How Does Our Garden Grow?

by Rebecca Weersing

We should begin to experience somewhat cooler temperatures in October thereby allowing us to be out in the garden. One important annual project: We need a couple more volunteers in order to form a three-member team. We will do a complete garden walk looking at every plant in the garden to decide whether the plant stays, goes or has a makeover. We use colored plastic tape to code the status of each plant – green tape: stays; red tape: goes (either to another spot in the garden or to the trash bin); yellow tape: makeover. If plants are to be added, look for little orange flags where new plants will go.

An exception this year is the Rose Hall of Fame. We will not need to perform this task because last spring Peter and Carol evaluated the RHoF and completed all plant tasks in early spring.

The plan will be to meet each Tuesday in October from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. If you are interested in joining the team, email me here.

Save the Roses

by Susan Morse

California Coastal Rose Society – 20th Annual Rare and Unusual Rose Auction – November 1 – 15, 2020.

Unusual times often require us to adapt and try out new solutions and formats. The 20th annual Save the Roses! auction has been in the works for several years now. As always, plants from our own collection will be supplemented by the generous donations made by so many auction supporters from all across the country and this year from around the world! Many of the roses offered this year are not available anywhere else in the country.

This year CCRS will limit the offerings to one-gallon size plants to facilitate shipping, but local winners may have the option of picking up a 2 gal or 5 gal plant in Fallbrook, if one is available. Because of Covid, the auction will be presented during the Garden America Radio Show on Facebook Live. Viewers do not need a Facebook account to join in. You can simply go to Facebook at 8 a.m. PST on Nov 7 and search for Garden America Radio Show. In the left hand column click on Videos and then LIVE to see the discussion of roses offered in this year's auction in real time.

Noted rosarians like ARS President Bob Martin, Gregg Lowery from Vintage Gardens, and Jill Perry from the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden will monitor the comments on Facebook and try to answer any questions, again in real time. Of course, comments are also welcome and encouraged from anyone watching. If you happen to miss the live show, it will be archived on Facebook for watching at any time.

The procedures for online bidding will be as usual, and you must register at www.ccrsauction.com. Just like voting, early bidding will begin on Nov. 1 and each rose in the list will show the current bid, similar to an eBay-type auction. CCRS cannot post bids as quickly as eBay, but the bids will be updated once or twice per day. You must bid in at least $1 increments to surpass the current bid. If you have given CCRS a maximum bid, they will post in dollar increments until your max is reached. Online bidding will end Sunday Nov 15 at noon. Winners will be notified the following week and payment can be made by check or credit card. Plants can be shipped in Nov or local winners can also arrange to pick up plants in Fallbrook, CA.

Proceeds from the auction will go toward an import of roses from gardens in France, Spain, Italy and Hungary. Some of the exciting varieties in this year's auction were made possible with the help of the Budateteny Rose Garden in Budapest, which sent cuttings for rooting to John and Becky Hook in France, a few years ago. One of the varieties we are offering is the famous 'Mrs. Miniver' rose. The UK Telegraph newspaper wrote an excellent article called "Mrs Miniver: the wartime rose that almost vanished forever." This variety was down to one last plant, just a few years ago! Equally exciting is Herb Swim's 'Sunrise-Sunset', which still belongs in our rose gardens.

Aside from the extremely rare historical varieties, there are also some hard-to-find exhibitors choices. Hybrid teas like Mayor Ray Baker, Legend and Magnifica; floribundas like Frankie, Shannon Lanaya and City of Carlsbad; polyanthas like Chatillon Rose and Ingrid Stenzig and even OGR types, should have great appeal to the exhibitor. The most beautiful polyantha spray that I ever saw was a phenomenal cluster of 'Chatillon Rose' shown by Bob Martin at the Carlsbad Mall about 30 years ago. Even if your garden doesn't have room for another plant, this promises to be the most fun a rose grower can have without leaving the comfort of their own home.

Rose Care FUNda­men­tals

by Frank Brines, Master Consulting Rosarian

The latest weather report verifies what gardeners suspected: August 2020 was the hottest August on record. We also experienced many 90+ degree days in September. Many areas recorded consecutive days of triple-digit temperatures. This is way out of the average and made it difficult to adhere to the "normal" schedule of garden activities.

October promises to be unsettled too. Beginning with prediction of triple-digit temperatures accompanied by Santa Ana winds, with a slight cooling trend mid-month, and ending with "unseasonably" high temperatures again.

Mid-season pruning and fertilizing must be carefully coordinated with weather conditions. When temperatures are in the 90-100s range take care to not remove too much foliage because this can overexpose canes to the fierce sun resulting in sunburn which can damage or kill otherwise healthy canes or entire plants. Heat damage was widespread this year. Make sure to routinely check your irrigation system.

After I needed to interrupt and delay my seasonal pruning due to weather, and had sunburned canes and Chilli Thrips infestation, my roses have really rebounded. If there were fall rose shows in November, I'd have blooms to exhibit.

It's time to restart your fertilizing program if you're following my summer growing schedule. Make sure plants are thoroughly watered the day before you fertilize. I recommend organic types and alternating with one that includes fish emulsion. I suggest using a fertilizer that contains a greater percentage of (P) phosphate in relation to (N) nitrogen and (K) potassium to encourage stronger root systems and resistance to stress.

When temperatures are in the 90+ and you do not use organics, hold off fertilizing for cooler weather. If you use a fertilizer dissolved in water you can apply it right over the bush from top instead of at the base in a well. This application also does a foliar feed. A hybrid tea needs about two gallons of solution and should be watered in after a couple of days. Dry granular products should be scratched into the soil surface around the base of plant to drip line and then watered in. Apply at the recommended concentration on the label. If growing in pots, use half the recommended concentration but apply more frequently. Repeat every two weeks. Alternating with liquid and dry is most beneficial. The last day for fertilizing is 30 days before the "first frost date" which is around mid November in the Temecula Valley.

It is necessary that plants receive adequate water to stay hydrated. It takes only a few days of 90 degrees temperature for a bush to become seriously stressed and damaged without sufficient water. Hybrid Teas (Hts) can survive with 3 gallons of water twice a week. Make that your absolute minimum. The composition of soil effects water retention and the time for the soil to dry out. With potted roses this is even more critical. Four inches of good mulch will greatly reduce evaporation of soil moisture.

Assess garden conditions every morning. Look for wilted or dry crispy foliage. If discovered soon enough, douse severely stressed plants with plenty of water may save it. If you wait to inspect until afternoon or evening it may be too late. After a hot day most plants can appear a little wilted while still receiving sufficient hydration.

Routinely inspect the irrigation system to make sure it is delivering water as designed. Correct any problems ASAP: Your plant's life depends on it. Plants in clay pots require more water, plants in plastic pots are better. Soil in any type of pot material can pull away from the sides of the pot and water will just run through and out the drain holes in the bottom. This problem can be corrected by pressing the soil back against the inside sides of the pot when the soil is wet. Saucers under the pots may help too.

Spider mites are a common problem when hot, dry, dusty conditions prevail. This topic was covered in a previous care column which can be found at Temeculavallyrosesociety.org newsletter archive: look here at FUNdamentals for September 2013. Another hot weather problem is Chilli Thrips. See last months care column.

A valuable bi-monthly magazine which covers rose topics is the American Rose published by the American Rose Society (ARS). Go to www.rose.org for more information on obtaining it.