J wrote:

Planted six rose climbers end of April, we had a late spring...

they are doing fine and starting to show signs of flowering.
except one which did not make it.

We are one hundred miles north east of Toronto Canada
not sure what zone that is since it was all changed here
a few years ago.

Was wondering how do I take care of the rest during the season.
I water them once a week and give them rose food. Is there anything
else I should be doing..
jak




Hi Jak. I'm in Toronto. Are you on the lake, or inland? If inland, you
might be zone 5 (Canadian system) which is zone 4 (US).
If you're on Lake Ontario, you're probably a bit milder, and may be zone
6 (Canadian system). You can check out the latest maps he
http://wms1.agr.gc.ca/cgi-bin/mappla...s&layer=cities

Glad to hear you're seeing signs of flowers. It's been such a cool, damp
spring that our roses are about a month behind where they should be.
Keep doing what you're doing: water and food. Stop feeding them by the
beginning of August so they will stop sending out tender new shoots:
that will help them survive the winter.
Deadhead. If you're cutting a stem or branch back, cut back to where the
wood is fairly substantial (so you won't have thin canes that can't
support the roses) and cut just above an outward facing eye. You'll see
little bud eyes above just about every set of leaves.

Come the end of August, stop deadheading. This helps to send a message
to the rosebush to stop putting out new growth (it concentrates on rose
hips instead). Again, this will help your bushes survive the winter.

For winter, you should consider heaping up soil around the bushes to a
depth of 12". If you've got hardy Explorer Series roses, they may not
need this additional protection, but many roses will need some coddling
at this time of year. Ideally (and here's the challenge) you want to
heap the soil around it after the ground is frozen hard: the goal is to
put soil around it to keep the bush in a frozen state until spring, and
avoid freeze/thaw cycles, which tend to damage or kill roses.

Wait to do a hard prune until spring, when you can investigate your
roses and see what canes have winter kill and which ones are still alive.

Hope this helps!
....pat.

--
Pat and Ash

http://www3.sympatico.ca/patash/
Pat blogs at http://patsgreenthumb.blogspot.com/
Ash blogs as Michael Court at http://conceptions.blogspot.com/