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In Praise of Own-roots--and Austins!
Just came back in from surveying the damage from heavy rains and not
spraying either fungicide or insecticide since the middle of May, and it is terrible. I was able to fertilize with some generic three-month granular at the end of May. Leaving aside the vole casualties for now, here is what died or is on its way out: This season's bare roots, all grafted: Arizona Melody Parfume Outta the Blue Joseph's Coat Barbra Streisand Blue Nile Other seasons's grafted: Antigua Angel Face Mr. Lincoln Tiffany There is advanced borer damage on all the grafted roses, but especially the dead one (!) that tells me I need to address this problem. I had thought all I had was the relatively harmless kind, but apparently not. On the dead grafted roses AND the living ones there has been terrible canker and cane dieback. The bare roots had been doing well--maybe half the canes very vigorous. Then they dwindled as the rain went on. Question: What do you all consider good for a bareroot, in terms of how many of the canes actually live and sprout? Here is the big surprise, and I will not even pretend to understand it: Here in my zone 7B, Raleigh, NC garden, after this two-month deluge, where I have generally sprayed for both insects and fungus over the years, and where the soil is rich and black, where I keep the plants well mulched, and where the temps range from 40F to 100F April to October, ALL of my own root roses are doing well. ALL of them, from the ones I ordered from Michael's in 2000 to the ones from Muncy's and Roses Unlimited that I just put in last fall. Many of these are Austins. Of all of them, the Austins look the best. Is this because they are "English" roses and so bred to do the backstroke for a couple of months and still survive? Or what? All the ownroots are still green--even the hybrid teas--but all the Austins still have LEAVES. Just an observation, no theories or claims etc. But I am thinking I'm not going to buy anything but ownroots next year. What do you all think about this? Can anyone offer any theories as to why this is? |
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