By Stuart Dalton, President

New Year, New Roses

Hello all and welcome back to our Monthly Newsletters. Thank you to our members and to Rose Gilardi for the wonderful Holiday Dinner and installation. It was good to see one of our tireless workers, Barbara Todd, get the Peninsula Rose Society Bronze Medal for her service. As always, the people and fellowship make it nice to be a PRS member.

I hope you are getting ready to plant new roses if you can squeeze them into your garden. Now that the rains seem to have started and the breaks are coming, it is time to start the preparing, pruning and planting.

I will do some rose prep work and have some holes ready with amendment mellowing for when I get my new roses from mail order. I took out a couple poor performers, moved some and ordered mini-and larger roses. One thing I do with rose varieties I have not planted before is to put them in big pots to give then a two-year trial. If I don’t like it after two years it can be shovel pruned (aka, removed). If you want you can put the plastic pot in a hole where you think it may go eventually to see how it blends with other roses, and how big it gets.

I had to move one huge Sally Holmes in November, bare root. The bad news is the roots were about two inches in diameter and deep in the soil and the canes spread 12 feet so I’m not sure if the remaining roots can stand the shock after the plant was dug out. I stripped and cut back much of the top growth when I moved it. I gave it B1 and soaked it just like bare root and added mycorrhizal solution to help it root quickly. I’m keeping the planting area moist and in great soil so I give it about a 50/50 chance of survival. I’ve moved climbers before bare root, but this was a huge one. My area near the front door where I had planted a small Sally Holmes rose now has what is left of the huge one. If this works, I have a several year head start of a great climber to fill the space.

Let’s hope this season gives us enough rainfall and fills the reservoirs. Water is especially important if we are planting new roses since they have relatively small root systems. If the root zone dries out and the roots are not established the plant can die quickly.

Now is the time to prune. I will be giving a Rose Pruning Seminar on behalf of the Peninsula Rose Society and UCCE Master Gardeners at the San Mateo Arboretum Society 1-3 PM on January 6. If it is not booked up (you must pre-register), a special aspect is hands-on pruning of a 5-gallon donated rose (from Wegman’s) that you get to take home. Members of the Arboretum $10 others $20, but a bargain for a nice potted rose. More information and where to register is here. Consulting Rosarians can get credit for attending this event and Master Gardeners can get CE credit. I hope to see some of you there.

And, of course, our normal January pruning is coming up at the next regular meeting January 15. There is a guideline for pruning from PRS that has been updated slightly. Based on taking out and cutting back the climber, Sally Holmes which I mentioned, I should have some nice long climber material for pruning demonstrations at our January meeting.

Happy Gardening