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semesterke

Growing Inside & Babies

16 years ago

Two weeks ago I bought 2 Flower Carpet Red Ground Cover Rose plants and 1 Knock Out Rose plant at 90% off with a BOGO offer for a total of 6 rose plants. All the plants are in the form of a 3 to 4 foot tall single stem tree. Two were planted outside. I do not feel they will make it due to being so late in the Fall. Ground freeze will push the plants roots up out of the soil since they have not had time to anchor the plant. I put bags of bark to cover the area around the roots after the ground frooze to help. In the short time the other 4 trees have been in the house they have lost their leaves and have started growing new ones. First question. Is there anything special I can do to help them make it inside the house till Spring? Anyone ever done this and can help me with suggestions? Last question. Three of the 4 pots have a baby rose plant coming up. How do I seperate them from the mother plant and how tall do I let them get before doing so? Two of the babies are very close to the edge of the pot.

Comments (12)

  • 16 years ago

    What about the two outside? Do they need protection from wind damage? I am new at growing rose trees. . .

  • 16 years ago

    It's highly unlikely these will survive until spring unless conditions inside are very good for plants. Normal heated dry inside air pulls moisture out of plants indoors and lack of light in the winter deters growth.
    If you normally have luck growing plants indoors you may be able to overwinter these. Roses are outdoor plants and don't take well to being grown inside. If you have a sunroom where there is a lot of natural lightor you can grow under special lighting and control the humidity, you may be able to grow then indoors.
    I won't buy any rose bushes in the fall because most I've planted then have failed to survive until spring.
    Tree type roses are more suceptible to freeze damage due to the location of the graft or bud union.
    I even bring my Polar Joy tree rose into my unheated greenhouse each winter and it has no grafts.
    Those babies are probably not Flower Carpet or Knock Out Roses. It's most likely they're root stock suckers and would be undesirable roses.
    My feelings about tree roses in cold winter areas is it should be against the law to sell them here as the majority die the first winter unless a lot of work is done to winter protect them. They usually turn out to be expensive annuals.
    Good luck!
    Let us know how they turn out.

  • 16 years ago

    I purchased several plants in past years under these same conditions (late Fall). As I remember it very few died. Included in these are Agapanthus (2 years); Amaryllis (3 years); Bougainvillea (2 years); Century Plants (1 year); Elephant Ears (4 years); and Plumbago (3 years), among others most of which were bushes suggested for my zone.

    Over the years I have either gotten rid of them due to the amount of work required to keep them as in the case of the Agapanthus, Amaryllis, Bougainvillea, Elephant Ears, and Plumbago or made a change going to YuccaÂs for the Century Plants.

    As in the past few years, I house the plants in the pots they were sold in. The pots rest on a thin layer of pea gravel inside large plastic bins in a spare bedroom. The BR is unheated but for heat that comes in via the open door. I use a moisture meter to check the water content of the soil. As for dry heated air, the layer of pea gravel is to keep the pot above a thin layer of water inside the bin. While evaporation from the bin is slow, this does seem to help.

    The plants get morning natural light with 8 hours from grow light bulbs.

    Thank you very much for your response. You pointed out some areas I have not considered such as the undesirable rose suckers. I donÂt know what you mean by that as I am super new to roses, but I believe you. Now that you brought it up I also do not remember seeing tree roses in the same yard over a second growing season.

    Even if I only get next Summer out of them, the cost to buy and the fun of over wintering will be less than I pay for many single season plants I buy.

    Thanks again!

  • 16 years ago

    Even if they don't work out, please don't give up on growing roses. You can grow beautiful roses. But, they may not be varieties that you can purchase locally, you may have to mail order. Many of us do. Just because they sell them at local stores, doesn't mean they are hardy in your area. Tree roses shouldn't even be sold here because they aren't hardy, but they are, and I try to steer people away from them. Good luck.

  • 16 years ago

    semesterke, I see that you are in WI. Being from MI I have the same type of winter that you do and can give you some of the tips that I have found helpful for overwintering plants. With your rose trees,do not even bother trying to save them in the house. It's a lot of work babying them and spider mites are a pain. I found the best way to keep these from year to year is to dig them up and and bury them in my mulch/bark pile out back. I just pound a couple of stakes at each end so that I know where to find them. My husband jokes that it looks like I've got a few dead bodies that I'm hiding out back. For the other plants I am fortunate to have an unheated enclosed porch with all south facing windows that I can use for overwintering stuff that is to young to survive yet or can't handle our winters. I just check that they stay just slightly moist everyonce in a while. i hope this has been a little helpful to you.
    Mindy

  • 16 years ago

    Three of the 4 pots have a baby rose plant coming up.

    As Karl said, those are most probably rootstock.

  • 16 years ago

    Thanks to all.

    Love the idea to bury them in my mulch/bark pile out back. There are two problems with that. It's to late for that this year as far as the ones outside go. They are buried in more than 2 feet of snow. Second, I don't have a mulch pile. Currently of the four inside, one is doing fine, 1 so so and the other two look sick.

    I removed 2 of the babies. The last baby I stuck in a pot. It does not seem to be a rose as the shoots have really sprouted from when I only saw a tiny spot of green on the branch that looked as if it had broken off the top when I moved the roses inside. It grew from a very small section of a branch that was on top of the ground in one of the tree rose pots.

    Since I have started this I am going to continue until either they all die or make it till I can set them out this Spring. It's kind of interesting and gives me something to do. Think I will post a picture of the one baby growing from that branch so, while it's early, some one may have an idea what it might be.

    Thanks to all again.

  • 16 years ago

    Here is the picture. The red box at the base of the shoot is the entire length of the stem the shoot grew from. Any ideas what it might be?

    Here is a link that might be useful: imageshack baby picture

  • 16 years ago

    Had a light snow fall today. Two of the rose trees are flowering. Other one is just producing leaves so far. Last of the four is in sad shape. Here is a pic. Haven't found out what the small flakes are on the leaves. Still getting babies but cutting them off as the break ground.

    Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:345459}}

  • 16 years ago

    It's hard to see in your photo exactly what is on your rose, but it can't be good. I'm guessing aphids. Move that rose (actually all of them would benefit) into the shower and wash it off thoroughly. Do this at least once a week until you can move them back outdoors where they belong.
    As to the photo of the "baby," I don't know what that is, but I can tell you it is not a rose. It reminds me of a weed I have trouble with in one of my beds. Sorry, but it's hard to tell.

  • 16 years ago

    Today I moved the 4 rose trees I had inside the house to the outside. They do not look to be in the best of health, but all four are alive and one as you can see has flowers. I will plant them very soon. While I would like to harden them off, it is not possible so they may go into shock, but I expect they will make it OK. Of the two I planted last fall one has no signs of life, while the other is showing some bud's. My thanks to all for the help given.

    Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:345460}}

  • 16 years ago

    Here is a pic of the one outside tree rose with buds. In background is a lilac with buds as well.

    Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:345461}}