Utilize Your County Extension Office

For the last few months, I've been hearing references for County Extension Offices in the tri-state area. I briefly thought about contacting them regarding my roses, but I figured if Paul James was 'stumped' I probably would't have much luck with these folks either. (See very first post.) In an unrelated event, I saw an episode of HGTV's Curb Appeal: The Block and learnt that most states offer free compost to its residents. A few weeks ago, I began calling (nearly) every state agency in Alabama about this, when I stumbled across the number for my County Extension Office. Unfortunately they had no idea about the free compost. But since I had them on the line away, I figured I didn't have anything to lose and segued into a diatribe about my rosebush dead stem dilemma. That, they could handle.

This was most serendipitous. I was put in touch with Rachel Dykes in the Ozark office. She is a wealth of information and an excellent resource to have. And even though the County Extension Office is closely tied to Auburn University, they actually returned telephone calls and e-mails about my lowly rose bushes. Who would have thought.

Turns out, the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology to which Paul James referred me, is not the department that deals with stay-at-home moms' sickly plants. Rather, there is a Plant Diagnostic Lab where, for a small fee, plant, soil and bug samples can be sent for analysis. When Rachel suggested I send a variety of cuttings and an entire plant, I jumped at the opportunity. It helped that the plant is probably dead (since cutting it back a few weeks ago, I haven't seen any new growth), otherwise, I might have done that as a last resort. In a few weeks, I'll receive my report and will hopefully be on the right track to fixing whatever problem is hindering my roses.

The process, although straight forward, requires adhering to a few rules. Rather than bore you with an executive summary, I'll attach the guidelines and necessary form for submission as soon as I figure out how to attach files on blogger.com. In the meantime, here is the Alabama County Extension Service's website:

http://www.aces.edu/


I have to say I'm really pumped that I'm finally making progress with my roses. But as for that free compost, no such luck. Not to worry though. I'm still on the hunt.

Bloomin' Bust

It seems I'm back at square one. While I'm enjoying large, beautiful blooms, the rose bush stems are still dying when I don't deadhead right away. Why not deadhead right away you say? Not that easy. Usually my two year old 'helps' me with my gardening. A sharp blade is just the type of thing I need to keep a precocious kid like him away from.

Even more disheartening, one of my miniature rosebushes is deader than a doornail, and the other one is hanging on by a thread. Once thriving and blooming without dead stems (the miniature rose bushes don't seem to be affected like the others), this phenomena occured two days after using Bayer Advanced All-In-One Rose and Flower Care.

http://www.bayeradvanced.com/rose-flower-care/products/all-in-one-rose-flower-care

This product promises insect and disease control and fertilization for six weeks. Sound too good to be true. I've used this on my other rose bushes in the past (I know, there seems to be a trend developing), and other flowering bushes which are doing quite well. So what's the problem? As Paul James would say, I'm stumped. On the bright side, my roses are free of insects, although they do suffer from black spot. One out the three, hmmmmm. Way to go Bayer!

I'm considering drastically pruning the roses back and essentially starting over. Not the best idea during the growing season, but I'm sick of looking at anorexic rose bushes after all the time and money I put into them. Perhaps I'll also e-mail bomb the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology at Auburn University until they decide to assist me.

Photos Finally

May not look like much yet, but can't wait for summer when my babies are in full bloom.

Lantanas and irises were added to the area on the hill. The other photos shows the addition of two miniature rose bushes.

For those of you who've never dug up grass to create a flower bed (and to those of you who have), pray for rain. Pray-for-rain.

Point of View

I'm only now realizing that these scenes, so inspiring and attractive in person, seem insignificant in pictures?

Anyway, bought red rubber mulch to highlight the spot on the hill today. Soon as I can figure out how to install the border in the rock hard soil, I can mulch and upload [hopefully] a knock-out image.

The area on the north side has already been mulched and bordered. Also added two new miniature rose bushes, since I seem to have the most luck with them.

On to the pictures!

Ground Zero

I wanted to include some before pics so you'll know what I'm working with.


The first vignette is a rose garden on the north side of my house. On the far right is a knock-out rose bush. The other three are various hybrids which I can't recall. The one on the far left produces a yellow bloom, which has a counterpart in another garden.

The second picture is of a smaller rose garden on the west side. The one on the left is the second yellow blooming rose bush. (I actually got these yellow roses for Valentine's Day two years ago.) The one on the right is some kind of hybrid. In front of this area is a small azalea bush which I think I'll transplant (again) and replace with some more roses.

The next two pictures are two miniature rose bushes in the front of my home facing east. As you will notice, the one on the left is about twice as tall as the other. It gets a few more hours of sunlight due to the slope of the roof.

So I'm no rose guru. Obviously. And my rose gardens are actually just a few rose bushes here and there. For now. But I do love them and would like to learn as much as I can in caring for them.

Sometime in November I visited a friend's new home and saw a very large rose garden focal point in her backyard. It was gorgeous. Apparently the previous owners spend about two hours each day in the yard doing whatever was necessary to keep it looking spectacular. Wish I knew where they live now and take a crash course. Anyway, that's kinda what I would like, on a smaller scale, in the designated areas in my yard. I'm also including a picture of my friend's backyard so you can see my inspiration.

Looking forward to spring!

I Met Paul James

I met Paul James (only the greatest gardening guru ever) yesterday at the Greater Montgomery Home and Garden Show. Well, I saw him and attended his Q&A segment more than met him. But I got to ask him a question. Yay me!

Here's my problem...I'm trying to establish several rose gardens in my yard, but failing quite miserably. I have several varities - some engineered to withstand any condition, buy all the recommended fertilizers, soil amendments, they get the right amount of water and are planted in the right light, yet, if I don't deadhead a rose the nanosecond a petal turns, the entire branch dies. The tree itself is fine, but the branch is a goner. More often than not, I have more dead branches than healthy ones, with occassional healthy looking blooms. So what did my highly esteemed gardening hero answer? "I'm stumped." That's it? He's stumped? I traveled more than an hour for this? In my mind, Paul James was losing points big time.

He then went on the explain it doesn't sound fungal, viral or bacterial. It's probably pathological. He further recommended I send a few cutlings to the plant pathologist at Auburn to figure out what's going on. How dedicated am I to this task, when a very attractive alternative is to dig them up and replace them with any number of flowering bushes I do very well with? VERY! I love roses and damn it, I want to be surrounded with beautiful rose bushes.

So presents a terrific opportunity to blog about my rose gardening adventures this year. I'll show you pics of the before and after and keep you updated along the way. And hopefully by late summer, I'll adorn every horizontal surface in my home with rose arrangements (much to my husband's chagrin I'm sure).

Here's to everything Roses. Cheers!