- Author: Elinor Teague
Many varieties of citrus and other fruit trees have set a bumper crop of small fruit this season. Alternate bearing or the setting of fewer fruit every other year or two is normal for fruiting trees, but this year's bounty of mini fruit is unusual. The cause could be last season's long, cool, wet spring weather that delayed blossom set and pollination. Or it could be that the immature heavy crop of fruit should have been thinned early. The fruit is juicy and sweet. Just remember that the best way to store citrus fruit is to leave it on the tree until it falls off.
Rose leaves are still bright green and firmly attached to most bushes. Roses will set flowers all winter long if temperatures don't drop to freezing levels. In the Central Valley with its mild, short winters, rose lovers usually strip browning leaves from their bushes in mid-November to force dormancy by using water from a hose to blast off the dead and dying leaves. But you might need to hand strip green leaves from roses this winter. Do it after you've pruned to minimize the work.
Weed seeds germinate quickly when the soil temperature warms above 50 degrees. That often happens during winter warm spells like those we had during December. As you are using a wiggle hoe to cut down tiny weeds, you'll notice that it's much easier to till of the soil in areas that have been kept covered with a three- to four-inch layer of mulch. Those of us who have begun spreading the fall leaves into planting beds instead of raking them up are seeing that the leaf mulch does reduce weed germination, but because we haven't had much rain yet this winter, the dry fall leaves have barely begun to decompose. Rake or blow the leaves to turn them and encourage faster decomposition.
- Author: Debbie DiNoto
Happy New Year! I hope you and yours are ready for a wonderful 2024. So, what do we do in the rose garden this month? Actually, not too much in the actual garden itself. It is time to get ready for our annual pruning, either very late January or the beginning to the middle of February.
I wait until the beginning to the middle of February to conduct my annual pruning. Those of you up in the mountains and foothills may need to wait a little longer. Why? Because we still can get frost or freeze in January. If I pruned prior to then and we had a late cold snap, all the new growth would be damaged, and I would have to start all over again. Better to wait. Pruning tells your rose that its winter "nap" or dormant time is over, and it is time to start pushing out new growth. You can expect the first flush of blooms about 10 weeks after pruning.
What do I do instead of pruning?
It is time to make sure all of the leaves from your roses that have fallen in your yard are picked up and put in the green trash bin, not your home compost bin. Yup. The green trash bin. Rose leaves can carry diseases and home composting will not get hot enough to destroy those diseases.
The second thing on my agenda is to make sure my tools are clean and sharp. Please don't waste your time on cheap garden equipment. Invest in a good pair of bypass pruners. Bypass pruners are the ones that have a sharp curved cutting blade (which slices through the cane) and a dull curved non-cutting blade (which holds the cane in place while you are cutting it). Don't use pruners that have a sharp flat blade that rests against a flat dull blade. They are not good for pruning roses.
Also have a good pair of loppers. Loppers come in different size blades. Those different sizes will have a maximum diameter that they can cut efficiently. If you use a lopper that is too small for your cane, you will damage the cane and possibly the lopper. If you have large canes, you may need to use a hand saw (such as a keyhole saw) with a narrow blade. Pruning saws will also work.
I love my tools and it is important to take good care of them. Keep them clean. I use rubbing alcohol to clean the blades on my pruners and loppers to help prevent disease transmission from rose to rose. I wipe them down after pruning or cutting each individual rose bush. There are alcohol wipes that work great for this purpose, and I just carry them with me from plant to plant. Do not use any cleaners with bleach in them. They will eventually ruin your blades.
Another important piece of equipment is my gloves. I don't like getting stabbed by my rose bushes. I use goat skin gloves or leather gloves. Make sure you find ones that fit your hands and that are made entirely of goat skin or leather. I thought I would try a new glove that is only half coated with something to prevent thorns from going through. First rose I touched, I got stabbed. I immediately went back to my leather gloves.
Don't wear gloves that are too big for your hands. Take the time to find a good pair that fits you! They will save you in the long run. I have known too many rosarians that have ended up having to seek medical care for cuts from roses or thorns getting stuck in their fingers. Roses carry some nasty diseases and if you do get cut, it is important to either get a tetanus shot or be up to date on your tetanus injections. I just prefer not to get cut from the get-go! Saves a whole lot of my precious time.
What else do I wear when pruning? I have specific rose gloves with long sleeves on them, but prefer my regular pruning gloves, so I wear welder sleeves when I prune. They fit my arms entirely and keep away the thorns while allowing me to move easily. Some of my roses are taller than I am, so being covered is important.
In addition to cleaning my gardening equipment, I also keep the blades sharp and lubricated. I will sometimes use 0000 steel wool to clean the blades and then lubricate them with oil. Any oil will do. Just use a drop or two to coat the surface. No need to drench. The oil will also keep your pruners from rusting. How do I sharpen my blades? There are different methods to do this. Some prefer diamond files. I use an all-in-one tool. It has a carbide bar and a ceramic bar to restore and hone all sorts of knives, shears, hoes, spades, etc. Super easy and quick to use.
