Rosa 'Hello Dolly'
Rosa 'We Salute You'My rose bushes are loving the cooler weather we've been enjoying, at least at night. They have rapidly produced new growth and blooms, but all is not well with them. I still consider the roses an experiment in my desert garden. Even though I've read a couple of books on growing roses in the desert Southwest, I still don't feel competent in doing so. I think my placement is off, my watering schedule not yet right, and ability to diagnose problems almost nonexistent. Both the 'We Salute You' shown here and 'Tiffany' that I that I wrote about in September have far fewer petals on the flowers than they did last year. The bloom color is more intense in the case of 'We Salute You' and lighter and more faded, in the case of 'Tiffany'. At this point, for lack of a better explanation, I'm blaming it on the near 100 degree days that we are still experiencing.
If a rose expert out there has another explanation, I'd be interested in hearing about it. Maybe I can learn something that my books haven't covered.
9 comments:
I've never been a fan of growing roses. But I can tell you that some varieties are more heat-tolerant than others... if you go to this link... http://earthkindroses.tamu.edu/ thses are the roses that have gone through extensive testing to survive in Texas state-wide, including our Desert Southwest areas. These plants will be pretty tough, and will be more likely to survive in your area too.
Wish I could help with some rose advice, but my own practice is just to keep replacing the ones that die until something lives and doesn't require a lot of maintenance. With your conditions, who knows what that might be. ;) Good luck though.
You are doing much beter than I but that isn't a surprise! Mine bloomed through Spring and Summer but I must have trimmed them too late, as although there is some new growth started, I don't have even a single bud yet this fall. The colors of yours are beautiful!
I stick to the wild side of the family. I have the opposite problem with them here. The cold winters are tough on the more tender varieties.
Hope you don't mind being 'IT' but I tagged ya. Guess you have to return to my blog again today and 'pick up' the rules if you want to play.
Wow! Plants on your blog I'm familiar with!! They are lovely. Roses are almost fool-proof. You'll do fine with them!
I think you have the best of both worlds. Cactus and roses.
I am impressed at how well your roses are doing in the desert,good for you.
The blooms look great to me. I can't offer any advice since growing roses is a completely different affair here. I like having a few, but I only grow the ones here that can survive to -40 and have few disease issues.
Though I am very fond of roses and have a lot of them in my garden, I wouldn't dare to give you an advice, as I do not know how the soil is where our roses have been planted. But that's true, there exists roses which are quite heat resistant (as the contrary too), and normally they do not need too much water either. Why not give another go next year with your above mentioned roses? Maybe they look different again!
Have a nice week!
Barbara
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