Lavaglut - one of my absolute favorites. Mine must have a hundred buds /
flowers right now, just covered...



"Kim" wrote in message
...
Almost as soon as I'd sent off the earlier message saying the container
roses
were on the way, I heard a van pulling up in the driveway. Who might it
be but
Airborn Express....and I could see a couple of VERY LARGE BOXES through
the
back windows of the van!

I can't tell you how excited I was -- my first real "bunch of roses"!

Shiva asked me to let her know my impressions of S&W's container roses, so
I'm
going to end up rambling on and on, since I don't know a heck of a lot
about
this business. So if I say something that's actually a stupid thing to
have
said, you'll understand. :-) I will also be asking a couple of questions
before I'm done, too.

I had ordered 8 roses -- 5 floribunda, 1 polyantha, 1 climber and 1
miniature.
I'll describe each one in turn.

"General things"

They are all Weeks roses.

Packaging: The two large boxes were actually made up of 4 smaller boxes
each
that were stapled and taped together. Each was 30" tall and square, just
a
fraction bigger than a 3-gallon nursery container. I figure they were
sized
that way to avoid rattling around without having to use cushioning
material.
The mini was actually inside a second, barely smaller box, since it was in
a 2-
gallon container.

You had to literally cut the boxes off them to get them out. The only one
with
any "damage" was the mini, and I shouldn't even be calling it damage --
one of
the staples that held the boxes together had penetrated the container just
a
little bit so it "snagged" as you took it out.

Pot packaging: The pots were closely & carefully wrapped in heavy brown
kraft
paper and taped up so there was no chance the paper would slip around or
tear
in transit. I say carefully, because each was wrapped up to just snuggle
up to
the main cane without bothering leaves.

I am trying to decide how to "go on" about each plant, and not sure how
to. So
for now, I'll comment that upon initial examination the leaves on all
plants
looked fine. Some of them had dried water spots on them from their last
watering/misting. Soil was moist in all cases. I couldn't tell if they
had
been shipped on Monday or Tuesday, so I don't know how long they had been
in
the boxes.

I'll now give you comments about each one. Bud count is what I could
easily
see w/o digging around through the leaves.

Intrigue: Plant was 31" - 32" inches tall, so the top stem was slightly
bent
over. There were 6 buds on that cane and 1 on another. The bud that was
alone
had already bloomed and was almost ready to drop petals...but boy, was it
"smelly"! LOL

The Fairy: 2' tall with bunches of delicate "baby budlets" (for lack of a
better term to call them?) that appeared to be not yet fully formed.
There was
a lot of active growth (that's what I'm calling how "new leaves" look
since I
don't know if there's a particular term for that appearance) on most of
the
cane/branch tips.

Baby Grand: Large for a mini - 2' tall. It had 7 flowers that had
already
bloomed and one more bud that's getting ready to open.

Easy Living: 27" tall, 2 buds.

George Burns: 30" - 32" tall, with 7 buds. Like Intrigue, it was a
little bit
tall for the box so it drooped a bit.

Lavaglut: 31" tall and at least a dozen unopened buds. One bud that was
1/3
to 1/2 open, and boy, is it pretty! :-) A little droopy like *I* and
*G.B.*.

Margaret Merril: 29" tall with at least one bud. Active growth on the
end of
some canes/branches.

Berries 'n Cream (CL): One obvious bud. Canes look very healthy and
almost
like they are getting ready to run a race to see how big they can get as
fast
as possible!

I don't know if it was the right thing to do or not, but I couldn't wait
to get
them planted. They are all in the ground now. Never having gotten mail
order
container roses I don't know if I was supposed to let them "rest" for a
while
or something.

That brings up a question. Once they were all in the ground I noticed
that the
ones I'd mentioned earlier that were a bit tall for the boxes, and had a
bit of
droop because of it, were looking somewhat more "droopy" now. They hadn't
been
watered at that point.

I watered them very lightly for now for a couple of reasons -- one, the
bed
area is in full sun and I had always heard that you shouldn't water during
the
full heat of the day because it can hurt the plant, and two, we're
expecting
rain/thunderstorms over the next few hours and I want to see how much
rainfall
we get. It's 81 - 82 here today with about 40% humidity.

