Hi from Brisbane

Hi, I'm Ali and have been given 4 rose's from my mil, so I thought it would be good idea to join a forum that will help me keep them alive , they are Blue Moon, Double Delight, Mr Lincoln and Grandpa's Rose
Not knowing an awful lot about roses.... ok, i know nothing apart from they look beautiful and smell nice , I'm off to my local libraries tomorrow to look for some bedtime reading.
One quick question, i'm probablly not off to the best start since i've had the roses since last week and not potted them ( i was told by mil, that they would be ok growing in pots ? ) well long story short, i planted them on Saturday and they arn't looking very happy !! the tops are a bit limp, is this normal or have I killed them before I started ?

That's enough from me for now, all advice welcome !!

Ali

Hi Ali,

Welcome aboard

Blue Moon, Double Delight, Mr Lincoln, and Grandpa's Rose all fall into a group of roses called Hybrid Teas. I've never grown Grandpa's Rose, but of the other three Mr LIncoln probably isn't the best option for a pot. It's a BIG rose that likes to be in the ground. It will easily reach 8-9ft tall... maybe taller up there in the warmth of Bris. The others will do ok in large pots. How were you given these roses? Were they gifted to you as bare root roses in plastic bags (which I affectionately call 'body bags')? If so they don't actually have any soil around their roots. Instead they will have something like moist sawdust. They really need to be potted up or planted as soon as possible from the body bag. If you can't pot them straight away you can do something called 'healing them in'. This involves digging a trench in your garden and laying their roots in it, backfilling over the roots until you are ready to plant them. If they are in a body bag (so called because they have been the death of many a good rose), it would be a good idea to cut them out, tease the roots out a bit, put them into a bucket of water with a little seaweed extract (like Seasol) in it for 24 hours (but no longer... roses don't seem to be able to hold their breath that long ). The seaweed extact acts like a tonic to reduce the stress to the plant. I can totally recommend it and your roses will thank you for it. If you are planting them in pots you will need the biggest pot you can afford. Big 2ft diam. pots are ideal and is what my Grandmother use to grow hers in. Double delight and Blue Moon will need 'pampering' to get the best out of them up there in humid Brisbane as fungal diseases will exploit the fact that these roses don't do particularly well in Australia's hot humid climate. Mr Lincoln is being explored as a breeding rose in India because it does better than most, probably due to it being taller and further up off the ground. Mr Lincoln hates it here in Tas. (for me), though to be fair I had a virused plant. It loved it near Necastle when I lived there. If your rose are wilting at the tips don't be too worried. You can easily snip the new growth off and allow them to grow more once potted/planted. The roses you have were probably sent up from cooler climates and on arriving in sunny Bris. they have began to grow again, My roses have dropped most their leaves already and are almost asleep for the winter already. This new growth is particularly susceptible to wilting and stress... my feeling is snip it off if the seaweed solution soak doesn't do the trick.

I've tried to be fairly positive about things here to begin with but I need to warn you... you have chosen to grow roses in a difficult climate and the roses you have been given are not ideal for your climate and have well known disease 'issues'. A lot of people here, including me, would recommend you look for roses called Tea roses (not hybrid tea), China roses, and Noisettes. These are a far better choice for Australian gardens as they are descended from warm climate rose species. It worries me that lots of rose debutants are quickly put off roses because their first experience into them is not as positive as they would like. They get put off by lack of vigour and disease and end up pulling them out vowing never again to try roses... and in many ways these decisions are valid. I would love it if you could research some warm climate roses and look for these to ensure your rose experience is a beautiful one.

Cheers,

Simon

Yes they were in "body bags" lol , and i'm happy to report that they are looking a lot happier now.
I've been reading up about Tea, China and Noisettes and I was wondering if what i am thinking is correct ? ...... The roses I should look for are called " Old roses" ?
Also, I've been looking round my local garden centers but can only find hybrid tea's.....on a different note i couldn't resist a couple of mini roses, I'm not sure of the names as they didn't have any on the pots .... so i've gone from 4 to 6 in only a few weeks

And so the addiction begins

Old roses is a fairly general term used to describe lots of different classes of roses, but you are right; a lot of Tea/China/Noisettes are Old Garden Roses (you'll see the acronym OGR used a bit in reference to a lot of old roses). I saw 'Lorraine Lee', an Australian-bred Tea in a hardware store's plant section today so you might find it around but in general you'll need to purchase these from some of the specialist nurseries around the place. Luckily one of our members here (Ozeboy... AKA Bruce) propagates and sells a lot of excellent quality Teas through his nursery, Glenorie Roses, near Sydney. I'm sure he could fix you up with some to get you started if you were interested. Have a look in the links section here and you will see links to various mailorder nurseries. They are taking orders now to be shipped out in the next month or two so your timing is perfect

