GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - Rose season ends abruptly-

10-07-2003, 03:20 PM

(Unique Too) wrote in message ...
(J. Del Col) writes:

For five mintues things were WILD AND WOOLLY!!

A huge branch of a tulip tree slammed into half my rose garden. I will
be cutting it up today--it's as big as a medium sized tree-- and
surveying the damage.

From what I could see last night the worst hit were my R. moyesii and
R. xanthina. They used to be BIG shrubs; now they are modest bushes.

Ah well, the roses will probably recover, but the garden layout will
never be quite the same.

How scary those five minutes must have been. I hope the damage isn't too bad.
But it's better the branch fell on the rose garden than the house. Human
damage is far worse.

Fortunately, no one was hurt, and only one house suffered serious
damage.

In that instance a very large tree flattened the deck, destroyed the
chimney and crushed a section of the roof.

As for my garden. I spent two hours cutting up and removing the
fallen branch.
No chain saws for me. I did it all with a bow saw, an axe and
loppers.

My ten year-old R. xanthina took the worst hit. Two thirds of its
canes were crushed beyond salvage--no big yellow billows in the spring
from that puppy for a few years. R. moyesii suffered only minor
damage. One hybrid perpetual was destroyed and several un-id'ed found
roses got flattened.

I pruned away the damaged canes from all the roses. My specimen of R.
stellata
had a close call but escaped harm. The falling branch also dislodged
many rocks from the dry stone wall surrounding the garden. As soon as
the incessant thunder showers let up, I 'll be out cleaning up and
restoring the area.

J. Del Col