Is the "droopy appearance" something to be concerned/worried about? Are
they
in distress in some way? Do they need water, or what? Advice here,
please!!!

Another question -- In looking over the plants to see what needed to be
pruned
off, I noted that a number of canes that I would have chosen to "prune"
had
new, active growth, some even with buds, too close to the end of what I
thought
was a "dead" cane. Some of the healthy looking shoots with buds were
hardly
1/4" or so away from the end of the bigger, "dead looking" cane end. Is
that
usual?

Not knowing which of the roses are grafted ones versus own root (mini I
know is
own root), and not having found a site (yet) that lets you search a
database on
"own root", I don't know if any of my new babies are "own root". Can a
rose be
found in both an "own root" and a "grafted" form, or are they only one OR
the
other? Of the ones I got, are any of them "own root"?

In any case, to wind this up, this novice is very happy with the container
roses from S&W (unless someone tells me there's something grossly wrong
with
something I've described here).

Any comments will be greatly appreciated.

--

Kim

"We have done so much with so little for so long that now we can do
anything
with nothing." -- Dave Marcis

In article ,
says...

Is the "droopy appearance" something to be concerned/worried about?
Are they in distress in some way? Do they need water, or what?
Advice here, please.

Water them regularly. Get some Vitamin B1 and follow those directions.

Can you point me in the direction of a preparation to use? As I've said, this
is my first time and I don't know the proper things to use yet for different
circumstances...

Another question -- In looking over the plants to see what needed to
be pruned off, I noted that a number of canes that I would have
chosen to "prune" had new, active growth, some even with buds, too
close to the end of what I thought was a "dead" cane. Some of the
healthy looking shoots with buds were hardly 1/4" or so away from the
end of the bigger, "dead looking" cane end. Is that usual?

Sorry, I don't understand what you're saying.

Ummm, let me try to rephrase it.

When you go to put a new plant in the ground, you look it over for canes that
appear to be dry/dead/dying, right? And you prune off things like that back to
where you know they are "alive"?

In looking over the plants yesterday, some of the largest canes looked kind of
dried out on the very ends. Even if I'd wanted to nip off a teeny bit of them
to make sure they were healthy, there were small, green & healthy looking
branches -- some with buds on them -- coming out from the cane barely 1/4" to
1/2" away from the cut end of it.

Given what I have just described, is in NOT an absolute that "you must prune
the ends of canes" when you plant them?

Forgive me if I'm being less than precise.

Not knowing which of the roses are grafted ones versus own root (mini
I know is own root), and not having found a site (yet) that lets you
search a database on "own root", I don't know if any of my new babies
are "own root". Can a rose be found in both an "own root" and a
"grafted" form, or are they only one OR the other?

Yes. Even the patent owner selling its own roses will sell some OR,
some budded. Fourth of July is a perfect example, sold both ways by
Weeks.

Thanks. Whenever possible I'll look for own root ones. :-)

Of the ones I
got, are any of them "own root"?

Baby Grand is undoubtedly own root. I doubt any of the others are.
Weeks tends to sell shrubs own root and to bud others. Own root Weeks
roses have a label that says Own Root, but the budded roses say
nothing.

I left the tags on them but will remove them soon and give them a look over to
see if any of them comment on it.

Enjoy. Weeks has a wonderful selection of roses, and I don't think you
can go wrong selecting from their varieties.

I hope so! The droopies do worry me. I watered them last night since the
rainstorm passed us by and they look a little better but I'm still concerned.
Will have to go get something like you've told me about to put on them. I
don't know how easy or hard that stuff may be to find in this area, though.


--

Kim

"We have done so much with so little for so long that now we can do anything
with nothing." -- Dave Marcis

In article , Kim
wrote:

In article ,
says...

Is the "droopy appearance" something to be concerned/worried
about? Are they in distress in some way? Do they need water, or
what? Advice here, please.

Water them regularly. Get some Vitamin B1 and follow those
directions.

Can you point me in the direction of a preparation to use? As I've
said, this is my first time and I don't know the proper things to use
yet for different circumstances...

