Rose Care help and Photographs

Historic Photographs
	1920's - Take a close look at this 1920's era photograph of the Carriage House and driveway area that has recently been discovered. Note that the Conservatory has yet to have been built, the middle second floor window is at this time double hay doors and there were 'catalpa' trees planted amongst the very young hedges going down the driveway, the present day 'Side Garden and parking lot is a field!
Roses
	OUR ROSES BEGIN - their season-long bloom towards the end of June and continue through the first frost. Because we have hundreds of varieties, their bloom time is staggered, so there always will be color throughout the season. Much of the success with roses depends on survivability, that is, the hardiness of the plant. Hardiness is defined as the very lowest temperature the plant can take before the cells freeze and burst. Plants are rated by zone hardiness, whereby we designate zones in the world by the lowest average temperature that is reached. These zones are rated from 1-11, 1 being the coldest, near the arctic and 11 the warmest, down near the Florida keys. You can tell how hardy a plant is by its rating. We are in Zone 5a, so when choosing roses, be sure they are suited for our climate zone. If you choose a rose that is rated for zone 4 you can be sure it is very tough. Even roses rated for our area (5) can be damaged by constant freezing and thawing. By taking measures to ensure that the bush stays at constant 32 degrees and protecting against dessication and sun scalding, we can help plants that would otherwise suffer some degree of dieback survive the eventual thaws and deep freezes throughout the winter. Maintaining a constant cold temperature is what winter protection is all about. FROM THE TOP: 'Pat Austin', 'Elina' and Electron
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	PROTECTION - in the form of a deep snow cover that lasts all winter is ideal. However, this is not always a guarantee, so we augment this by bringing in soil (not taken from the beds) and apply this to form a cone up to 2 feet or so around each individual bush when the ground has just begun to freeze. After the soil pile around the bush has frozen, we apply salt marsh hay as a insulative layer to help keep the pile frozen and to deflect winter sun from warming the soil pile. The key here is to keep the roses from breaking dormancy during the winter, but allowing them to re-acclimate to warm weather as the soil thaws in the Spring by slowing removing the hay and soil. A good signal that the soil is warming is when the crocus begin to bloom. FROM THE TOP, 'Europeana' and 'Mrs. R.M. Finch'
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	SUMMER CARE - begins at bud break, watching to remove any yellow leaves that form as the bushes grow. As the rose bush begins to bloom, keep removing the spent blooms (a process called deadheading) to further encourage new blooms to emerge. Roses are high energy plants and require at least six hours a sun per day, evenly moist soil and a well-rounded granular organic fertilizer twice during the season, but not after the end of July. Apply manure during the early spring and work into the soil to increase organic matter and to help with water absorption. Lime may be applied on the rose beds in the Fall. FROM THE TOP 'Brigadoon', 'Christian Dior', 'Oranges and Lemons'
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	SOIL - is a living ecosystem, and needs to be tendered as much as the plants that grow in it. Avoid using bark mulch on rose, flower and vegetable beds. Most annuals and other high energy plants like these prefer neutral ph soil levels. Bark mulch actually lowers ph levels to the point where many nutrients cannot be taken up by the plant. It is best to add compost or, if space is at a premium and composting is not practical, try mixing peat moss into the soil every other year and add dehydrated manure every Spring to increase soil life and water absorption. This is also the best way to help soil hold nutrients longer. We are feeding the soil, so the soil may feed the plant. The more organic ingredients in the soil, the less you will need to fertilize. For weed control, cultivate the soil weekly with a long handled four-prong cultivator, this also helps in aeration and allows the soil to warm up more efficiently. Do not use foliar fertilizers, although they act fast to green up leaves, they do nothing to enrich the soil and do not last long. Many of these and other chemical fertilizers are not absorbed by the plants efficiently, and much of the remaining chemicals run-off into the water table, creating nutrient loading and algae blooms in rivers, lakes and eventually, the ocean. FROM THE TOP 'Glowing Peace', 'Scentimental', 'Sunsprite'
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	WATERING - is always best via natural rainfall, as rain water contains many nutrients that are picked up as the rain falls through the air. Irrigation, whether a soaker hose or standard sprinklers, must be done correctly for it to be effective. Irrigation either on grass, flower or vegetable gardens must be regular and deep, that is, in times of low natural rainfall, once a week at least for one hour per move or per station. Deep watering encourages root growth to go further down into the soil, protecting the plants against drought. FROM THE TOP: 'Pristine', 'Folklore', 'Lady X'
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	GROWING - roses is not difficult, although proper selection of the varieties you grow will dictate how much time you will need to spend caring for them. Daily care is usually not needed, depending on the variety and the number or bushes you decide to grow. There are many shrub-type roses that are disease resistant and have numerous blooms per bush with very little care. However, the flowers tend to be small. Hybrid Tea roses certainly have some of the biggest and most fragrant roses known, with a much longer and larger bloom cycle - they do require more care, but are well worth the effort! FROM THE TOP: 'Double Delight', 'About Face', 'Gold Medal'
