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There was a period in my life when I was willing
to put forth any amount of effort to raise good roses. In recent
years my thoughts have turned to how can I spend a minimal amount of time
in the garden and still grow good roses. I don’t mind planning and
executing projects such as preparing beds, installing watering systems,
and selecting the best varieties for my small garden. What I don’t
like to do is spend time on repetitive tasks like spraying, fertilizing,
dead heading, watering, weeding, etc. The quest for an easier way
to grow high quality roses has caused me to progress through six different
methods of growing minis.
First I grew minis on their own roots in the
ground in the same manner as all other rosarians did at that time.
The second phase was to grow minis on their own roots in very high raised
beds. To my knowledge I was one of the first to do this in colder
climates such as we had in Illinois. The minis loved it and I enjoyed
them much more when they were at a height where I could see the blooms
closely without breaking my back. It made taking care of them much
easier.
I entered my third phase after moving to Florida.
I started growing my minis on their own roots in 7 1/2 gallon pots in soil less
mixes (Fafard #2 & #3B). The pots were buried in the ground.
The bushes grew more vigorously in these mixes than in anything else I
had ever tried, and if I wanted to give a plant away it was really easy
to pick up the pot and hand it to them. However, there were a few
drawbacks. The plants grew so well and threw up so many new shoots
that it made it difficult to water the pots except by hand. It was
particularly difficult for an automatic system to wet the entire surface
of the pot, which was something I desired. The dense mass of shoots
also made spraying for disease and controlling spider mites more difficult.
Therefore, my next phase was to solve this problem
by grafting my minis onto Fortuniana rootstock. I made the grafts
about 10 inches above the ground level. This really helped.
By eliminating all the stalks at ground level, except the one for the rootstock,
a Dramn watering system once again worked fine. There was not as
great a potential for blackspot as before since all the foliage was well
above any splash zone. Reaching underneath the foliage to spray and
water wand was a snap. The stem length is probably twice as long as when
grown on own roots. Foliage size is normal. Bloom size is related
to how much one fertilizes. I am having to learn that my minis don’t
need to eat every time that I eat.
But I had a new problem to solve. What
is the best way to grow minis on Fortuniana? This led to phase four
and five. The literature says that most of the Fortuniana roots are
in the top 10” of soil and that they are very long. Some have recorded
lengths of 16 ft. It seemed unlikely that they would be happy in
a pot but one can never be sure. I ran a test to find out.
Whenever I grafted a variety I always made two. One of these I planted
in a carefully prepared bed of sand, manure and all the other goodies.
The other one went to my good friends Bob and Angie Heatwole to be grown
in 10 gallon pots containing my favorite soilless mix (Fafard #3B).
I have discovered several things as a result
of these tests. The roses in pots in the soilless mix jumped off
to an early start. They quickly outgrew the ones grown in the ground just
as they had done previously when the minis were on their own roots.
Roses grown in Central Florida never really stop growing. They just
slow down during January and February. Would the roots quickly fill
the pot and choke off growth while the ones in the ground took off like
gangbusters? No, it didn’t happen that way. However, the ones in
the ground did, after a much slower start, also began to turn in a very
good performance. But they exhibit more variability in their growth
than those grown in pots with a soilless mix. I would say at this
time about 1/3 of the in ground bushes are larger and about 2/3 of them
are smaller than those grown in the pots. Those in the pots are much
more uniform in size.
I would rate the performance of those grown
in the ground soils as very good and those grown in pots with the soil less
mixes as excellent. Analyzing all this data lead me to my present
phase #6. In this method I am trying to obtain almost all the advantages
of both the in ground and the soil less mix in a pot method. Basically,
I reasoned that it was not the pot itself that made the minis grow so well
but that it was the soil less mix within the pot. Since I put the
pot in the ground anyway to maintain a better temperature for the root
ball, why not just dig a hole in the prepared bed the size of the pot and
fill it with the soil less mix that the roses seemed to love. It would
be easier to water the surface of the bed than it would be to water inside
a pot and I shouldn’t have to worry about the minis getting root bound.
I could make the “pot” large enough that I could grow a large bush even
if the roots did not grow outside the “pot”. On the other hand, if
an adventurous root wanted to leave the soil less mix and venture out into
the prepared bed, there would be no pot wall there to stop it. This
method would also give me the freedom to not only decide the volume of
the “pot” but the shape of it as well.
The 10-gallon size seemed to be working great
for minis so I decided to stay with that volume. However, if most
of the Fortuniana roots want to stay in the top 10 to 12 inches of soil
it would appear to be a more efficient use of the volume if I designed
my “pot” to be only 11 inches deep but with a larger diameter than it would
have if I used the dimensions of a regular 10 gallon pot. The diameter
I am using for the minis is 17 inches.
I use the following procedure. I take
a bamboo stick and loop one end of a piece of twist-tie around it and loop
the other end of the twist-tie around a pencil 81/2 inches away.
I stick the bamboo stake in the ground where the center of the bush will
be and scribe a 17” dia. circle in the dirt with the pencil. My standard
garden shovel blade is 11 inches tall, so I don’t have to measure the depth
of the hole. Just dig it out to the full depth of the shovel.
I pour the Fafard #3B soilless mix into 5 gallon buckets, which are then
filled with water. I want to make sure the sphagnum peat moss in
the mix is completely soaked before it goes in the hole so it will not
try to pull moisture from the roots. I only put a thin layer of mix
in the bottom of the hole since the 2 or 3-gallon pots that I am transplanting
from are almost as tall as the hole. I mix 1/2 cup of superphosphate
uniformly throughout this bottom layer. I then make a little pocket
just at the edge of where the 3-gallon plant will sit and fill it with
another 1/2 cup of superphosphate without mixing. Then I spread a
thin layer of Milorganite over the entire surface and set the root ball
directly on it. Wet mix is added around the root ball to within 1/2
inch of the ground level. 1/2 cup of Osmocote is uniformly spread
across the surface and covered with another 1/2 inch of wet mix.
Water well a couple of times to settle everything in and add mulch.
The early results are outstanding. Do I think
there is a still better way? Absolutely! There is always a
better way, otherwise I wouldn’t be on my sixth improved version.
If you know of a better way, or have a suggestion on how to improve this
method, please share it with me. Write, telephone or if you want
to do it by E-mail contact me at
BAKEinFL@tampabay.rr.com. BAKEinFL is in
recognition of the fact that Lakeland has the unfortunate distinction of
being the hottest city in peninsular Florida.
Incidentally, this method works so well that
I now use it for all new plantings of my large roses. The size of
my large rose “pot” is 11 inches deep and 24 inches in diameter and I use
one cup of Osmocote. The results look equally great with the big
roses.
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