You have very quickly picked up on the biggest problem with roses here in Australia... all they sell is hybrid teas... and I am glad to say... their days are numbered! Qualities such as disease resistance and easy (zero) maintenance are being targetted and this has resulted in a fairly new class of rose appearing; the Modern Shrub. We still have a ways to go :rolls:, but in the mean time you will have try really hard to find better roses than Teas for your area. I'm sure, also, lots of us here could fix you up with cuttings to try as well. How much space do you have available? A lot of teas get BIG and your warmer climate will allow them to grow strongly (and BIG) all year round. Others here are more experienced with them than I am and they will tell you they form lovely rounded, well behaved shrubs. Teas will probably be evergreen (or mostly so), up there and will flower for all but the very hottest part of the year. Mine are STILL flowering all the way down here in Tas. 'Lorraine Lee' just doesn't know when to stop! If you have room, look at the Noisettes... roses like 'Larmarque' are strong climbers that make a spectacular display. China roses are smaller, in general. There are some monsters among them too but you'll find a lot more of them are fairly well behaved smaller shrubs. Look for 'Cecile Brunner' - it's a polyantha/china but well worth growing. Be aware, however, that there is a house eating climbing version of it so check the label carefully

Thanks for that Simon , my back garden is not a bad size with a massive fig tree that does a good job of blocking out most of the sun from there, so I'm thinking of having a rose bed in the front garden along the drive, since the front garden is all grass I just have to convince hubby that my idea is a good one lol
I'm now off to measure and work out how many bushes I can fit into the space and draw up a plan so He won't have a leg to stand on lol....

If you are thinking Teas... be generous in the space you alot per plant... they look best when given room around them and they will grow larger up there where you are

Ali

We live on the SUnshine Coast and we grow a lot of Tea roses. We are fortunate enough to live on acreage so the size of the rose does not really worry us.

Some of our teas are quite large (one would be 5m in diameter) but you can keep them under control with consistent light pruning after the flowers drop. Most resent hard prunning and take a couple of years (if ever) to recover.

There are some smaller roses that can be used but in our climate pests and blackspot etc can be a problem. It depends on how serious you are and as Simon has pointed out, roses with more resitance to these problems are being developed. Unfortunately roses were not relly designed to grow in our climate and new varieties are not targetted for our climate.

In saying that Teas roses are very resistant to the troubles. Black Spot is not a big issue it is more the bugs that seem to love the warm weather. Plus of course keeping the plants from growing too large.

If you want a "safe" tea in for SE Qld you can't go past Comtesse de Larbarthe. That's the rose shown on my id. It takes a bit of hard pruning and flowers all year (ours are in flushes but others have them all the time).

Have a look at our Gallery at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/MooloolahRoses/OldGardenRoses#

Its a bit out of date and we have removed most of the David Austins and we have replace these with opther Teas etc so if you need to know anything about the roses let me know.

Hi balinbear,
Wow you have some beautiful roses !!! , your Comtesse de Larbarthe
looks lovely. I will have to add that one to my ever growing short list lol.
I've also been looking for a climber or 4 to climb up some trellis I'm going to fix out the front of the house ( the trellis will be fixed to wooden posts supporting the bull nosed varanda ) I was wondering if Rev d Or would be ok to plant there ? if not what would you recommend ?

Thanks Ali

Ali

Rev d Or may be a bit big for that situation. We have it growing over same arches and on a trellis out in the yard and it is getting quite large.

There are heaps of smaller type climbers. We have Pinkie growing and it flowers well and it won't get as large as a Noisette or Tea climber.

Another one we have on a stand is Alice Gardiner but it is probably has too many prickles for along the front of a house.

The probably have too much room to be good for us so most of our roses are large.

I will have a think about what may suit.

Gary

'Phyllis Bide'

It also struck me that all these rose names we are throwing around may not mean much to you yet. Here is a website that will help you ALOT! http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/plants.php

I go there EVERY day. It's THE best resource for roses on the net.

Thanks for that Simon ! "help me find" is now firmly bookmarked !!

Just had a look at 'Phyllis Bide' sure is purdy will have to see if I can find it

We have one Phyllis Bide growing on a stand. It nearly got removed the other day until Lee (my wife) told me to hang on with it. It has not grown a real lot but it has been very wet.

If I rember correctly it is a bit prickly so be carefull that it is not not too close to where you walk.

As Gary said, 'Climbing Pinkie' (see: http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.4868.1&tab=1) is excellent!

'Climbing Softee' might also be nice (and if you find it let me know as I've been looking for it myself ), see: http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.18705&tab=1

Just wanted to say a quick "hi" to Ali!

Enjoy your roses...

Damo wrote:Just wanted to say a quick "hi" to Ali!

Enjoy your roses...

Hi Damo