How do the nurseries do it?

Well, I purchased 6 rose bushes this year from a good nursery, when they arrived all were in beautiful condition, the foliage was a pleasure to look at even before the flower buds formed and opened. The flowers were gorgeous but within a month or two of planting the foliage was a sorry sight!!!!
I had a very bad attack of rust (which I sprayed) and black spot. They are in huge tubs, John Innes No.3/ peat etc., my question is, how do the nurseries manage to keep their roses foliage in such lovely condition? I planted them in tubs in the hope of not getting all these problems but it didn't work, I got them anyway.

Val

 

No expert on Roses, Gemini, but by and large the nurseries raise those beautiful plants by keeping them in totally artificial conditions that the everyday gardener could never match - under cover, controlled temp, controlled feeding and watering, regular sprays of everykind of chemical thought to be beneficial.
Really, they are raised in a laboratory, sometimes not even in this country.
The rest of us just have to work it out the best we can.

 

I'm no expert either, Val, but I think Alice is right. There is simply no way of avoiding rose diseases under ordinary growing conditions. You just have to spray regularly and ignore the odd imperfection. Some roses are tougher than others, however. I've noticed that my 'Margaret Merrill' has fewer problems than some others.

The great thing about roses is that they're great survivors. They might look a little sorry for themselves after a bad attack from pests or diseases, but they almost always bounce back after a bit of TLC. Their powers of recovery are amazing.

 

When you first buy a rose the nursery will usually give about 6-8 months of slow release fertiliser in the pot. Once the rose has consumed the feed that it has, it will then start to look not quite its best.
In short you need to feed it. You can either use proper rose feed, phosphorgen or miracle grow. All of which will have the desired effect of raising the health level of your roses. Only apply the feed during the growing season.
All of the above can be found at your local garden centre.
Hope this helps

 

Just another thought that occurred to me is to check the pots for vine weavil grubs. These to like shrubs in pots. They look like white grubs about 0.5cm in length and they love roots. If found their are two options: 1. change the compost (essentially replant). Or 2. apply a chemical drench to the compost.
Something better is if you can get hold of some nematodes. These are parasitic worms that feed solely on vine weavil grubs and nothing else. Nurseries have been using these for years.

 

I would just like to say that I get very annoyed / maybe angry with garden centers, even here. They bring in all these glorious trees, shrubs, plants, houseplants .. you name it ... that have been 'brought on' in greenhouses in Holland and the staff virtually 'convince' customers that they can grown these particular items in their gardens / on their balconies / in their houses .... small balls to most of it ...

I am on a couple of expat forums here and over the years have become 'known' as the person to ask about gardening. The money people spend is quite atrocious thinking that because we are in a warm climate that they can grow virtually anything here. I think I know what I am doing and often struggle, especially since I am venturing out of the normal here doing tropical / sub-tropical outside all here round including many, many what is considered to be houseplants.

What I 'advise' here is that if you see a plant you like and wish to have, particulary outside here, please go home and go on the net and read about that plant before you decide to buy.

Several years ago when I bought my Hibiscus Newbiscus .. this giant 20cm wide flower plant ... the garden center owner was telling a buyer who wanted one on each side of his front door as a 'statement' was saying it was evergreen. I stepped in and said, no it's hardy but not evergreen ... the disagreement continued and the customer bought two ... we bought one ... we are sure the customer is very angry with the GC owner as this plant dies back to the ground every year .. mine has gone already in November but will come back in May/April ... not quite a 'statement' in front of your house ...

There is an American lady I speak to on one of the forums who lives in Oporto in an apartment .. that's up North here ... cold. Recently she was told, and sold a very expensive large Camellia for her balcony at quite a cost being assured it would like her balcony. I have tried several times here with them. Needless to say, not only all the buds but leaves have dropped within weeks .. she is unhappy as she is left with a stalk!

The GCs are out there to sell, sell, sell ... go armed with your own information.

 

I buy my Roses bare-rooted. I think they are more robust than plants produced in artificial conditions (well, conditions not easily reproduced in a normal garden). Its a bit like hardening off ... they have to acclimatise to the real world ...

 

As you may know I dont actually grow many Roses so I'm only applying comonsence, the kind that should be applied when buying most plants.

I'm not anti Dutch, but avoid anything from the glossy catalogues which are grown in the Netherlands, I' ve found it mostly to be very softly grown plants in protected tunnels, sent out in temperature controlled artics and delivered to garden centres.
A spin off from the cut flower markets that the Dutch are very good at.

Some of the seed companies also sell Dutch grown plants far to early.

You can perhaps get away with it mid summer but the rest of the year, I would say, dont bother.

There is a nursery not 2 miles from me that grows thousands of roses in their fields every year and they root ball them around now for sale.
Of course you can also buy pot grown plants all year, but none are cosseted and all are completely acclimatised to the outdoors

.http://www.rumwoodnurseries.co.uk/roses.html

 

I bought one of my roses from Rumwood Nurseries the rest I got from Harkness Roses. We have bought roses from loads of different nurseries over the years but the outcome is always the same, they are fine whilst still in their pot but as soon as they are transplanted elsewhere the problems start!!! Some of the best roses I have had came bare rooted in a plastic bag from the local greengrocers!! but that was years ago and I don't think the roses now are nearly as hardy as they were, they are certainly not as fragrant.

Val

 

Ok it was just a thought, but on another tack, I cant grow roses either, so I dont.:D

Maybe its your soil.

You maybe right about the newer ones, but arn't they supposed to be more disease resistant.

 

I used to have loads of roses, Val, but over the years I have gradually scaled down a bit. I like the old-fashioned shrub roses but I don't really have the space to do them justice and it takes a fair amount of spraying and maintenance to keep them looking really good. If you're not entirely fed up with roses, give 'Margaret Merrill' a try. She's tough - not much disease - and she smells wonderful. One (creamy white) rose can scent an entire room. Although it's a floribunda, the flowers start off looking like little hybrid teas. Eventually, they open right up, to the delight of the bees who can actually work them - unlike more petal-packed varieties.

 

If one of those rose bushes got rust they would lose all of them as it spreads really fast, so something is going on, they must have access to some chemicals or something that is not on general sale.
It cannot be my soil as I bought John Innes No.3 and they are in large tubs! ClaraLou, Yes I used to have Margaret Merrill perhaps I might consider it again.

Val

 

We got all our roses bare-rooted from Cants (Colchester, Essex). They are nearby so we went in the Summer to have a look at their field-of-plants, and from that choose which ones we liked the look of and planted them in the Autumn.

We do try to spray then in the Summer of bugs etc. but in reality we only do so 1/4, or less, of what we should. But nonetheless they are incredible vigorous, have masses of bloom, "stink" the terrace out, and are a huge success. I put that down mostly to good quality plants, rather than my husbandry.

We do feed twice a year - Spring and after the first crop of flowers with Top Rose.

But that is about it ...

 

Oh, sorry I misunderstood, I thought you said they grew ok in pots, the problems occurred when you planted them.
Its a well know fact that commercial growers have access to much more potent chemicals than us, the general public.
Difference being, the stuff they use works, and the stuff we buy is in many cases only partly effective.