I look forward to a progress report on Evelyn.

Ours -- BUDDED -- was 14-ft. tall, and only bloomed at the top, so I've wondered if it might be a better rose on its own roots.

I do hope that Evelyn can forgive me for the previous planting error. Obviously, the rose may love heat, but not if planted in too much sand that would not retain water no matter how much I irrigated.

Sheila: Best wishes for your Evelyn !! I have a few roses to move this year before the ground freezes.

Sheila,

Evelyn looks like she has a very good new home. I hate moving roses for the very same reason...loss on progress , forcing the rose the re-establish and start over. My dense clay soil tends to keep the rootball intact, but if I transplant from my raised beds, I can lose a plant because the soil is lighter and I can lose so many roots if I’m not really careful. I moved my Evelyn to a sunnier spot 3 years ago as she was craning her long canes and looking for stronger light. She has never looked back, now 10’ x 5’ ft and pushing away her neighbors.

Hi Sheila,

Lack of water is a very common problem that is difficult to diagnose unless you are familiar with what the plants look like. I saw the same type of unhappiness in some of the roses in the Summerland Ornamental Gardens this summer before we had the new drip irrigation system fully operational. spindly, lack of growth, not thriving, even though they had been doing well in pots a month earlier with overhead watering. The sandy soil and a heat sink would definitely indicate that was the issue with your Evelyn.

I have two Evelyn here, planted in good loamy soil with just drip irrigation and they do wonderfully. In fact all of our Austin roses thrive with drip irrigation and several inches of wood chips as mulch.

I had a few roses I wanted to rejuvenate myself this summer, including a plant of Border that was in a similar spot to your Evelyn and had a reasonable root ball when I dug her out. She is from RVR and had been brought here in my move from Ontario 4 years ago. A week after transplanting it, I thought perhaps it had died. i planted it in a commercial product called Sea Soil and inside of a month, it was newly leafed out, growing like a weed and blooming. I don't know if you can find this product in Oregon, but it is now my go too planting medium for new or stressed plants.

Good luck with Evelyn, I suspect she will come back and thrive if you plant her in better soil and give her enough water.

Cheers, Rick

Great to hear, Ben. I really hope mine can revive. I have another grafted one that is also in that inner courtyard baking sand. I should probably move it and Boscobel too. Clearly, these DA roses, even the most heat loving do not enjoy hot sand. Other roses in there are doing better. Noisettes and Teas would have been a better choice for the sandy hot courtyard. This is probably my Ingrid's climate area.

Thank you so much for the information, Rick. True, I have never seen some of these roses in real life. The water deprived all do have the pale, wan, pathetic look with no growth. Without hot climate experience, I naively think if I get 4 gal of water to a rose daily it should be enough. The water went right down without soaking the organic matter, manure or alfalfa hay I put on. Our area also is in a drought and this last rain year we got 16.5 inches of rain, albeit only in the Winter. Our usual here is 18.5 inches per year.

This reminds me a bit of Alaska gardening where it was the other extreme when some roses could grow backwards because they could barely survive zone 3. Others would explode in growth if they were extremely hardy.

Here, it looks like I will have to shuffle roses to more favorable areas for them on my property. Some roses will grow in my desert areas, just not the DA roses for sure. I'll also have to remove some excess volunteer Arizona Cypress that are exploding in growth.

It is funny, you could take one look and know what was wrong, while I'm checking emitters and giving supplements futility. I even have a moisture meter and that did not clear up my confusion.

I hope the roses don't sue me for malpractice. I have been growing roses since I was 12 and I am 68 now. You would think I should know something, but it is totally different in every location.

I am going to add plain clay kitty litter to the hole of any rose I put in the sandy courtyard. I'm continuing to add organic manure matter and organic fertilizer and alfalfa.

This hot area gardening is a challenge as Ingrid has so thoughtfully discussed. I do have to be grateful for my better soil areas.

When the maple tree grew, it shaded out (and outcompeted for water) my own-root Evelyns (3) and they dwindled. I moved the Evelyns to a sunny spot a couple of years ago and they sprang to life. They were moved with very few roots. More water and more sun and now I’m dealing with 6 foot vining canes. So if this is any indication, yours should be fine. They are growing in amended sand with a blazing hot southwestern exposure. They do need to be watered regularly and generously. I moved WS2K to ”better” spots this past year and they are sulking big time. Evelyn just took off after transplanting.