The Doctor Is In

Getting Ready for the Fall Blooms

Here it is, going into September already, and the weather is still as hot as a firecracker, so you need to make sure that you are giving your roses enough water to keep cool and continue the growing process so that all the blooms will flourish this fall. Be ready for the rose shows.
 
I found that while we were in Ireland this July, for the 31 days, that our roses were getting plenty of water for we had put the sprinklers on for twice a day at 6 minutes per cycle. We opened our bedroom curtains at 5 am on the 10th of August after a 16hour flight to get home, and low and behold what did we find? Yes, roses, that were 12 ft tall, since there had been no one here to tend to dead heading. It took us 2 days to do all the deadheading, but found that every rose in the garden had survived.

The week before we left for Dublin, we applied a triple 15 to the roses as well as all the other plants in our garden, so it does work and gives them a little food each time the water came on. So I would recommend that if you want to take a break from the heat and the garden next summer you should use a triple 15, slow release, thus your roses will survive and so will you.

Now, with fall coming up and all the rose shows are starting again, you might think about feeding and spraying your roses now. If you feed now they will be in good shape for the first show on October 7th at the Armstrong Nursery in Carlsbad, or the next weekend is the East County Rose Society rose show in El Cajon. 

I would recommend feeding with Magnum Grow rose food, it is water soluble. Make sure that you soak your roses late the afternoon before you feed, then the roses will not be so thirsty that they drink the food up too fast, thus causing leaf burning around the edges of the foliage. Also, if you have not hosed down the plants this summer you might think about that once you have given each plant 1 gallon of liquid food, early in the morn, then give the leaves a nice rinse job and drink at the same time. Watering the foliage does two things for the roses, 1st it helps them breathe better, 2nd it also helps keep the fungus off the foliage with out using any of the harsh chemicals to spray with. (Make sure you follow the directions on the label for the proper dilution rate).

If you want to spray your roses with a chemical or organic spray please do so when it is real cool, like early am…at first light, or late in the evening after the heat of the day is gone. Spraying in the heat of the day will cause leaf burn and a lot of damage to the foliage.

If you want to hear more of the Ireland trip please let me know and I will be glad to do an article about the rose shows of Europe. We had a wonderful time judging while in Dublin and also in Belfast for the International Rose Trials, then we also judged a rose show in Leeds England on August 5th. What a difference from our rose shows here in the USA.

Hope that all your roses have survived the summer and your ready to start all over again.

If you have any questions, please e-mail me at:originalsbydiana@juno.com. Happy Rose Growing!

Webmaster's Note: Diana is a certified ARS Horticulture and Arrangement Judge.