Goodness, thanks again everyone! I just showed some of the roses that really came through the terrible weather looking good. I know they didn’t succeed due to any special coddling from me. They got watered regularly during this dryness, but these are just great roses for my garden and climate. I water at night, and I don’t hesitate to spray the entire bush, top to bottom with the hose at 8 or 9pm if I feel like it needs it. These roses are just suited to my situation. I began by choosing many roses that did well for Ingrid, knowing her climate was very similar, but a bit harsher at her place than mine. I also tried to chose roses that others on the forum recommended from their experience in hot dry climates, or that I had seen doing well in the area. I made some impulse buys, some were wonderful and others were teaching lessons. I’m mostly showing what’s in bloom right now, and has tolerated the challenging weather of the past two weeks remarkably well.
Kim, I’m not sure if I’ll try that hip for seedlings. Where would I put such an offspring? I noticed another spot where Mel’s Heritage is rooting, and I’ll need to put a stop to that one. It would end up taking over the entire garden the way it roots at every damp opportunity. If soil covers one of its lax canes and there’s a dripper nearby, it will root. It’s a totally new experience to have a rose root on its own by accident. I’ve failed at rooting roses when I’ve done everything possible for them to succeed. I don’t think anyone could have custom bred or chosen a rose specifically for my garden, that would be happier here than Mel’s Heritage. Hot, dry sun, year round growing season, my dark brown alkaline clay soil, alkaline water (I know no rose prefers that!), and the good drainage at the top of the slope- Mel’s Heritage acts like he couldn’t have it any better. MH was very unhappy with the pot ghetto life, and exploded once planted out.
When I was researching roses for my slope, I almost decided to just buy several Mel’s Heritage, plant them at the top of the hill, and be done with it. Little did I know that a single Mel’s Heritage would’ve done the job, if I would let it. I decided I wanted to grow several more roses, so I only chose one big climber. There were others that tempted me, especially some of the climbing Tea roses. I knew they would like my climate, but the fluffy, pink, sometimes apricot blooms of Mel’s Heritage kept calling me. It was a rose I could not get out of my mind, and every other candidate was weighed against Mel’s Heritage. I’m SO glad I chose this incredible rose. I did some searching, but couldn’t find a place that listed Mel’s Heritage for sale. I happened to see a post from Jeri showing Burling had donated a few to a fundraiser. Mel’s Heritage wasn’t on her availability list, but I contacted her hoping she had one available. She did, and I’ve been pleased with both Mel’s Heritage and Burlington Roses ever since. I’ve been fortunate enough since, to have visited Burling in person several times and stalk her nursery grounds. She’s a wonderful person and grows some amazing roses.
I agree that Mel’s Heritage probably would not bloom as much in less than full sun. The runaway canes that have ended up in shade don’t really bloom much for me, and my shade is bright. The blooms that I have seen in bright shade are a beautiful coral/pink colored, and really different from what I normally see.
Katyajini, Boy does Mel’s Heritage ever repeat for me! Mine only stops blooming in late December/early January and takes a few months to rest. By April Mel’s Heritage is budding up again. In May Mel’s Heritage puts on his HUGE spring show, and really never stops blooming until the following late December/ early January. I can count on blooms at least 8 months of the year from Mel’s Heritage. BTW, the larger and more floriferous Mel’s Heritage became, the more difficult it was to deadhead all those clusters. That slope is steeper than it looks, Mel’s Heritage has gotten thornier with maturity, and my MS causes me to have terrible balance. I learned on this very forum that I could either blast the dry blooms away with a strong blast of water, or just hit the clusters with a long handled tool. I use one of those things on a pole that extends and is sold for brushing spider webs down from high places. The scent is wonderful too. Even today, at 10% humidity (Yay! It’s gone up from yesterday’s 4%), I can still detect the sweet, fresh, apple like fragrance. I do have to put my nose into a cluster and I have never had Mel’s Heritage waft fragrance. I think he might have the potential to waft fragrance, especially during a spring flush, but not in my dry climate. Almost no fragrance really wafts reliably around here, except the orange blossoms in the late winter/early spring.
I just took this picture. Hopefully you can see that there are both spent blooms, fully in bloom clusters and new buds, all at the same time. Our weather has been this extreme for the past two weeks, and Mel’s Heritage has been unaffected.
