Hi. I live in an apartment in Fremont , CA. . My apartment patio faces the North East direction. But gets light from the east side for 4 hours. I am a novice gardener and was planning on setting up a rose garden in my patio in containers. I got a potted rose,Grandiflora Crimson Bouquet from a Nursery a couple of days back. I have attached some snaps of the potted rose along with this mail. My questions are : 1. I was wondering whether 4 hours of sunlight is enough for this rose.If not, what other measures can i take to ensure that it gets more light.. 2.Also it is now in a paper pot . The lady at the nursery told me that I dont need to repot until august and then i do it as by then the pot might disintegrate. So was wondering whether i repot right now itself or wait till august. If I repot now what should be the container size and could u provide me with some information on how i move froward with it. And if I wait till august will it be a good time to repot ? 3. Also as u can see in the snaps, there are a couple of roots coming out from the side. Is that ok ? Should i do something about it. Thanks and regards, GreeenGarden
You need to repot it into a larger pot. That container is too small for that rose. The container it is in is designed to disintegrate and compost into the soil when you plant the rose in the garden - without removing the pot. One advantage of those kind of pots for the nurseries is that the roots that pernetrate the container will shrivel up and die. Therefore, those roots that reach the limits of the container are automatically "air pruned". This reduces the encircling root congestion that one finds in pot bound plants grown in solid containers. Crimson Bouquet is a good sized plant when in the ground - it gets up to 4 feet high and 3 feet across. It's likely to stay smaller than that in a container, but still, a 3 gallon would be what I would consider a minimum container size for that rose. Ideally, I would prefer it in a 5 gallon pot. When you repot, make sure that there is adequate drainage. I usually put a layer of solid debris in the bottom of the container (about 1-1 1/2 inch would do, and I use lava rock because it is a relatively light material), and cover it with a porous fabric. I use soil-less potting mix - you should be able to get this from your nursery. I add bone meal, slow release fertiliser and water absorbent polymer crystals to the mix. Roses ideally should have a minimum of 6 hours of direct sunlight to perform well. Some roses may do will less. If 4 hours of sushine light is all you will get, you will just have to experiment and learn from trial and error.
Hi WeekendGardener Glad to hear from u .And thanks for the reply. What would u recommend on potting soil? The lady at the nursery said they used Edna's Best potting mix for roses.. i m sending the link for that.. http://www.ebstone.org/13_rose.php It says there "Even though we formulated it to be well draining, we only recommend the mix as a soil amendment, not as a stand-alone potting soil." Does that mean I have to add some other stuff too while repotting? Also it says that it has been formulated for drainage. So do I need to add the lava rock Also she mentioned the E B stone rose food . http://www.ebstone.org/11_rose.php Is that enough in itself or do i need to add bonemeal and slow release fertilizer too.. And when should I start the fertilizing process.. Thanks for all the help and being patient. Regards, GreenGarden.
I use Sunshine Mix #4 for almost all my container plants. The exceptions are those that require a lower pH in the planting mix.
Are these really buds or am I just too anxious to look at them and feel that the buds are actually new leaves forming ??
YESSSSS !!! That sounds wonderful to my ears.. Cant wait now for them to bloom into beautiful roses... GreenGarden
Hey there GreenGarden, Sorry I lost track of you for a while. Great looking rose buds!!! I'm sure they have bloomed by now. What's the latest? Our roses are opening left and right here! What a wonderful time of year. How is you rose doing with the 4 hours of sunlight? I want to see another pic if you have time. Great job!!
Hi violetbaby No not yet. Kind of worried to repot it now.. Now that buds have come and buds r to bloom i m not sure whether that will cause any establishment problems for the bush.what would u recommend? also the buds r taking a little longer to bloom i guess .. since they have just started to show off some petals.. I hope that my rose bush puts on some more energy into flowering & blooming...lots of foliage. i guess the reason might be 4-5 hours of sunlight not sufficient for my rose bush. Also got a peace lily houseplant. repotted it .. now just hoping that it will stay healthy. Some snaps of the roses and my peacelily... Please let me know abt my rose bush progress..is it slower ..anything i can do to help it grow better or am i on the right track? also any useful tips on taking care of my peacelily. GG
