Mark. Gooley wrote:

"Shiva" wrote:
It's a wreck. Half of the bare roots died and I am wanting
to rip Hansa out really, really bad. (Larry, it is the
heat here. It just really, really hates it. Mine is
NOT going to do what yours is doing! Mine is all crispy,
though it has received a deluge! Yours is GREAT! But mine
has got to GO!)

My Hansa is near death, but the rugosae still in pots are mostly
rudely healthy.

Great term. G I might just have to borrow it some time.

[...]

In my limited experience, Rugosae do not mind the damp and zone
8b Floridian heat here. They hate wet feet, and they tolerate them
less than most other roses do.

Hmmm. I had heard (was that you, Theo?) that they did not like
heat, and thought that might be Hansa's problem in my garden. MIne is
on a steep hill so drainage is not the problem.

I think I will just hack it back and move it to a round bed of
its own. Part of the problem is that it looks so different from
the other roses I grow--and it is clearly meant to get bigger.
I do like the blooms, and I like the *idea* of the primitive
looking wrinkly leaves better than the look itself.



I got my 20 cubic yards of compost and I've already replanted
some Austins in little artificial hills, hoping to save them from
sickliness and perhaps death. It is a testimonial to my Gertrude
Jekyll (I'd buried the label and forgotten what it was!) own-root
that it's still alive after nearly three years of neglect, and occasionally
even blooming.

Man, I have to say, my little crop of ownroot Austins is rugged
as anything. Pat Austin, Abraham Darby, Tradescant, Golden
Celebration are the ones I am thinking of. These behave like
climbers here, and I have them in a side bed against a chainlink
fence. Then I have a giant Jude the Obscure sent to me several
years ago in a front bed, it grows in an urn shape, straight up;
tamora, my sweetest little wanna-be-a-mini rose, that is vigorous
as anything but never gets bigger than 2.5 feet; and Distant Drums,
which is an Austin/Buck hybrid that I am so in love with, I have
four, one grafted and grown from bare root and three Roses Unlimited
ownroot. Raspberry buds open to ruffled blooms that are mauve on
the outer petals and apricot/tan on the inner ones, and they smell
of anise and myrrh. Nice shrubby shape.


Mark., will keep everyone posted on the results of replanting sodden
bushes in little artificial hills like blisters


I have always planted my roses high by mounding. It works great for me.