Seems to be getting easier here. As we learn what we like and what does well in our yard, we're able to make better choices so I hope it will happen less often. Some roses went because they faded away, some were disease magnets--those were the easy ones. Not as easy were the ballers--"maybe THIS year they'll open well". And then there were the ones we just didn't like, and felt a little guilty about yanking out when they were perfectly nice plants. I've been going thru old photos over the last couple of days, and have come across pictures of roses that have met Mr. Shovel. While some of the pictures made me go "oooooo, that was a pretty one", I didn't really miss any of them. And digging them out makes room for more.....

It's become easier for me.
I like knowing the water will be reserved for the things I REALLY want to keep.

Jeri

I'm sorry to say it's always been easy for me. Once I understand that a certain rose is wrong for my garden, no matter what the reason, I can't wait to rectify the situation. As time has gone on and I've learned what works well in my garden, there are fewer and fewer occasions when it becomes necessary to discard a rose. I am quite patient, though, with roses that I like that aren't performing well. Marie van Houtte has maintained her place in spite of barely doing anything for the last three years. Now, thank goodness, she's finally beginning to put out new growth.

Ingrid

Not at all - especially when you have a small space or when the rose catalogue arrives in your mail box.

I realised that I'm no longer interest in those once bloomers. To be precise, I will keep the ones that I have right now but I won't be buying any more of them because of their short flowering time.

There are a few roses that turned out to be a huge disappointment for me.

For example, St Swithun turns out to be a bushy rose instead of a climber, with weak canes, sharp thorns and it doesn't repeat for its 1st year.

Same applies to Laguna. 1st year it grew up to 2.4m high but no repeat. Arghh!

I really dislike Abraham Darby. It's covered with black spot and mites right now.

I'm really surprised that climbing souvenir de la malmaison has turned out to be a beauty right now - about 2.4 m high. But this time, the blooms are tiny and I can't detect any fragrance.

I know I will always keep 'evelyn' and Comtes des champagne and maybe Jude the obscure.

..wow! you got rid of Mary Rose? What a shame! I used to admire your Mary Rose pics. My Jude the obscure used to show signs of Downy mildew, but I pulled out all it's leaves and sprayed it with a fungicide. Right now, it's looking healthy. Maybe it was black spot afterall.

Teaclipper- I got rid of it last year. The blooms look nice, but the color fades too quickly. But every time I see those Japanese people post photos on Teaclipper, I just wish I didn't shovel prune it though. Maybe I'll wait for 'Port- Sunlight' instead.

Last fall while prepping the yard for winter I pulled several out that had given me far too much blackspot drama all summer. I reached a point where the idea of amending them only to wrestle with MORE blackspot this spring just didn't make sense. Removing them was most gratifying! So now I have some holes out there that may or may not be filled with more roses. Kind of enjoying just having options for now.

Kate

I haven't SP'ed any yet. I'm hoping my diligence in preparation this year will make all my roses perform wonderfully. If not, some are out:

Rosette d'Lizzy - canes die, lack of blooms, blooms that do appear are small and deformed (thrips maybe?). Just not doing well

Tea Clipper - it's in the back, so it's being ignored. But it's more of a climber and I didn't want a climber and yes it's stingy

Mary Rose and Redoute - the same rose, different shades of pink. Very nice blooms but too caney, if I can use that expression. Too much cane, not enough blooms. Plus they are in prime spots and aren't living up to it.

Frau Karl Drushki - in the back, next to Tea Clipper. Another one that wants to be a climber but I don't want it to be. And the blooms ball and get moldy looking.

Huntington Pink Tea - one bloom in 3 years? Seriously?

Falstaff - Love it when it blooms, which it rarely does.

Louisiana Arcadia Tea - either sp or move. Balls to much, might be getting too much shade.

It's usually hard for me to dig one up..I have to take a deep breath and get it over with, kind of like pulling off a bandaid quickly. I have to dig up duplicates in my garden soon and they are nice plants...a big Granada on Fortuniana, big Cramoisi, a big Old Blush. I need the room but these have been great for me and they deserve to live. I will try to find homes for them. I dug up a virused Imperatrice Farah a couple of days ago. It's not as hard to dig up a virused one though I have not noticed the virus inhibiting that rose at all so it still seems like a waste. While I may have some regrets I do like refining my garden. Sometimes I don't have confidence, when sp'ing a big plant, that the new plant will do as well in that spot.

I know exactly what you mean, hoovb. The imperative of the rose garden in my yard has always been Bloom Or Die. If the best you could do was muster a few glorious blooms in April (is that what all roses are supposed to do?) and then botz till a few more pitiful blossoms that crisp in the heat of October (or even November this year, because of the late heat), Mr. Shovel put your name on his list.

