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Before & After Austin

A week of 40mph winds knocked Mary Rose around pretty good, but it was time to prune anyway. The clematis tower got leaned over by the winds pretty good, too. Here is Mary R. before and after. The wall is 6' tall, to give you an idea of size. She is 6 years old now, was originally grafted, but has own rooted herself. The larger canes are a couple inches in diameter, the smaller, about pinkie-finger wide. I filled that trash barrel up with just Mary Rose clippings.

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Comments (7)

  • 19 years ago

    in my climate zone pruning Austins is much more easy: they have to be cut down to about 4 inches off the ground every year. They will never form these large bushes in your zone.

  • 19 years ago

    cupshaped roses,

    Even Mary Rose and Eglantyne need to be pruned down to 4" like that for you? Are they in a really exposed site? They are very cane hardy in my garden, albeit in a good microclimate position out of the wind. They have Rugosa in their heritage and are the best of the Austins I grow with maybe the exception of The Ingenious Mr. Fairchild.

  • 19 years ago

    That looks like a really nice job of pruning you did on your 'Mary Rose'. I wish you'd have come to my place and worked over my Mrs. Dudley Cross & Gilbert Nabonnand. You won't see me posting any pictures of my pruning job, I'd probably have to hide my head in shame. Pruning is not my forte. If I had a large lot, I'd probably never prune anything, except dead branches/canes. I only prune in those instances where I've planted too large of a rose in too small of a spot :-) That seems to happen a lot.

    Randy

  • 19 years ago

    the morden man: Yes I Grow Redoute / and Winchester Cathedral ; Sports of mary rose. They are in sheltered positions from the wind/ lots of 6 feet tall hedges and some tall trees around. But I have to prune most of my Austins down to about 4 inches or less each spring. I follow the rule about cutting down to clean wood/white center in the canes and they are brown all the way down.
    The most cane hardy Austins for me have been: Gertrude Jekyll, Golden Celebration, Teasing Georgia, Falstaff, Benjamin Britten and James Galway. These roses have had about 1 feet of cane survive the winters. (Constance Spry and Chianti are hardy to the tips).
    Wind does seem to be the problem, but I have noticed that the closer to the walls the roses are the more canes survive the winters. I think it due to the reflected heat coming from the brick walls creating a warmer microclimate.

    I have been able to grow some teas and chinas with winterprotection(they grow to be a whole 2 feet tall LOL). But Bourbons and Portlands are the only group of repeatflowering rosebushes I can shape by pruning and that actually grow tall in my gardens.

  • 19 years ago

    Hi...

    I like to know, how long does it take for your rose bush to reach that height?

    If I want my rose to grow taller, does that mean I shouldn't prune it?

  • 19 years ago

    jumbojimmy, the size of a rose bush is dependent upon several things, not just pruning (or not pruning). Size is dependent upon:

    The kind of rose: some varieties simply grow taller than others.

    The climate: in areas with long growing seasons, such as Southern California, the rose has much more time to put on size than it does in areas with a short growing season (such as Maine).

    The winter conditions: if winter temperatures are extremely cold, the rose canes may die back some or all of the way to the ground. If the rose has to start over every year from ground level, it is going to be shorter than one that can keep some of it's height from year to year.

    The soil quality and water quantity: a soil planted in rich well fertilized soil, with plenty of water, is going to produce a larger plant than one grown in poor dry soil.

    Pruning: a rose pruned harder may not be as tall as one pruned less--however an unpruned rose may not be attractive! Over several seasons, unpruned roses tend to build up a lot of dead and/or leafless canes underneath a top layer of new green flowering growth. So an unpruned rose may be taller, but it may not look that great.

  • PRO
    19 years ago

    cupshaped roses, it may be another reason that your canes are brown on the inside, not the winter. You're probably a zone 7, if not 7b, since Denmark is very mild in the winter, usually between 28 and 32 degrees and often in the higher 30s, especially this winter, as I heard from my family. I'm just suggesting that I very much doubt that your roses have to be pruned that low due to the winter weather, maybe something else is going on that they are brown. I get that too, but it's only on occasional canes, and I don't know where it comes from or why it happens.