Sure. Safer Vitamin B1 Plus. Alaska Startup. Miracle-Gro Quick Start.
Lilly Miller B1 Plant Starter. Don't add anything with nitrogen
fertilizer.

Another question -- In looking over the plants to see what needed
to be pruned off, I noted that a number of canes that I would
have chosen to "prune" had new, active growth, some even with
buds, too close to the end of what I thought was a "dead" cane.
Some of the healthy looking shoots with buds were hardly 1/4" or
so away from the end of the bigger, "dead looking" cane end. Is
that usual?

Sorry, I don't understand what you're saying.

Ummm, let me try to rephrase it.

When you go to put a new plant in the ground, you look it over for
canes that appear to be dry/dead/dying, right? And you prune off
things like that back to where you know they are "alive"?

In looking over the plants yesterday, some of the largest canes
looked kind of dried out on the very ends. Even if I'd wanted to nip
off a teeny bit of them to make sure they were healthy, there were
small, green & healthy looking branches -- some with buds on them --
coming out from the cane barely 1/4" to 1/2" away from the cut end of
it.

Given what I have just described, is in NOT an absolute that "you
must prune the ends of canes" when you plant them?

Forgive me if I'm being less than precise.

Your precision is just fine. I didn't understand what you were
asking. No, you do not have to prune anything off, especially if the
tips look just dry as opposed to black or diseased. Trimming off dead
stuff is more important with bare root roses than with potted roses.

Not knowing which of the roses are grafted ones versus own root
(mini I know is own root), and not having found a site (yet) that
lets you search a database on "own root", I don't know if any of
my new babies are "own root". Can a rose be found in both an
"own root" and a "grafted" form, or are they only one OR the
other?

Yes. Even the patent owner selling its own roses will sell some OR,
some budded. Fourth of July is a perfect example, sold both ways by
Weeks.

Thanks. Whenever possible I'll look for own root ones. :-)

Of the ones I got, are any of them "own root"?

Baby Grand is undoubtedly own root. I doubt any of the others are.
Weeks tends to sell shrubs own root and to bud others. Own root
Weeks roses have a label that says Own Root, but the budded roses
say nothing.

I left the tags on them but will remove them soon and give them a
look over to see if any of them comment on it.

Don't remove the tags. Leave them on forever, especially the metal
ones. They are the permanent identification of your roses, for you and
for anyone else.

Enjoy. Weeks has a wonderful selection of roses, and I don't think
you can go wrong selecting from their varieties.

I hope so! The droopies do worry me. I watered them last night
since the rainstorm passed us by and they look a little better but
I'm still concerned.

Will have to go get something like you've told me about to put on
them. I don't know how easy or hard that stuff may be to find in
this area, though.

Vitamin B1 is available everywhere at garden centers or at hardware
stores. You'll be fine and so will your roses.

Don't remove the tags. Leave them on forever, especially the metal
ones. They are the permanent identification of your roses, for you and
for anyone else.

If I can add a ridder to this rule...

If these are metal tags w/
metal wire ties and you live
where the temp gets anywhere
below 20F please remove them.

For some reason extremely cold metal
causes girdling like damage on healthy
canes. I had to lop atleast a few canes
due to this.

--
Theo in Zone 5
Kansas City

In article b101ae580c90a876d80563a84a3b8da1@TeraNews,
says...

If these are metal tags w/
metal wire ties and you live
where the temp gets anywhere
below 20F please remove them.

For some reason extremely cold metal
causes girdling like damage on healthy
canes. I had to lop atleast a few canes
due to this.

The things one learns the hard way! Yes, I do believe they're on wire. And we
do get below 20 in the winter. Do you keep your tags and reattach them somehow
with something that won't harm the plant?

--

Kim

"We have done so much with so little for so long that now we can do anything
with nothing." -- Dave Marcis

On Thu, 1 May 2003 16:46:39 -0400, Kim
wrote:

Almost as soon as I'd sent off the earlier message saying the container roses
were on the way, I heard a van pulling up in the driveway. Who might it be but
Airborn Express....and I could see a couple of VERY LARGE BOXES through the
back windows of the van!

I can't tell you how excited I was -- my first real "bunch of roses"!

