Friday, December 4, 2009

End of Season Rose Bushes

I'm posting some pictures of my rose bushes just before our first hard freeze that is predicted for tonight. This is a nice way of seeing how they end up the year. Of course this is not all of my roses, but it gives an idea.

First up is Mrs. B. R. Cant. This rose is looking it's best of the whole year. If the freeze would not come tonight, there would be a plethora of new blooms tomorrow. There must be 30 buds on this plant right now getting ready to bloom. Not a speck of disease to be seen.

Westerland is looking long and lanky, but that's what I want it to do. New canes are coming up from the roots already, as you can see in this picture. Quite a healthy plant with no noticeable disease.

Double Knockout is blooming its fool head off right now. The cool weather of the last month has worked wonders with this plant. I've trimmed it back a couple of times this year just to keep it within bounds. A huge, healthy, easy plant.

You can see just a little disease on the leaves of Earthsong, but not enough to make much difference. I'd say maybe 15% leaf loss from blackspot. It hasn't affected the blooms as they are as huge and beautiful as ever. The plant itself is not very big, but it packs a florific punch and was seldom without blooms all year.

Dublin Bay lost maybe 40% of its leaves to blackspot. It hasn't grown as fast as Westerland, but is still relatively healthy for me. I'd say that's good enough for a red climber. In this area most red climbing roses are disease magnets.

1 comment:

Cindy said...

Davy, Just found your blog this evening as I was surfing other blogs. IF you have a moment... I do the blog of The Antique Rose Emporium for the location in San Antonio, Texas. http://weareroses.blogspot.com

I love the photos of the roses and your reports on each of them. Nice.