Bart, I wish you could get a hold of Mel’s Heritage, too! I know it would love those long hot summers, and you wouldn’t have to shade Mel’s Heritage. I don’t even dare give mine any fertilizer, although I do sometimes throw some homemade compost towards the general area where I think the roots are. I don’t think mine needs anything else. I can’t imagine more blooms, and I certainly don’t need to encourage growth! Bart, you’re very fortunate to have ALMD. It’s been hard to come by in the US. I’m thrilled that Kim’s rose is available to you. I hope this special rose does wonderfully for you. Third times a charm!
Annie Laurie McDowell was another rose that I absolutely fell in love with, and wanted desperately to grow. ALMD was just so much harder for me to find. It took a long while, but I was blessed twice over in the long run. Our own dear forum member, Ingrid, lives just 15 or 20 miles from me. She had an ownroot Annie Laurie McDowell that was struggling in her garden. She offered hers to me, knowing how much I wanted this rose. She also gave me one of her three Wild Edrics. I don’t know of anywhere Wild Edric is available for purchase. She gave me two roses that I treasure over and beyond others. I love seeing them flourish, and knowing that they were once part of my dear friend’s daily life. There’s not a single time I see those two roses, that I don’t think of her and Cecil.
My second ALMD is budded onto something called Pink Clouds, that Kim himself likes using as rootstock. I met Kim in Bakersfield after he told me he had an ALMD budded for me. I couldn’t believe he was giving me this generous gift. I felt obligated to remind him that I had already received an ALMD from Ingrid, but he still gave her to me. I treasure this ALMD also. I’m one of those sappy, sentimental souls that finds great pleasure in things that have a connection to someone. I’m the type that wants to inherit items that have childhood memories attached to them, not things based on their monetary value. I was deeply touched by his gift, and it was truly a pleasure to meet and talk with Kim. I keep that one very protected in the shade. I don’t want some clumsy kid knocking into it while taking the lawnmower out of the garage, or it ever drying out. I keep changing my mind about where I want to plant it. It’s turned out to be a blessing in disguise that I didn’t plant it over the last winter. I had battled a Dr. Huey leftover rootstock for a long time in the spot I had planned for ALMD. I thought I had finally won the war, but it popped up with a vengeance again. I can’t even imagine trying to deal with Dr. Huey with that precious ALMD right on top of it.
Ben, my Poseidon continues to impress. It was absolutely awful after it’s spring flush for the first couple years. Once it got warm and bright, Poseidon’s blooms burned to crisp. I was SO disappointed in this beautiful rose. It bloomed such large flushes so often, but the blooms were ruined. I began setting up an old screen from a sliding glass door on top of my upside down wheelbarrow each time Poseidon was close to opening 20-25 blooms. I loved the blooms, but swore I wouldn’t set up “Mom’s Ghetto Rig”(as my sons called it) again. It was hideous looking and a pain to put up and put away each time. Yet, every time I saw all those bright pink buds, I’d haul out “Mom’s Ghetto Rig”, one last time. As soon as possible, I’d cut all the blooms for indoors and put that eyesore away. Poseidon is in my backyard. My HOA would never have tolerated this, had they been able to see it. I SO wish I had saved a picture of that eyesore of a contraption that I kept putting up to shade Poseidon’s blooms during the summer. I know I posted it somewhere on the rose forum, but I’ve never been able to find the pictures or thread that I posted the photo on.
Anyway, by last summer(2018) Poseidon must have gotten its roots down deep enough to keep its blooms hydrated enough. I suddenly realized one summer day (2018) that I hadn’t had a ruined bloom from Poseidon all summer. 2018 was a long, hot, and dry year for us. We only received 3 point something inches of rain during the “October to October” period they use to count our annual rainfall. The only explanation I can think of is maturity/establishment. How long has your Poseidon been in the ground, Ben? If removing Poseidon had been an easy task that I could do alone, I would have removed it winter of 2017/18. Because there were other things I needed done more urgently, Poseidon is still here today. I’m really glad it is.
Here are some of this morning’s Poseidon blooms that have been on the bush for a while. They’re not perfect anymore, but they’re easily a week old, and have been through this wind and very low humidity. These look better than the Poseidon blooms I used to see on day two in Poseidon’s early years.
I’ve been writing for so long that I need a break. I’ve also heard the “chime” from Houzz that more comments have posted while I was writing this. I still have more pictures to post, but I’m being limited to two per comment. Lisa
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Things won't grow in zone 9b-10
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