ANOTHER ROSE EXPERIMENT

[Madiha Humbal]

Dear Gardeners,
Last year i bought a few potted rose plants for my garden. They were healthy and did a wonderful job for me in the winters and spring. But due to my lack of expertise i managed to burn and kill every single one of them in the summers. But lesson well learnt, i have made plans to shelter my plants from the harsh summer sun this time. This year also, i got myself six stunning rose plants, they had beautiful flowers on them when they arrived in the first week of November. But after that i have noticed that their growth is very slow. They have managed to flower for me only once, and even after the pruning they are not growing well. i am feeding them with NPK every month just like i did the last time. This time i am using Engro Envy for that. Last time i used the nursery bought loose NPK. I also gave them a dose of epsom salt also. and now i have bought rose food for them. the one that is for roots and foliar application, with NPK with trace elements. but i haven't used it as yet. i am posting the pictures of my plants. please help me them, also please do tell how to increase the size of the blooms, as they decrease the second time they flower for me. Waiting anxiously for your reply.
Madiha Humbal

[Izhar]

Be patient, keep your rose plants clean by washing early morning, dont prune them, soil fertilizer will show result after a month of application, keep them in full sun.. dont give any fertilizer until you see the fresh growth...

[Madiha Humbal]

thankyou very much izhar sahab. today one of my rose plants gave me a pleasant surprise. for a few days i was not able to look after them, due to some illness. but today i saw a beautiful thick and sturdy stem coming out of one of my roses. iwas so happy to se it. i hope it is not a sucker, as it is the healthiest of all the stems on the plant. i will post the picture as soon as possible. want to know what you have to say about it.

[Farhan Ahmed]

I haven't much knowledge of roses.. anyone please clarify, how to differentiate suckers from the intended plant.

[Izhar]

Roses are propagated through budding, the budding is done by attaching the bud of cultivated rose on the root stock of hardy type rose. So any growth other than the bud is undesirable..

[forcetrip]

The suckerl stems are usually thorny. Or so I have noticed.

[Farhan Ahmed]

what is it is propagated through cutting ? and how can we identify whether it is cutting propagated rose or budding one?

[Madiha Humbal]

Dear Izhar sahab,
Here are the pictures of my rose plant. I hope they are clear enough for you to understand. in the picture, the lightest green stem is a new one on the plant. You can see in the first pic that it is coming out of the base of the plant. And in the second pic it is clear that it is the thickest of all the other branches of the plant. Your advice is deeply appreciated.

[Izhar]

@ Farhan: in our region, most (if not all) roses dont grow well if they are own rooted or propagated through cuttings.. you know very well that wild form/some cultivars of any plant are more disease and harsh conditions tolerant.. for e.g. Gardenia jasminoides is an acidic soil loving plant, if we plant it in our soil its roots will be unable to absorb nutrients from our alkaline soil but on the other hand Gardenia taitensis easily grows in alkaline soil, so if we take the root stock of G. taitensis and graft G. jasminoides on it, we would be able grow G. jasminoides easily in our soils..

Most roses sold are budded as it is the fastest propagation method, you can ask about the "pewand" from mali, he will show you the spot where the bud is present, you can observe it in the above picture of Madiha, multiple canes are originating from a single swollen area, this was the bud which is now mature, the below plant is the root stock.. the root stock roses have such a strong root system that they easily root even direct planting in Karachi's soil without any protection..

@ Madiha: Yours appears not to be the sucker if it is originating from the swollen part....

[Madiha Humbal]

Thankyou sir. It is appearing from the swollen part