My first trip to the Antique Rose Emporium was this past April. It is a great place to visit. I purchased 4 roses and planted them around the first of May. (here’s the May post about ARE)
Now, to recap…I planted four new rose bushes at the beginning of the hottest and driest summer in recorded history in a freshly built raised bed.
Within a couple of months I had a lovely flower bed with four dead rose bushes. I also created and planted several other large flowerbeds this spring and the watering was just too much for me to keep up with. Most everything survived, but my poor roses.
So, I have a new strategy…fall planting. Mike Shoup owner of the Antique Rose Emporium recently mentioned this in an article he wrote for Neil Sperry’s magazine.
“Newly established plants (those planted this spring) showed a lot of mortality. It was just too difficult to get enough subsoil moisture to carry the plants into the hot summer. The lesson here is to plant in the fall to establish a good root system.”
I went back to ARE on Saturday and purchased 3 more roses. This time I bought Le Vesuve and Maggie (same as last time) and White Heritage. I decided to forego Cecile Brunner for White Heritage which has larger blooms and is white, which will give my bed a little more color variety. I replaced my Belinda’s Dream a few weeks ago with one from Buchanan’s. Now, it’s a matter of occasional watering and hopefully summer 2012 will be more forgiving.
This weekend also happened to be the Fall Rose Festival at ARE. I wanted to make it up there early enough to hear Felder Rushing speak, but no such luck. I have had too much going on lately which has left me catching up on my sleep every weekend and my alarm clock just wasn’t loud enough to get me out of bed.
However, I did catch a little Shakespeare. The Rose Festival included Shakespeare in the Gardens, presented by Brenham H.S. theatre students.
I took a quick stroll around the grounds. The number of butterflies was amazing. 
I also noticed the yellow brick road, which I guess I missed during my last trip. 
I couldn’t stay as long as I would have liked, so I will definitely have to make another trip out there some time.
I planted two roses from ARE last February and am amazed to say they both made it (Belinda's Dream was on a drip system, climbing Pinkie had to contend with my erratic sprinkling). But I do think the best advice is planting in the fall. Now if we'd just get some rain this fall, that would be nice! :-)
ReplyDeleteI lost several roses this spring/summer, too. Most were transplants - and I've never lost a transplanted rose before this year! Glad you decided to try again - and got to see a bit of Shakespeare, too! Love the yellow brick road!
ReplyDeleteI have to agree...I think fall is far better for establishing plants, in general. We don't have such extreme summers here, but it's still a challenge to keep things going when we can count on at least 3 consecutive months with no precipitation at all! Good luck, I hope your new roses flourish!
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