Nobody told this pretty little thing that it's October 26th! We have had frost every night for 3 nights now, but with the temps reaching 11-12 C during the day and it's South Western exposure, it wants to keep bloomin' I took this photo at 3:00 o'clock this afternoon. Pretty huh?
Gorgeous, Donna!
My Botany prof told us something interesting yesterday evening in class, about roses: we have to go out and "sternly order them to go dormant" - and the best way to accomplish this is to pluck all the leaves off (!) if they're still there by Hallowe'en. Mind you, this probably doesn't apply to more temperate climes...lol
She says that if it's a warm fall, the roses don't bother going dormant & storing their energy for winter, but instead keep on blooming - then when it suddenly drops to -30 in December, they die because they weren't prepared. Maybe you all know this already, but it was news to me - I don't have roses. So, on Hallowe'en we're all supposed to pluck the leaves off, to get the point across to them that winter's coming, and it's time to go to sleep! :-)
I have one rose in my section of the Maplelawn Historic Garden, so I'm going to head right over there this weekend and pull its leaves off...we'll see what it does in the spring.
Thanks for the tip, Shannon. I have a lot of rose bushes, so I'll do the same thing, cause some of mine have buds and all. I was just reading in the roses forum that our roses are supposed to produce rose "hips" before winter. Not many of mine have done that so, I think I'll pluck all my leaves tomorrow. This might be a good post for the Cool Climates forum. They have a post about roses on there. I am sure they'd appreciate your Professors advice as much as I have. None of us want to lose our roses.
Thanks again.
Oh what a difference 3 zones make! It's lovely Donna (but I don't think I'd have the heart to strip one that's blooming it's heart out just yet). ;)
Thanks for the info on Roses..... I planted 5 Roses again this year...Hopefully pulling the leaves off this year plants will help me keep them....
Anna