Shiva asked me to let her know my impressions of S&W's container roses

I sure did! Good job! They sound wonderful.



You had to literally cut the boxes off them to get them out. The only one with
any "damage" was the mini, and I shouldn't even be calling it damage -- one of
the staples that held the boxes together had penetrated the container just a
little bit so it "snagged" as you took it out.

This kind of packing just amazes me. I have no idea how they can
afford to take the time and do it, for what they charge for roses.


Intrigue: Plant was 31" - 32" inches tall, so the top stem was slightly bent
over. There were 6 buds on that cane and 1 on another. The bud that was alone
had already bloomed and was almost ready to drop petals...but boy, was it
"smelly"! LOL

Please keep me posted about this rose. I am still searching for the
true purple rose.



Margaret Merril: 29" tall with at least one bud. Active growth on the end of
some canes/branches.

God I love this rose. Mine has a sucky shape, but the blooms are
delicious. Much better in its third year. This one gets blackspot
easily here, so take care of her.


I don't know if it was the right thing to do or not, but I couldn't wait to get
them planted. They are all in the ground now. Never having gotten mail order
container roses I don't know if I was supposed to let them "rest" for a while
or something.

This made me laugh. How I wish I could get mine into the ground when I
want to! Good for you.




That brings up a question. Once they were all in the ground I noticed that the
ones I'd mentioned earlier that were a bit tall for the boxes, and had a bit of
droop because of it, were looking somewhat more "droopy" now. They hadn't been
watered at that point.

I watered them very lightly

No no. Never, ever water lightly, unless you and your house are
floating away. :-) As long as they drain, roses love water. You cannot
water too much.

I'm so glad you like your roses!

On Tue, 06 May 2003 03:32:22 GMT, (Shiva) wrote:


That brings up a question. Once they were all in the ground I noticed that the
ones I'd mentioned earlier that were a bit tall for the boxes, and had a bit of
droop because of it, were looking somewhat more "droopy" now. They hadn't been
watered at that point.

I watered them very lightly

No no. Never, ever water lightly, unless you and your house are
floating away. :-) As long as they drain, roses love water. You cannot
water too much.

I'm so glad you like your roses!

And speaking of that, we've had 5 inches of rain in the past 48 hours.
Plus, tornadoes, hail, lots of lightning and wind.

We've got at least two more days of rain to go.

My lot has personally avoided the hail and tornadoes (the closest
twister was about 10 miles away), although the wind took a pretty
large cane on Aloha.

I'm personally ready for some sun..

I got an alum. gutter nail
and staked the tag to the ground.

--
Theo in Zone 5
Kansas City

"Kim" wrote in message
...
In article b101ae580c90a876d80563a84a3b8da1@TeraNews,
says...

If these are metal tags w/
metal wire ties and you live
where the temp gets anywhere
below 20F please remove them.

For some reason extremely cold metal
causes girdling like damage on healthy
canes. I had to lop atleast a few canes
due to this.

The things one learns the hard way! Yes, I do believe they're on wire.
And we
do get below 20 in the winter. Do you keep your tags and reattach them
somehow
with something that won't harm the plant?

--

Kim

"We have done so much with so little for so long that now we can do
anything
with nothing." -- Dave Marcis

Looks like we sent it all
your way. Sorry about that.

I was out in my garden digging rose craters
when the S*** hit the fan so to speak.

Got a front seat view.
Here's how it panned out.

3:44 PM - Cloudy Sky, not much wind, Thuderstorms forcast
3:45 PM - Thunderstorm line identified. Forcasters Scrambling.
3:55 PM - Tornado alerts flash
4:00 PM - Tornado touches down
4:15 PM - Sky chopper shows demo'd houses.

Touch down was less than 2 miles away.

My neighbhor was also out on his yard.
We looked at each other ran inside to grab
camera, watched it blow by and returned to
gardening by 4:15. Too much wall cloud.

For some reason the storm ran due north for five miles
before it began its North east drift. It actually started
5 miles exactly due south east of me. Luck of the draw.

--
Theo in Zone 5
Kansas City

My lot has personally avoided the hail and tornadoes (the closest
twister was about 10 miles away), although the wind took a pretty
large cane on Aloha.