One more task I will do this month is to make sure my irrigation system is in good working order and ready to go for spring/summer. I check my drip system to make sure that the emitters are working properly. I also make sure my timer is set to the proper day and times.
So that is it! Take some important time to take care of your tools, because they will take care of you and your roses. Clean up the rose garden so it is ready to plant and fertilize in February (or later if you live in the mountains/foothills). Time to be patient. Don't fertilize your roses this month. It is not time for that. That will come soon enough. Next month, I will go over how to prune your roses and climbing roses.
She will get big so it is important to have room for her to grow. She also has another name which is Souvenird'EliseVardon. This picture shows a young rose and rose bush. Her colors will deepen to a beautiful peach as she gets older.
Until next time . . . "One of the tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon - instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today." - Dale Carnegie
- Author: Rosie D
The only exception to the not deadheading rule is, if your rose plant has a fungal disease such as botrytis. Botrytis is a gray mold and it makes your flower buds look fuzzy. Cut those blooms off so the disease doesn't spread to other plants in your garden. Also check the leaves to determine if you have any other fungal diseases, such as rust. If so, treat accordingly. Now is also the time to clean away any fallen leaves from underneath your rose bush. Those leaves can harbor fungal spores, so it is best to remove them.
I am always checking to see if my roses made any seed heads this year, known as hips. Since I don't spray, I can use those hips for some nice, calming herbal teas. I also wait until the hips get “ripe” and harvest the seeds. That is how I have grown some of my rose plants. You never know what you are going to get, which is half the fun! You can breed roses for specific results, but that is a whole other process and there are lots of experts out there always willing to offer advice and help.
A lot of people get anxious about pruning their roses and start to do it towards the end of December. I was one of those people. I do not do that anymore. We get cold here in the valley. I wait until the last hard frost date for us. If we do get a hard frost or freeze after I have pruned the plant, it will kill off any new growth that has occurred. It is better to wait six weeks after the last hard frost or until the beginning to the middle of February before you prune your roses.
If you are thinking about adding to your rose collection, now is the time to be looking at those delicious rose catalogs or various rose company websites to see what inspires you. I really enjoy antique rose varieties and there are great companies out there that sell them. One of my favorite antique roses is, of course, Vick's Caprice. Another is Alice Hamilton. Alice was an amazing woman who lived in the United States and made such a difference in the health care field. She was the first woman to be appointed to the faculty of Harvard Medical School. Her beautiful rose is fitting for such an amazing woman.
Until next time ...
"It's ok to feel delicate sometimes. Real beauty is in the fragility of your petals. A rose that never wilts isn't a rose at all.” - Crystal Woods
- Author: Rosie D
Now that the weather is consistently below 90 degrees F, you can start to fertilize your roses again, if necessary. Don't fertilize just to fertilize. Get your soil tested (if you haven't already) to find out if you need any additional minerals to make the ingredients in your fertilizer available to the root systems of your plant. If your soil test shows your soil is adequate, no need to fertilize.
If you do need to fertilize, make sure your roses are thoroughly watered the day before applying any fertilizer. Especially if you use a non-organic fertilizer, as it will burn the plant. After applying the fertilizer, water again.
You can alternate your fertilizer with fish emulsion if you wish. Use a fertilizer that has a greater percentage of (P) phosphate in relation to (N) nitrogen and (K) potassium. This will help to create stronger root systems and resistance to stress.
If you grow roses in pots (like me!) use half the recommended dose of fertilizer but apply it every two weeks. You can alternate between liquid fertilizer and dry fertilizer until 30 days before the "first frost date." Normally, for Fresno, that is right around Dec. 1. In our mountain areas of the county, that is (usually) about the middle of November.
You can go ahead and lightly prune your roses once the high temps are consistently below 90 degree F. This is not the "big prune" that you will do in a couple of months. Deadhead any spent blooms down to about the third leaflet below the bloom. A leaflet is where those 5 or 7 leaves come away from the cane. If you can, prune to an outfacing bud. Cut about one-quarter inch above the bud. Make sure you wipe your pruners with a alcohol wipe. That will help to stop the spread of diseases. You can take off any dead leaves but again, be careful to not expose the canes to too much sun. The sun can still burn your plants this time of year.
Keep inspecting your irrigation system to make sure it is functioning properly. Your plants in pots will need to be watered more frequently than the ones in the ground. Make sure you have mulched your roses to help them retain moisture. Three to four inches of mulch is recommended around the drip line of the plant.