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	ROSE CLASSIFICATIONS - number in the hundreds, and many thousands of varieties are available therein. Roses are typically classed depending on their parentage or history. We tend to see many different classifications of roses incorrectly lumped into the 'Old Garden Rose' category, which really consists of many sub-classes, but really describe roses that were hybridized before 1867. There are many great roses here that have shown very good disease resistance and hardiness that are still being cultivated and sold. Some are recurrent (repeat blooming during the season) and some are non-recurrent, (only bloom once in early summer) Many 'David Austin' roses have been cultivated from re-current blooming old garden roses and will reward even the beginning rose grower the very first year with many blooms. It must be noted that not all, but many tend to have a smaller repeat bloom cycle. Hybrid tea roses (Grandiflora, Floribunda and Climbers included) are surely the biggest classification these days with good reason: they tend to have big, colorful blooms, are highly fragrant and always recurrent, or bloom constantly throughout the season. FROM THE TOP 'Moonstone', 'Love', 'Geoff Hamilton'
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	PRUNING - is performed in early Spring, just as the buds begin to swell. This can be one of the most daunting tasks to the beginning grower. The entire crop of flowers depend on a correct pruning job, and with practice, becomes very easy once you know what to look for. Bush roses have more numerous, thinner canes support smaller flowers and generally need less specific and lighter pruning, whereby Hybrid Teas with fewer, thicker canes that produce bigger, heavier flowers will need more intense pruning, though they all require a similar technique. BEGIN by pruning back one cane at time to where the cane is green, or right above a swelling bud. You will notice that not all canes are green on the outside, some are dark red or brown, but you can identify a living cane by looking closely for a green cambium layer surrounding the pith after a cut. Continue until all the canes are cut back to something green, or living. Now go back and prune out the canes that are thinner than a pencil, saving only the strongest, best shaped ones in order to create and maintain a good shape. Remember, these canes need to be stout enough to provide a strong foundation to support the weight of many roses. Sometimes, all there will be are thin canes depending on the age and variety of the rose in question, so this is why we begin pruning by saving everything first, then go back to thin out. FROM THE TOP: 'The Mary Rose', 'Paradise', 'Aloha'
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	DISEASE and INSECT - damage can be avoided by following simple guidelines. Simply choose plants that are resistant to certain diseases such as 'blackspot', 'powdery mildew' and 'rust'. If you have established plants that are susceptable to certain diseases, then begin prevention with good sanitation, that is, clean all fallen leaves up from around the plant each Fall and Spring and keep dead leaves from accumulating. This will keep fungus spores from infecting the rest of the bush. Protecting the new leaves with a fungicide should be the last option, but may be necessary in certain situations. INSECT DAMAGE and population can explode given certain favorable conditions. Aphids feed on the tops of roses near the buds and can simply be sprayed off leaves with a stream of water. Spider mites can be the most damaging single pest to roses. They are found on the bottom of leaf surfaces on lower branches and typically begin severe damage when temperatures climb into the high eighties and beyond. When infestations are severe, yellow pin hole spots appear and webbing can be found near the base of leaves. Defoliation is rapid. Spider mites do not like moisture, or cool weather, so occasionally spraying the lower leaves during hot periods is a very effective control method. An application of an ovicide (egg killer) can be performed once in the spring on the soil - this is also very effective and safe. Japanese beetles continue to be a major problem but are easily controlled by targeting them when they are grubs. When the adult beetle is present and feeding, dead spots in the grass are usually apparent. This is because the Japanese beetle grubs feed on grass roots just below the soil level in the Spring and again after the adults mate, at the end of the Summer. Brown and dead spots are created and under severe infestations, entire lawns are killed in a very short time. There are several control products that can be purchased at your local garden center. Thorough watering is always recommended after application, so be sure to follow all instructions with these products to the letter! FROM THE TOP: 'Cressida', 'Intrigue', 'Apollo'. 'Cressida' is the Director's pick for its highly licorice and fruit scent and creamy apricot color.
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	2007 - 'Hot Cocoa', 'Folklore', The Lydia Fuller Bottomley Memorial Garden.
Garden features
	2007 - 1) A view of the north perennial border with bird bath and peony 'Scarlet O'Hara'. 2) A view of Japanese Garden and Koi pond. 3) The Lydia Fuller Bottomley Memorial Garden water feature.
More Garden Features
	Jun-20-2008 - 1) The 'Shishi Odoshi', a traditional Japanese water feature known as a 'deer chaser'. This was used by farmers to keep wildlife from their garden. 2) The crabapple in full bloom in late April. 3) First Rose bloom in 2008!