sunlight for roses
 

I recently purchased some hybrid teas in nursery containers. I am in
Southern California. I want to plant them in my backyard. There is no
place in the yard that gets more than 4 hours of sun at this time. In the
spring and mid summer I get 6 or more. Will the roses bloom and reach their
full size in this environment?

On Sat, 4 Sep 2004 16:17:32 -0700, "q" wrote:

I recently purchased some hybrid teas in nursery containers. I am in
Southern California. I want to plant them in my backyard. There is no
place in the yard that gets more than 4 hours of sun at this time. In the
spring and mid summer I get 6 or more. Will the roses bloom and reach their
full size in this environment?

They should (barely), but... it depends on the "more" part as much as
anything. I've got a pretty good sized Sombreuil that stops getting
direct sun at about 1:30 during the summer. It does OK but I suspect
that it would do a lot better with another couple of hours. Of course,
it's on the east side of my house, so it faces the sun from sunup
(actually, it starts getting "direct sun" at about 7 or so, although I
suspect that it doesn't start getting really useful until about 8.).

Also, some roses are more "shade-tolerant" than others, so you'd get a
better chance of getting better flushes of blooms from them.

6 hours of sunlight is considered a baseline. Less doesn't
*necessarily* mean that the roses will be stunted and all that, but it
doesn't help the vigor of the plant. If you go significantly less, it
can really impact the health of the plant. The problem might be that
in your environment, roses "expect" a lot of sun year round because of
your lack of a serious winter (assuming of course that you don't live
on a mountaintop or something). In Nashville, 4 hours "out-of-season"
isn't so much of a big deal because the plants go waaaay dormant after
about November. I'm not sure how they'd feel about only 4 hours *right
now* though, because I'm getting some pretty vigorous flushes at the
moment (not Sombreuil though, which tends to only get one really good
flush in May at its current location).

Do you have walls adjacent? Paint them white or antique white. Use light
color gravel on the ground. This will reflect and increase available
light. I think you're pushing it. Try some New Guinea Impatients and
Applacian Ferns.

q wrote:
: I recently purchased some hybrid teas in nursery containers. I am in
: Southern California. I want to plant them in my backyard. There is no
: place in the yard that gets more than 4 hours of sun at this time. In the
: spring and mid summer I get 6 or more. Will the roses bloom and reach their
: full size in this environment?
:
:

--



Tom Line

Do you have walls adjacent? Paint them white or antique white. Use light
color gravel on the ground. This will reflect and increase available
light. I think you're pushing it. Try some New Guinea Impatients and
Applacian Ferns.

q wrote:
: I recently purchased some hybrid teas in nursery containers. I am in
: Southern California. I want to plant them in my backyard. There is no
: place in the yard that gets more than 4 hours of sun at this time. In the
: spring and mid summer I get 6 or more. Will the roses bloom and reach their
: full size in this environment?
:
:

--



Tom Line