The vermiculite will just absorb the excess water and hold it close to the roots, both above ground and in the planting hole. It won't be long before it turns into a mushy, gooey mess and your rose roots in danger of rotting.

Perlite would have been a much better choice but a small, coarse bark even better.

Thank you, garden gal! I have bark mulch - shredded bark — would that do? Or does it have to be in actual pieces?

Where are you Doheny? I worried about a low wet spot on my property that had poor drainage too. Here, it gets so hot in the summer, nothing has died there, and it might turn out to be advantageous.

Shredded is better than nothing :-) And waaaayyy better than vermiculite!

When you start to fertilize this spring, give them an extra dose of nitrogen. Bark or any other wood product mixed into the soil ties up nitrogen (makes it unavailable), which is essential for healthy growth. So an extra application or two of alfalfa meal or other high N fert will offset that nicely.

IF rain like this is common where you are:

Consider, in week/two to come, raising the bed (after digging up the new residents), and then replant.

Sheila, i’m In SoCal, 30 miles north of LA (Santa Clarita). We get triple-digit temperatures in the summer. Are you saying the problem will balance itself out?

Rifls, rain like this is so uncommon here as to be freakish. We get zero rain between April and November. Rain is strictly winter-only for us. I’d prefer not to have to mess with raised beds if at all possible.

gardengal, I’ll be putting shredded bark out there today, if we get a break in the rain.

However, I’d also like to do a soil test in the bed to see how much nitrogen is already there. At my old house, we had very high levels of nitrogen, don’t wat to overdo it!

thanks again, Syov

Um, I’m not Syov, I’m Sylvia. Slippery thumbs did me in again.

Those plants look to be much too close to that brick wall.

It is almost impossible to test accurately for nitrogen......in fact, most professional soil testing labs do not. That is because N is the most mobile of the major plant nutrients and levels can fluctuate widely depending on time of day, temperature, amount of sun, rainfall, etc. And you certainly wouldn't want to base an analysis on any sort of home soil test - that would be just a waste of time and money!!

Unless you fertilize or mulch heavily, you very likely have only satisfactory levels of N at best but in most areas it will be somewhat deficient. And you will need to supplement if you add the bark as that will eat up what is currently available!

I would dig a french drain a.a.d mo e your roses forward. We had so many water issues at this house and we had to add french drains and now all is well.

Good luck

I found here, 445 Sylvia, my "drainage problems" were not a factor with our summer heat and dry. So I did guess the problems did balance out. In a really wet area out east, I'm sure it would be different. Too little water seems to be the main problem here, which I have to concentrate on.

No help for you Sylvia, but I have a similar area in my "back 40" and decided to take advantage of the moisture. I've ordered for spring the repeat-blooming Swamp Rose!

So, I’m in Southern California and 4 of my roses were under 6 inches of water yesterday, and they have been like 8 times. They haven’t seemed to notice yet. The problem comes in the summer when they don’t have enough water and they sunburn.

Amanda and Sheila, I hope you’re right. We are very hot and dry here in the summers, and seldom do we see even a cloud.

kristine and girl named gale, I am in a condo/townhouse community. The bed where these roses are previously held two red unknown minis, a 4’ high eonymus not spelled correctly, I mean that ubiquitous green-yellow mottled bush we see everywhere — a couple of asparagus ferns abo7t 2-3’ across, and some other smaller plants — all thriving next to the wall.

Digging a new drain system just doesn’t appeal that much, and I am still hopeful the problem can be solved with the right amendments and drip watering — once the rains stop.

i took all the old plantings out because I wanted .. roses! Gradually I am replacing the previous owner’s plants, bed by bed. Why. Because I want ... more roses! And also because I don’t want my garden to look like a neatly landscaped, antiseptic industrial park, with generic plantings that you see everywhere, and I do mean everywhere, around here.

I’m sure my fellow free spirits understand.

tthanks,

Sylvia

Sylvia, I had some pretty mucky areas when we first moved in

I added a ton of fine bark and that seemed to help

Thanks, Kristine.

and by the way — I have no idea how this post ended up in the Bees and Beekeeping forum! I been Houzz’d ... again.

Where I lived for many years, our soil was all adobe clay. It was either a mucky mess or once it dried up like cement.

One thing I noticed was when I moved my compost bin due to rodents being too close to the house, I was able to dig shovel deep even in summer!

After that I planned out where I wanted to plant something new and moved one of the compost bins there for 6 months or so.

Well, the roses are sprouting very healthy-looking leaves all over, so I’m less worried than I was. I did put down a lot of shredded bark, thougH.

It’s supposed to rain again tonight and early tomorrow, but I don’t see another three-four days of steady downpour coming. That was freakish. I thought somehow we’d skidded up the coast on the tectonic plates and were level with Oregon!

Will post more pix as things develop.

Harold, I live in a complex where there are rules against growing things on the walls or on the house itself. I could have a climber, for example, but it would have to be on a trellis or other structure - not attached to the wall itself. So heaping up dirt there to create a raised bed could be tricky.

They haven’t found out about my illegal dog door, though. Bwahahahaha (evil laugh).

As long as it doesn’t become a coyote and raccoon door :p

Nope, too small. Our dogs are 15 pounds each. Actually, we have to close that door and keep the dogs in at night because of coyotes in the area.