Rose Resoration

I have just moved house and inherited a clay soil garden (Oh I hate Clay) the Rose bushes are hybrid teas and the stems have moss and Lichens on. The roses do not look to have been very healthy in the ground as they have very thin stems. Should I prune in the normal way and feed or dig them up and re plant in a hole full of compost? or re plant with new bushes.?
MTA
Col.

 

Hello benacre and welcome to GC.

I am afraid I cannot assist you with your roses or clay soil because of my location .... although I do have roses and red clay soil which drives me to distraction .... :lollol:

We have several folk here who 'specialise' in roses .... wiseoldowl for one, the best of the best .... and others ... and no doubt someone will come along shortly and help you.

In the meantime, enjoy the forum!

 

HI Ben, like Woo says ( and his word is to be 100% trusted), I would lift them and renovate them. It is horticulturally sound not to put them back in the same hole, but Geoff Hamilton ( another legend) did once replant them in the same place but replaced the soil surrounding it completely.


And also like Woo-never throw a rose away, every one of them is beautiful.

 

Well I think I would rather restore them than destroy. Next question is can I take cuttings now and if so what is the best type? how long afore I can re plant them to increase stock?

 

Roses are usually grafted onto stock to increase vigour, disease resistance etc.


Because you have poorly performing roses I would advise you to get them into good shape before you even consider taking cuttings, and besides, it needs to be hardwood cuttings that are about the thickness of a pencil and twice the length, and those are done in Autumn. Although there may be an old gardeners tip that Woo could share.

 

"The method I use is:- cut lengths of rose stem, about 1ft, "


Between us friends here I am now as we speak measuring if twice the length of my pencil is 1ft-and it isn`t ( told you) it is 13inches. lol

 

Hi benacre. Like WOO said, clay is considered to be good for rose growing. It sounds to me like your soil has probably become compacted and is stopping air from reaching down to the roots. Option 2 will sort this out too. Cheers...freddy.

 

Yea the soil is compacted I just hope I can rescue them for this summer. Thanks for all the helpful advice

 

If you do pull them together for this summer-which I don`t doubt you will, remember to repay us all with pics please, they`re our favourite posts.

 

Will do when I can fathom out how to do thus pics

 

Have you been there long? (Know how they have performed, or not, in previous years?)

I would prune them to within an inch of their life!! (prune to an outward facing bud, I would cut 1" or so above the bud [as the frost may yet kill a bit of stem], with a cut sloping away from the bud - so the rain runs away from the bud) and see how they fair this year, and re-plant (Sorry WOO!) next autumn if they don't buck up.

I would mulch heavily with [well rotted] manure now, but other than that not do too much with the soil

If you have to replant and the roses have been there "forever" I would dig all the soil out and replace. Probably a big job. There is a fungus you can get which is suppose to combat rose sick soil, no idea if it really works, but nurseries around here, that I trust, speak well of it.

Try not to walk on the soil in the bed as obviously it has a tendancy to get compacted - I put a board down when I'm working in the rose bed.

If they have been neglected they are probably going to have had black spot etc, which will be in the debris on the soil too. Rake all (every last little bit!!) of leaf and so on off the bed and burn / dispose of. And start a fungicide spraying regime early on - spray the stems too. Hope you aren't too organic in that regard - it will be hard to get infected roses back to good health without chemicals, thereafter you should be able to manage them.

I use Top Rose twice a year on mine. They were a treat last year!!

 

Hi Guys,
I hope you dont mind me jumping in on this thread.
I have a rose in my front garden which is now about 4ft tall but rather thin. I wil try to get a picture of it so you can see what I mean.
Is it best to leave this now for this summer and see what happens, I dont even know what type it is, or should I prune it now?