"Pickle" wrote in message ...
Hi
I bought several potted roses a couple of months ago, some HTs and 1 shrub
rose (Mme isaac Pereire). The HTs are all doing brilliantly.
Mme Isaac was intended as a feature plant in my front garden, I removed a
square of turf and replaced some of the subsoil with compost and well rotted
manure. It has had 4 flowers, 3 of which were already buds when I bought it,
but apart from that it has not grown at all. It doesn't look like it's
dying, there are no greenfly or black spots, it's just sitting there! It's
regularly watered and fed. I understood that shrub roses sent out long canes
but there is no growth at all anywhere.
Do shrub roses take longer to establish, is there anything anyone can
suggest that I might be doing wrong?
thanks, Lisa

What's under the lawn where you removed the turf for Mrs Isaac P? If
it's very heavy stuff, the roots may not have spread beyond the
composty bit you dug for them. The Reader's Digest book says she's
very vigorous, capable of reaching 15' on a fence -- this suggests to
me she needs plenty of root room, but the book also says this group
don't want rich soil. Maybe it's just a matter of time to settle in,
but you could cautiously loosen the soil around the planting hole and
mulch the loosened area (lawn-mowings will do it) to encourage root
expansion once the manure's exhausted, which will probably be soon.

Mike.