GrumpyGregry
Here for rides.
... and if so what are your favourite roses?
Rugosas are great - I have a few - but I let them grow on without pruning for a couple of years and they have got a bit leggy - the stems on the outside tend to fall over. So I think a good old prune in the spring next year. I don't want to do them now or I'll lose the hips.I really like roses, but am no expert.
At my old house I used to have loads of hybrid teas, but some were a real pain to keep the green fly and black spot away.
I've just planted some rugosa rosa and rugosa rosa alba to fill up some space and get the nice smell and pretty hips in the winter. They are already flowering despite only being in a couple of months. They should look great next year.
I had imagined at first I'd just be able to let them go, but I know they'll need a bit of a fettle every now and again to keep them 'in shape'.Rugosas are great - I have a few - but I let them grow on without pruning for a couple of years and they have got a bit leggy - the stems on the outside tend to fall over. So I think a good old prune in the spring next year. I don't want to do them now or I'll lose the hips.
Absolutely. I do think the flowers make a "good show" and are beautiful as blooms, but it's true they don't have the fascination of the complicated old fashioned roses. The fettling is very simple - no worrying about precision pruning, just snip each stem cleanly from between 1/3 to 2/3 of its length in late Feb/early March.I had imagined at first I'd just be able to let them go, but I know they'll need a bit of a fettle every now and again to keep them 'in shape'.
Rugosa are great value, nice fragrance, disease resistant, repeat flowering, pretty hips and although the flowers aren't as showy you get plenty of them.
As a kid the Aged P was a rose man, with a side of sweet peas, through and through, and some of that rubbed off as I was his tiny helper.Now @GrumpyGregry, why are you asking all these gardening questions? Keen yourself?
Great story GG. This is a good time of year to buy roses as they are often on sale and most have a flower or two on so you can see what you're getting. Go to a place that specialises in roses and take their advice! The older roses can be wonderful but are definitely more prone to disease, so modern ones are often the way to go. I don't mind a bit of black spot on my roses but too much is depressing. I would always choose scented over unscented however. Also, although I love my Albertine climber, for example, it only flowers once so only gives a certain amount of value. (It also has MASSIVE thorns, which is another thing to watch out for!) I have quite a few climbers and ramblers and I love pruning and training them, but this can be time-consuming and painful!As a kid the Aged P was a rose man, with a side of sweet peas, through and through, and some of that rubbed off as I was his tiny helper.
Twenty-odd years ago I was a keen gardener, largely because I worked 400 yards away from my back garden and had the time. Job changed, we moved house, When the Aged P came to live with us here he poured scorn on my efforts and on TLH's preferences "Gatch! Waddaya want those for?" giving truth to the old adage about not having two gardeners in one garden. His piece de resistance was strimming/flymo-ing the wildflower meadow I'd seeded in the last third of the garden. "Gatch! Ruddy weeds."
I allowed myself to get out of the habit, and as he has gone to live with my sister in recent years the garden has been left to go past mature and into something of a patchy decline. Earlier this year TLH and I wandered into the Bishops Palace Garden in Chichester and I was amazed, especially by the roses. So I've tentatively started to get back into it and realised we have some decent sized beds that need filing up...
...with roses.