Charles Austin, Leander (10' X 10' or NO bloom), and far too many others to list here. All of this on the same fertilizing and watering all the other garden roses were provided and none of the others (assorted OGRs, moderns, polys, shrubs, HTs, etc.) demanded more nor responded in similar bad behavior. I don't plant nor suggest many OGR types, as so many of them require much more winter chill, rain, humidity and much less heat and intensity of sun than we can provide. Many once flowering European OGRs simply will NOT flower here. Many Damasks, Centifolias, Hybrid Chinas, Gallicas are as successful as stone fruit with 400+ hours of winter chill requirement. We can frequently succeed with those which require no more than 150, in good years, 200 hours of winter chill. Short season foliage too frequently does not remain viable and healthy when exposed to double and longer of their suitable season length. Just as more tender roses frequently fail when exposed to the colder, wetter, shorter and less intense British 'summer'. I don't expect the roses to develop themselves into the desired framework, however, selecting those which DO (and, there are actually a rather large number which WILL), creates a significantly easier, pleasing garden in which to enjoy your time, and goes a very long way toward significantly more successful plants. Perhaps, if I had Mr. Hearst's land area and water budget, more of the Austin roses may be permitted to develop into what they demand to be in this climate? Yes, absolutely, they CAN be pruned and I have removed MANY yards of Austin roses to be sent to the green waste processing sites, but that much too frequently turns them in to thorny junipers, with the same level of 'garden color' junipers afford. Actually, perhaps a bit less than junipers. At least they provide a much more varied palette of green, are without the flesh ripping prickles, and they don't experience the foliage issues too many of the Austins have here, particularly when maintained in malnourished states from being forbidden the foliage mass they demand in this endless growing season to remain healthy. A large, thorny green plant with no flowers is disappointing in your own garden. It is completely unacceptable in gardens for which you are being paid to provide the required bloom. Kim

Many spruces develop hanging side branches with some age. With Norway spruce in particular this is almost standard, Colorado spruce often does this also, and so on. With Siskiyou spruce the curtains of pendent side branches it develops have caused it to be called weeping spruce - and are the main reason to plant it. Sitka spruce eventually produces very long branches with hanging branchlets all the way along. As with other topics that have come up here other posters having "never seen" a recurring phenomenon I simply cannot account for, or do anything about. Probably regarding typical branching habits for various spruces - with so many pictures of everything on the web now - it is simply matter of doing internet image searches to see what is out there.

@braverichard - now that I think about it; I'm not a 100% sure if they are own root or not. Most likely they are own root. I got them in 2 gallon containers from a nursery. There was no graft visible. Usually grafted potted ones have the graft above the soil line here. I always plant the grafts deeper. Which is why I'm now questioning these ones. These were in with the first batch I planted in May. I planted about 35 different roses this year. I'll have to investigate. @opuntiamc - the Boulder on my lawn is random glacier debris. When they built my neighbourhood, there were a lot of random medium/large rocks around. The builders moved them to edges of the sites. The original owners of my house wanted this one to stay on the property. It's actually comfy to sit on & the kids like to climb it, so I have to keep it surrounded by grass. I wanted to make it into a bubbler fountain or more of a garden feature. It is the largest rock in the neighbourhood. That's how people know my house, "the one with the big rock"!