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Dr. Leda's Rose Journal |
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Dr. Leda Visits Her Mailbag
By Dr. Leda Horticulture, O. R.
April, 2003
Got rose questions? Ask Dr. Leda! Here's what some readers have been wondering....
Dear Dr. Leda:
May I ask you how to train my climber/rambler into a tree? This rose was "living willed" to me a few years ago, but it's current location is not adequate. It seems to bloom only once, with pink flowers, many petals, blooms clustered together. I would like to move it to the front of our property to train it to an old blue spruce. I realize that deciduous trees are generally used for such purposes but the site would provide adequate sun. Would you kindly offer some advice on this idea and on the type of material I might use for support?
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-Marnie
Dear Marnie:
Good for you! There are few sights more beautiful than a rose rambling and scrambling up into a tree, and a pink rose draping through a blue spruce sounds absolutely heavenly.
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| A tree-hugging rambling rose. |
I'm going to take a wild stab and guess that your rose might be a climbing 'Cecile Brunner'. This is an excellent tree-climbing rose. Like many of the scrambling, rambling climbers that grow big enough to gallop up trees, it's by nature a once-bloomer that puts on a spectacular show in the spring. Increasing the amount of sun won't change this; the rose is genetically programmed to tolerate some shade and pour its energy into scaling great heights rather than producing flowers year-round.
I myself have recently trained a once-blooming Rosa banksiae banksiae, the 'White Lady Banks', to climb up and drape through an evergreen Michelia figo tree. It's much easier than you think. (Oh come on, surely everyone who's seen a picture of this massive rose in Tombstone Arizona, where one giant plant covers something like 5 acres, has immediately thought, "Oh, look, the perfect climber for that twelve-inch strip between my driveway and the neighbor's mailbox!")
The secret to training a rose to scramble and cascade gracefully through the branches is twofold. First, plant the rose about four feet from the base of the tree, slightly on the shady side so that when it reaches toward the sun it will bump into the tree. Second, turn your back and run. (And if you've planted it close to the driveway like I did, step three is to find someplace else to park the car for the next 200 years.)
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I've seen books that recommend training the canes along a stake slanted towards the trunk. Maybe 'Lady Banks' is just a natural tomboy, but she didn't need any help from me to climb the tree. If your rose seems to require an initial boost, you could try using temporary stakes or a leaning trellis to point the canes in the right direction. Or, if they're flexible, just wait until they're long enough and stick them up there yourself. Once a cane discovers those lower branches, it will instinctively know what to do, the same way a Golden Retriever knows what to do with a tennis ball. Climbing towards the sun is its raison d'ëtre.
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| Hope springs eternal in these lovely white roses. |
But let me warn you: once you've succeeded with this project, you will become hopelessly addicted to training roses up trees. Therefore, let me recommend some other tree-climbing roses you might enjoy. 'Bobbie James' is a very fragrant white; 'New Dawn' is a lovely soft shell pink, which even reblooms. For a very large tree, try Rosa filipes 'Kiftsgate', which looks like an enormous fluffy white cloud and smells like a perfume factory. I've also had good luck growing several of the climbing Noisette roses up smaller (less than 15') trees, and these will also repeat their bloom. 'Madame Alfred Carriere' and 'Jaune Desprez' are two of my favorites; I have them both growing in light pink Crape Myrtles.
In these troubled times, when hope is an obligation and cultivating beauty is more important than ever, sending a rose up into a tree is a generous and optimistic act that will bring pleasure to future generations. Keep up the good work, and best wishes on finding a spot for the car.
Dear Dr. Leda:
I am going crazy trying to figure out the percentages of dormant spray and oil to mix in a hose spray thingie. The containers and the spray bottle all seem to speak 3 different foreign languages, which really taxes my mathematically-impaired brain. I didn't understand math very well in high school, and thought I would be able to leave it behind. But no! Here I am, a highly creative gardener, and I have to do really complicated math! I read about 10 rose books, but none explain the ratio of the sprays. The obvious answer is that it depends on the manufacturer's instructions. But trying to understand those instructions is very stressful. I had to look in a cookbook for how many ounces there are in a gallon.
Any suggestions for a simple answer for next year?
-Marcia
Dear Marcia:
I applaud your courage and honesty. I've always suspected that nine out of ten gardeners are privately baffled and intimidated by those (pardon the technical jargon) hose-end sprayer thingies, but seldom is this dark shameful secret ever exposed to the light of day.
Alas, I'm unable to provide a direct solution to your dilemma, since the answer does indeed depend on the manufacturers' instructions for each specific product you're mixing, as well as the make and model of your thingie. However, I can suggest several possible approaches.
One is to enroll in the Mechanical Engineering Department at MIT and obtain an advanced degree in Applied Non-Newtonian Two-Particle Microrheology, thus strengthening your understanding of the mathematical basis of fluid mechanics and enabling you to utilize the generalized Stokes-Einstein equation to create a mathematical model of the resonant phenomena of the molecular dynamics of the liquids in order to calculate the correct ratio.
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| Putting those rose sprayer thingies to good use.. |
Another possibility is to just take all the containers of stuff you plan to mix, along with the sprayer thingie you plan to use, to your favorite nursery. Set your items emphatically upon the counter and announce that you will chain your ankle to the cash register until some kind soul explains the methodology in clear and precise terms that you can understand and remember. A fore-sighted employee should be more than happy to write explicit directions on your thingie with an indelible Sharpie, so you won't need to repeat this scene every spring.
A third option is to toss your thingie in the recycling bin and stick with roses that never need to be sprayed.
Good luck, and remember, the most important thing is to keep on being highly creative. And above all, enjoy your roses!
