On Tue, 25 Jan 2005 10:48:15 -0700, "MoonPuppy"
wrote:

I inherited (along with the house) several rose bushes. Most seem to be
trellising types (it's winter here, hard to tell), and two bushes - for
sure - are J&P tea roses - whose name I normally know, but have forgotten.
Fragrant Cloud maybe?

All the roses are neglected - as only they can be by having survived 3 years
of no one living in the house. So they are leggy and have dead canes and the
J&Ps have grass growing up into them.

What do I need to do to get these babies up and gorgeous again? Like I said,
it's winter here (Southeastern Colorado, Zone 4-5ish), but it's been in the
60s in between feet of snow, lol. I don't want to encourage them this early
in the year because I know more snow is coming. But I need to get them
trimmed back (I'm assuming) and ready for the spring.

Help?

MoonPuppy - the amateur black-thumbed gardener

Well, there's not much you should do right now. You can put down some
mulch to protect them, but if they haven't succumbed to cold yet, you
probably don't have any problems.

About the only thing you should do right now is maybe trim off the
obviously dead limbs. But you might as well wait so you don't have to
trim multiple times. You shouldn't do any major pruning until the last
frost. The main thing is to contact your local rose society (or
Colorado Springs) for advice, because it's possible that roses are
acclimated to the climate and can be pruned before the absolute last
frost (since you're likely to get some late ones.

You're also going to have to be patient, because you're going to want
to try to identify the plants, because pruning can vary according to
their form, and the best way to do that is to see what kind of blooms
they throw and try to get someone to identify them for you. The main
thing to recognize is that you should probably be a little
conservative in pruning until you get a handle on their culture. If
you trim too much, you can stunt their growth (I know, because I've
done it). Also, if you are TOO conservative, you can inhibit the
maximum growth of the plant. So, I would start by trimming off the
obvious dead wood (brown, brittle stems with no sign of life).

You DEFINITELY want to keep them dormant and don't feed them until
after the last frost. If you search for such terms as alfalfa meal,
MIlls Mix or epson salts on this newgroup using google, you'll find a
lot of posts with suggestions on how to feed and care for the plants.
Also, you should search for pruning and you can find some great
advice.

Hope this helps.

MoonPuppy,

You have roses that survived 3 years with no tender loving care AND you are
in Zone 4/5??? Wow, those must be some tough roses!

Dave is right about the technical stuff, but I have a few words of advice
for you: "If you water those roses, stand back!"

Anne Lurie
Raleigh, NC


"MoonPuppy" wrote in message
...
I inherited (along with the house) several rose bushes. Most seem to be
trellising types (it's winter here, hard to tell), and two bushes - for
sure - are J&P tea roses - whose name I normally know, but have forgotten.
Fragrant Cloud maybe?

All the roses are neglected - as only they can be by having survived 3
years of no one living in the house. So they are leggy and have dead canes
and the J&Ps have grass growing up into them.

What do I need to do to get these babies up and gorgeous again? Like I
said, it's winter here (Southeastern Colorado, Zone 4-5ish), but it's been
in the 60s in between feet of snow, lol. I don't want to encourage them
this early in the year because I know more snow is coming. But I need to
get them trimmed back (I'm assuming) and ready for the spring.

Help?

MoonPuppy - the amateur black-thumbed gardener