Check your roses for spider mites and thrips. They love the type of weather conditions we are having. A good blast from the hose (especially under the leaves) will help to get rid of them. I am still getting some minor damage from grasshoppers on my roses. They have been prolific this year. I have found all sorts of baby ones! They love to chew on certain varieties that I grow. If you can get over the ick factor, hand pick them off the rose bush when you see them. Again, if you can get over the ick factor, you can cut them in half with your clippers. It also seems that since I have some California native plants next to my roses, the baby grasshoppers seem to have a preference for them over my roses. California native plants bring all sorts of beneficial insects to your garden, so I highly recommend planting them.
New roses and Rose of the Year
Now is the time to start to think if you want to add any new roses into your garden. Soon the catalogs and mail order nurseries will have the new varieties for 2024. If you decide to add, order early!
Look at which roses are just not doing well in your garden or ones that you may not like. Sometime roses are prettier in the catalog than in the real-life growing conditions of your garden. I generally give a rose three years to perform well in my garden. If it doesn't, then out it goes. Yes, this is difficult. You can give the rose away to someone who will love it or put it in the compost heap. A rose should make you happy and thankful that you have it in your garden. If not, there are literally 18,000 other roses out there that you might enjoy. Don't be afraid to check them out at your local nursery, a rose catalog, on-line rose nursery, etc. You can always look up a rose on Help Me Find Roses to see the reviews, pictures and how it might do in your yard. You can use the search engine on Help Me Find to look up antique roses, climbers, purple roses, etc.
The American Rose Society has announced their 2023 Rose of the Year. The members of the American Rose Society throughout the country (me included!), rate roses each year as to how well they do in their garden. Are they drought tolerant, have little to no diseases, attract a lot of pests, grow well in their garden conditions, etc. This year the awards went to the following roses: Celestial Night, Sweet Spirit and Petite Peach.
The color of Celestial Night is considered mauve. It is a floribunda rose developed by Weeks Roses (located in the central valley!). It was hybridized by Christian Bedard and introduced in 2019. It received an overall garden rating of 8.7 out of 10.
The choice for the Fragrance Award went to Sweet Spirit. Sweet Spirit is a red blend grandiflora from Meilland (in France but you can get the rose here). It also has an overall garden rating of 8.5.
There is also a "no spray" division of roses as well. The 2024 winner is Petite Peach discovered by Teresa Byington. It is quite disease resistant. It is a orange-pink to apricot miniature rose and a sport of the rose Petite Pink. It is very floriferous and will be introduced through High Country Roses. It is rated as an excellent garden rose.
Until next time . . . "As delicate as flower, as tender as rose petals, choosing to be tender and kind in a harsh environment is not weakness, it's courage." Luffina Lourduraj
- Author: Richard Hardwick
- Author: Laura Berger
Introduction
The tobacco budworm will bore into the flower buds. Look for the caterpillar or its frass inside the buds. The caterpillar is under one-inch long, green, yellow or brown with white or black markings. The adult moth has a wing span of about 1½ inches and is brown/green in color.
According to the University of California, budworms feed on geraniums, petunias, snapdragons and roses as well as a lot of agricultural crops, fruits and vegetables, and many horticultural plants. Evidence of their arrival are tiny round or oblong 1/16-inch holes in flower buds, 1/8-inch holes in leaves and blooms, and black seed-like droppings. Flowers that open after budworm infestation have damaged petals and a budworm can destroy several flowers per day. The plant may cease flower production completely if severely infested. The budworm may move on to consume leaves and foliage also. The budworms peak in late summer. When mature, the larva drops to the ground and pupates in the soil. They can have 2 to 4 generations in a season, overwinter in the soil, and emerge as a moth again during the next growing season.
Management
Use Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for successful plant problem management.
Non-chemical management
Manage weeds in and around gardens to remove the habitat and alternate food sources for the tobacco budworm.
Monitor plants closely for damage. Handpick and destroy larvae and infested buds on roses. Hand pick caterpillars or prune out and promptly dispose of infested buds or rolled leaves (often hiding caterpillars within).
Scout for larvae at dusk, when they are most active. Check for actively feeding larvae, small holes in buds and flowers, and caterpillar droppings (frass or feces) associated with damaged buds.
Chemical management
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is somewhat effective if applied when eggs or damage are first noticed. However, Bt must be consumed by young, actively feeding larvae and only works where the young larvae are feeding on the SURFACE of the plant. Bt is NOT effective against larvae feeding within buds and will not provide reliable control of mature larvae.
Damage is usually not severe and treatment with pesticides not generally necessary. Leaf-feeding caterpillars can be reduced with the microbial insecticide Bacillus thuringiensis or the insecticide Spinosad. These materials will be most effective when caterpillars are small, however caterpillars within buds are unlikely to be killed. Damage may not be noticed until after caterpillars are full grown and no longer vulnerable to insecticide applications.
References
https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7466.html
https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/field/tobacco_budworm.htm
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/flowers/roses/budworms-roses.htm
https://ucanr.edu/datastoreFiles/268-758.pdf
https://hortsense.cahnrs.wsu.edu/fact-sheet/rose-tobacco-budworm/
