1. Who grows 'em?
2. Which ones do you recommend?
3. How do you feed 'em?, and
4. How far have you pushed the envelope, with success? ;-)
Thanks,
Barbara
Roses in containers
This spring I planted up a baby knockout rose so too soon to give
much feedback. But it seems to be doing very well. I mixed in
worm castings & fertilize with a weak solution of algoflash every time
I water.
Thanks, Tammy. Yeah, I've got a Knock Out potted and I'm hoping that one will be easy ;-)
Barbara
Hi :)
I have a potted up Knock Out, too! I'm also planning to keep my Sunsprite and Angel Face roses potted, and to pull up my Honey Perfume and pot it, too, after I learned more about growing roses in containers. I've found some links that might be helpful:
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/174800/
http://www.rosemagazine.com/pages/containers.asp
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1216/is_v174/ai_3580282#continue
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~sue/bill/articles/containers.htm (this one has good winter tips)
Kelly
Woo-hoo! Yet another good link. ;)
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/publications/roses/container.html
Kelly
What great links, Kelly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Barbara
I planted a Social Climber last year, and it's going great guns this year, just starting to bloom. I use Peter's all-season food, supplemented with a half-strength liquid fertilizer every two or three weeks. I'm thrilled it made it through the winter and seems none the worse for wear. It's really flourishing!
Hi, Barbara---
We used to plant roses in big clay pots--always kept a few by our front door in Pasadena CA...and they were beautiful accents...I used all kinds of grandifloras and teas...it was a very long rose season in southern CA, so we fiddled around a lot to have some rose bloom all the time--(especially for the Rose Parade week in January!)
One tip is to be sure to choose extra large containers to keep them from getting root bound if you are going to keep them in the pots a long time. Use good potting soil (I bet the Miracle Gro with 3 month's fertilizer imbedded in it would be a good choice) and figure out a good watering plan. For general fertilizer we used Osmocote or 'Miracle Gro for flowers'...nothing too special...
After their bloom periods we would take them out of the pot and put them in the ground in the rose bed, or, if they were consistent rebloomers, move the pot to the back of the (irrigated) garden, rotate new blooming varieties to the front door for a while, then move the rebloomers back in a prominent place when they came back into bloom. Sometimes we would keep the roses in plastic pots and set them inside showier pots, then plant out in the yard, later...
In general, if they weren't crowded, were in a sunny spot, and were watered and fertilized, any that we tried did very well...and some we combined with other annuals and perennials and the pots looks spectacular, if I do say so myself!
But that was in Pasadena, and rose growing there is hard to mess up! Now, Cincinnati is more of a challenge! I am going to try some of the new 'National Park' (Gettysburg, Cuyahoga, etc.,which are supposed to be fairly foolproof) roses for my front door here.
Good luck and let's see some pictures t. ;-)
Hi
Here's my line-up. First is Sunsprite, then Angel Face, then my little Honey Perfume, then Knock Out (still in the white container it was in when I bought it). They were supposed to be 20", then 2 16" containers, but when I got home and measured them, they were more like 17" and 13"! So I'll have to repot them sooner than I thought, but they should still last a year or two, especially for the little Honey Perfume that you can barely see. :)
Kelly
Thanks for all the tips! I really must look into getting Sunsprite. It's so cheery!
Barbara
Sunsprite is absolutely beautiful, and it smells sooooooo good! I can smell it in my living room when the breeze is bringing it in, it's so strong. And the photo doesn't do it justice--it's a beautiful pure yellow. The blooms are big, too, about 4 inches or so. If you get it, I hope you love it as much as I do!
Kelly