Who went this year?
Full Sail -- balled like a maniac, smelled like the soap in a bus station restroom, and held the local record for Most Blind Shoots on a Single Plant.
Abraham Darby -- for all the reasons everyone has already talked about.
Karl Lagerfeld -- he was very healthy, but I was never able to pick up on the fragrance everyone was always raving about. The lavender is lovely when it first opens. After a day or so, not so much. Meh.
Rouge Royale -- my own private rust machine
Lady Hillingdon -- sorry, but nodding is just another name for droopy, especially when the palnt is still quite short. I also think my specimen was not particularly vigorous.
Yves Piaget -- the one cane wonder
and
Clementina Carbonieri -- I loved and nurtured her till she kicked the bucket in September.

Who's in? I went for fragrance and reliable performance -- oh, and a bit of experimentation.
Scentimental -- everyone says it should do well here.
Firefighter -- really looking forward to this one.
Julia Child
Papa Meilland
Liv Tyler
Molyneux
Golden Celebration
and three other Austins that just arrived bare root from David Austin in Texas
Susan Williams-Ellis -- brand new this year. White and supposedly very fragrant
Princess Alexandra of Kent
Ambridge Rose -- who is going in a pot
I have to say these arrived in glorious condition -- roots very moist, 4-5 canes looking absolutely vigorous.

Well apparently it does get easier. Thanks all! 'Mary Rose' it was the canes that were completely Downy-mildewed, covered with purple-black lesions. If the shovel didn't get it, it was going to die soon anyway. It would still be here otherwise.

Now I'm looking hard at 'Eugene de Beauharnais'--what a beautiful perfume, what an ugly scrawny little plant...I hope I don't get carried away...

So much hatred for Abe Darby! I don't grow him, but a local nursery (Bellefontaine) has a gigantic specimen and I always drool over the dinnerplate size apricot blooms. It's spectacular! If I ever purchase another rose he was on the short list.

As for whether it's easy to kill plants, not for me. I feel a responsibility to them as living organisms. My girlfriend has no problem treating them like decorations, but I see them as lives I have invested a lot of time in caring for. I wouldn't dispose of a kid with Down's syndrome and I see less-than-spectacular roses the same way. Besides, sometimes the grass is greener. There's no guarantee that new rose you buy will do any better.

I'd like to see more people give away their unwanted roses.

For me it is always hard to dig up a rose, any rose that is. Sometimes it takes me a year to make the final decision (don't laugh!).

If a rose is a dud, diseased all or most of the times or just a very poor performer I eventually will discard it. But if a rose is healthy and I just don't like it for one or another reason as it happened with Burgundy Iceberg (often maroon or screaming pink instead of velvety burgundy colored flowers) I always find a new home for it.

My yard is small and I am aiming to find the best roses possible for me and the ones that I love the most. So I guess there will be a selection process necessary in the future no matter what.

Christina

Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Garden Dreams

I got rid of quit a few.

Showbiz replaced with Cinco DE Mayo. It lost most of it leaves and did not bloom much.

Eglantine replaced with Yves Piaget. It was toooo big and did not repeat well.

Kaleidoscope replaced with Baronne DE Rothschild. Just because I wanted BdR.

Crown Princess Margarita replaced with Honey Perfume. Too big not enough blooms.

First Prize with Eureka. Ugly bush, lost leaves. Also it was in the yellow/apricot part of garden.

Abe Darbie with Easy Does it. Like other DA. Not enough blooms.

Falstaff with Francois Rabelais. An other DA.

Next one on chopping block is Golden Celebration. Per Jeri's advice, I added more drip emittors to it. If it does not bloom more, it is a goner.

FJ

I don't have a large garden and it still bothers me to sp them at all, but I do. This past fall I got rid of Maria Stern due to RMV. A beautiful rose but not generous in blooms, due to maybe the virus. I did get rid of 3 mini climbers, Twister, but I gave them to a coworker. She thinks they are lovely, but I find them ugly! At least she will keep them going!
William Baffin, I haven't done anything with him yet, but the shovel is poised and ready. He is supposed to be quite vigorous but mine is going on his third year here and barely grew at all last year. Maybe grew to about 3 ft tall. I will give him all this summer to grow more but if not, then I will sp him. Although I will probably replace him with another WB thinking that maybe I just got a dud one. I'll have to wait and see about that. I definitely like his hardiness and I love the small blooms and color but he has just been too slow to grow. Of course he was an own root rose so who knows? Maybe he'll surprise me this year. I hope so...
That's about it for me. My small garden has few roses but I do love Westerland (total winner in my book and very vigorous!), Pretty Jessica has been wonderful but she's potted up and this is my first time trying to overwinter in the shed so we'll see. I hope she makes it! I love my two Sleeping Beauty miniflora's also in the shed right now. So fragrant and lovely!
I am replacing my Maria Stern with Livin' Easy. Hope that does well too.
Come on spring! Only a couple months left here! :)

