dave weil wrote:
On Sun, 13 Jul 2003 12:44:41 -0700, Cass wrote:

Great shots, Dave. What's the defoliating part mean?

This plant sheds its leaves. Right after the end of blooming, it tends
to shed some of its leaves (but only a portion). Then, after resting
for a month or so, it starts to zoom into high-speed growth, i.e.
right now until fall. I still lose the occasional leaf but it's just
very slight. Then, in winter, it pretty much totally defoliates, with
just the occasional leaf here and there.

That might not be the case in your climate though.

Perhaps it is climate. Here in Maryland, it doesn't lose its leaves
after blooming. In fact, mine is quite a dense shrub right now (and has
been all spring and summer). This makes a good hedge if you don't want
anything larger than say a rabbit to get through. I don't have much of
a deer problem here but I wonder if they like this rose or if the thorns
would bother them.

Also, basically you don't have to worry about whether it blooms only
on old wood, because it's *all* old wood when it blooms. This is one
of the first roses to bloom in the spring (mid-end of April). and
there is no new growth until after blooming.

Don't prune this rose in the fall or you won't get many blooms the
following spring. If you prune it at all (i.e. to keep it from becoming
so huge), do it just after the bloom period ends. You'll get lots of
new growth after that which will be old wood next spring and will have
lots of flowers. You can, of course, remove dead wood any time because
you're not liable to get flowers on that, anyway. If you want it big
and you don't prune, it doesn't matter.

I'll try to remember to post some shots tomorrow that I just took, but
I don't have time to do it right now...

There are bloom pictures of mine from this spring on these two pages:
http://www.dotrose.com/whatsinbloom/20030610.php (half way down)
http://www.dotrose.com/whatsinbloom/20030520.php (at the bottom)
Click on the pictures for larger versions in a popup window.

--
Henry