In article bc69e01ea1fc42f9cb28fd9fb9a3043d@TeraNews, Theo Asir
wrote:

Looks like we sent it all
your way. Sorry about that.

I was out in my garden digging rose craters
when the S*** hit the fan so to speak.

Got a front seat view.
Here's how it panned out.

3:44 PM - Cloudy Sky, not much wind, Thuderstorms forcast
3:45 PM - Thunderstorm line identified. Forcasters Scrambling.
3:55 PM - Tornado alerts flash
4:00 PM - Tornado touches down
4:15 PM - Sky chopper shows demo'd houses.

Touch down was less than 2 miles away.

My neighbhor was also out on his yard.
We looked at each other ran inside to grab
camera, watched it blow by and returned to
gardening by 4:15. Too much wall cloud.

For some reason the storm ran due north for five miles
before it began its North east drift. It actually started
5 miles exactly due south east of me. Luck of the draw.

I guess you never heard that radio program about survivors of
lightening strikes. Believe me, I share the fascination. Only tornado
I ever saw was right overhead in Michigan, and it was an awesome
sight....until the neighbor known as Grandma screamed Get inside, you
little a@@. Mesmerizsing.

"Theo Asir" wrote in message
news:bc69e01ea1fc42f9cb28fd9fb9a3043d@TeraNews...

Looks like we sent it all
your way. Sorry about that.

I was out in my garden digging rose craters
when the S*** hit the fan so to speak.

Got a front seat view.
Here's how it panned out.

3:44 PM - Cloudy Sky, not much wind, Thuderstorms forcast
3:45 PM - Thunderstorm line identified. Forcasters Scrambling.
3:55 PM - Tornado alerts flash
4:00 PM - Tornado touches down
4:15 PM - Sky chopper shows demo'd houses.

Touch down was less than 2 miles away.

Theo, I think I will stop bitching about the cold now.
It could always be worse. As in cold and tornadoes.

Laura

On Tue, 06 May 2003 07:49:04 -0500, dave weil
wrote:


And speaking of that, we've had 5 inches of rain in the past 48 hours.
Plus, tornadoes, hail, lots of lightning and wind.

We've got at least two more days of rain to go.


Okay, okay, you can have too much water! Point taken! Are your fingers
and toes all wrinkley yet? Have you got mold in your hair?



My lot has personally avoided the hail and tornadoes (the closest
twister was about 10 miles away), although the wind took a pretty
large cane on Aloha.

That stinks! Aloha is a great rose!



I'm personally ready for some sun..


Yes, me too. I had to spray quick last Sunday because it had been ten
days and the forecast calls for rain every day this week. So far true.
Chin up! The sun will come, and with a vengeance.

On Tue, 06 May 2003 21:30:57 GMT, (Shiva) wrote:

On Tue, 06 May 2003 07:49:04 -0500, dave weil
wrote:


And speaking of that, we've had 5 inches of rain in the past 48 hours.
Plus, tornadoes, hail, lots of lightning and wind.

We've got at least two more days of rain to go.


Okay, okay, you can have too much water! Point taken! Are your fingers
and toes all wrinkley yet? Have you got mold in your hair?

Actually, that wasn't my point at all. I'm glad to have been able to
give my grounds a *really* deep soaking. I was actually sort of
reemphasizing your point, believe it or not.

One disadvantage to having almost perfect soil is that when you walk
on a saturated lawn, brown water oozes up between your toes and it
feels like you're walking on sponges...well, *maybe* that's a
disadvantage...

My lot has personally avoided the hail and tornadoes (the closest
twister was about 10 miles away), although the wind took a pretty
large cane on Aloha.

That stinks! Aloha is a great rose!

One upside - instant bouquet g.

I'm personally ready for some sun..


Yes, me too. I had to spray quick last Sunday because it had been ten
days and the forecast calls for rain every day this week. So far true.
Chin up! The sun will come, and with a vengeance.

We actaully had a little bit o' sun today. I'm hoping that the rains
hold off Wed. so that I can apply grub control, in addition to doing a
little supplementary spraying...