Salvaging Roses from the jungle bed

Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013 – 8:43 p.m.

2013-02-24 8:43

Well, it rained all day yesterday and I had no desire to go out and play in the garden. However, today was bright and sunny and a perfect day to work… but there were other commitments that prevented doing garden work until late afternoon.

New roses for pots

The roses I ordered from Jackson & Perkins came last last week but I still have not gotten them in pots. Fortunately the weather has been very cool (well, actually pretty seasonable for February). However, I meant to get them planted this weekend. As I mentioned, yesterday was just yucky outside so it didn’t happen then. I woke up this morning and realized that if I wanted to plant the Disneyland and Voodoo bare-root plant I got, I should have started soaking them last night. Oh well. Early this morning, I filled a bucket and put the plants in to get fully hydrated. I also removed the dead plants and emptied the pots; I didn’t want to perpetuate any fungal infestation so I decided to go with new clean soil… so I was off to Lowes for a bag or two of potting soil. At this point, I am ready to plant the bushes, hopefully tomorrow morning before I head to work.

More garden work

So Lara and I were able to get out and put in about two hours of work in the garden… we basically worked until dark.

Lara worked on finishing the weeding in the bed with the two The Fairys and Iceberg. We discovered that the soaker hose in that bed has been severed, quite cleanly actually, at some point in the past, so much of the bed had not been getting the water it should have. Oh well, I had been planning to redo the irrigation in that bed anyway.

I worked on digging out the remaining roses from the jungle bed that I wish to keep. Basically, there are two kinds of roses in that bed…. Madame Hardy (a dasmask) and Rosa Mundi (a gallica). At this point, the Rosa Mundi had expanded throughout the whole bed. I picked a big clump of canes that should be the Madame Hardy and put that in a big pot. I then proceeded to dig up clumps of Rosa Mundi to be potted. I probably had 20 separate plants by the time I quit. Gallicas tend to spread by running under the surface so I ended up either breaking the root/runner or cut them.

I tried to the best to get them in pots but it got dark and I was having trouble telling how well the pots were filled. I didn’t even get to “water them in”. I will have to do that tomorrow, after I plant the purchased bushes.

I also have to make a plan on how to keep the pots of Rosa Mundi watered, assuming that they are staying in the pots that long. hmmm….