It's survivor of the fittest in our garden. Most of the ones who do not quite have the mettle to survive "shovel prune" themselves. I put the stragglers out of their misery with my keen edged shovel. The garden is maturing by the year. And with every year that passes by, the fruit trees and shrubs get larger, and bamboos each claim another extra foot or two of territory. My neighbour's sequoia shot from 15 feet when I first moved in, to it's current 30-40 feet. Add to that, the number of areas in the garden that are now hard scaped, rose growing areas have shrunk significantly. My rose count has been dropping steadily. I think my "manageable" number is 15-20, and with the 30 odd roses I have, some more will be culled. Thant's a far cry from the 80-100 I had 4 years ago.

Tea Clipper is going this week. It's in a prime spot and I have 6 new roses of which Apricot Nectar will probably be its replacement.
Adolf Horstmann went bye bye a couple of weeks ago and this week Scentimantal will be dug up and given away. Also going is Catherine Mermet, very small and boring. She was my first Tea and I have newer teas that are 3 times her size. Also under sp consideration, Julia Child. It was a 1.5 grade and probably has too much shade. I may move her to Adolf's vacated spot. That would put her next to Pat Austin which would be a nice color combo.
I have no problem with the shovel. It's an opportunity to plant something new and hopefully it will be way better. A garden is a changing thing and sometimes we just have to go for it.

Lots of change going on--I see I'm not the only one!

dimitrig, I'm with you. I think of my roses as family members. Of course, mine are only one year old, so they're still babies. Their first year was great, with me getting a real kick out of each bloom (until late Nov. here in NY.)

We'll see how they do this year. I ordered 4 new roses from DA and just can't wait until winter is over.

I am dedicated to my roses, but I would not equate them to a child or even a pet, especially if they aren't doing well. I think if you give a plant a few years and it's not doing well, you should replace it. Unless you have unlimited room, which most of us don't have. Some roses just don't do well in all climates.

I have an area in my yard that I've named "Elba" ---when a rose is not doing well I ask my DH to move the non-performers to that area--(I'm not permitted to dig any longer)-it is surprising how many of these roses suddenly start producing bloooms with total neglect----I feel I at least gave them a chance ---We have almost an acre of ground so I don't miss the space---

Florence-

On the west side of the house, several roses have been hit hard this past year by RRD. Graham Thomas is now gone, and the newly-planted Stephens Big Purple and Moonstone have shown symptoms. This area is in a tough place to grow roses since it is in a prime mite vector drop zone.

I've decided to take out all the other roses in this garden and replace everything with a dwarf conifer garden. I've really gotten to like the different textures, colors, and the lure of easy maintenance of a Japanese-style garden.

It still leaves me with 300 roses, so plenty of bouquets to bring indoors.
-terry

terryjean, what you've done is my idea of intelligent and mindful gardening. Roses will not do well everywhere and, rather than fighting grimly to maintain your roses in a place where they wouldn't thrive, you came upon a beautiful and interesting idea, which has actually added another wonderful dimension to your garden. And yes, 300 roses does make for lots of lovely bouquets!

Ingrid

It is harder for my husband than for me. He thinks digging out a live plant is wasteful, and if it blooms (even though it might be one bloom on a plant covered with mildew) than it is unthinkable. I have been working on him though:-), and so Christopher Marlowe is gone, and so is Geoff Hamilton, and so is Joseph's Coat. A few other too. I don't want my pot ghetto to expand to unmanageable proportions:-)

Masha

I only dig them up if they're dying, or if I have to move them because they were too big (or too small) for the place I put them. Once I was working in the garden, and one of the other monks shovel pruned the Tropicana I was working near - "There! Put something else in!" and he brought over a 1 gallon potted M. Tillier. I was amazed because the Tropicana was healthy, and I asked why he did that. "Couldn't stand the garish bright color!" I put in the new Tea rose...we got cuttings from Tropicana...but normally, I won't remove a healthy plant.

Only 300 roses, terryjean. How will you cope? ;^)

Jerome, look at it this way: M. Tillier really needed a home in the ground. He's too big for a pot. :)

Here in the garden it's turning into a rout. Mr. Shovel is winning. Out went 50 feet of boxwood hedge. Now suddenly I've got all this new space to plant something! Must stop. Soon.