Getting a good re-bloom from hybrid tea roses

Double Delight at the Monterey Bay Rose Society Display Garden

With the first flush of roses nearly over, it's time to do something about getting good blooms for the rest of the season.

Although there are many different varieties and species of roses, most people want their hybrid teas to produce flowers throughout the summer and fall. By their nature, all hybrid tea roses are repeat bloomers. It's in their genes and it isn't hard to get them to flower.

Remember, however, that some hybrid teas also have generosity of bloom in their genetic make-up and others are stingier.

Gemini with a side bud that should be removed

1. Water your roses regularly. No growth can happen without water.

2. Feed your roses a little something every other week during the season. I alternate organic and chemical, always making sure that the roses are hydrated well before I add the fertilizer.

3. Include organic fertilizers and amendments every month. This is especially important if your water comes from wells. During its percolation from rainwater to groundwater its pH level has likely become slightly to significantly alkaline. Organic material in the soil will counteract the alkalinity and allow your rose to absorb more nutrients. Roses love slightly acidic soil at 6.5 pH.

4. Dead-head your hybrid teas as soon as the flowers start to drop petals. That means cut the stem to an outward facing bud eye. Do not allow the rose to develop hips. In many cases, by the time the rose bloom drops petals, the rose has already started to send some growth nutrients to a lower bud eye. Look for a place where a new cane has already started to develop.

5. With the added nutrients, many varieties of hybrid tea produce side buds accompanying each larger bud at the top of a cane. To keep blooms at their best and to increase the blooming cycle, it's important to pull off the side buds early. It seems counter-intuitive but it actually does give you many more perfectly formed flowers. The side buds often cause the terminal bud to be lopsided and the side buds are never as beautiful or as large as the main one. Waiting for the lesser blooms to open just steals time from the plant producing first-class flowers.

With the above five steps followed, the duration from attractive bud to a fully opened rose dropping petals averages around ten days depending on outside temperature, sunshine and variety. Then, in another five to six weeks, you'll have more flowers on that part of the bush. The older and larger the hybrid tea, the more likely it will always been in bloom during the growing period.

Plants in the Truskot Garden

West Side of Back Yard

Open Garden: Visitors Welcome
Sunday, May 27, Noon to 5 p.m.
350 Chaparral Street, Salinas

Westerland, a Kordes climbing floribunda

List of Roses

Rose Variety	Rose Class	Year	Location
Alba Semi-plena	Alba	1867	Back-Fence
American Honor	Hybrid Tea	1993	Back-House
Apricot Twist	Miniature	1993	Back-Center
Baronne Prevost	Hybrid Perpetual	1842	Front-Yard
Black Prince	Hybrid Perpetual	1866	Back-West
Blue Girl	Hybrid Tea	1964	Pot
Blush Damask	Damask	1000	Walk-Side
Bubble Bath	Hybrid Musk	1980	Back-Fence
Cecile Brunner, Cl	Polyantha	1894	Back-Shed
Charles de Mills	Gallica	1840	Back-Fence
Chic-a-dee	Miniature	1990	Back-Center
Children's Hope	Miniature	2016	Pot
China Doll	Polyantha	1946	Back-Fence
Chrysler Imperial	Hybrid Tea	1952	Pot
Crepuscule	Noisette	1904	Walk-Side
Dublin Bay	Large Flowered Climber	1975	Back-West
Ellen Wilmott	Hybrid Tea	1936	Back-West
Escapade	Floribunda	1967	Front-Walk
Gemini	hybrid tea	1999	Pot
Gizmo	Miniature	1998	Back-Center
Gloire des Rosomanes	China	1825	Back-West
Handel	Large Flowered Climber	1960	Back-Fence
Henri Martin	Moss	1863	Back-Fence
Iceberg	Floribunda	1958	Pot
Irresistable	Miniature	1990	Back-Fence
Isfahan	Damask	1832	Back-Shed
Jeanne d'Arc	Noisette	1848	Far-Side
Joseph's Coat	Large Flowered Climber	1969	Walk-Side
Kathleen Ferrier	Floribunda	1952	Front-Yard
Lavender Lassie	Hybrid Musk	1960	Front-Yard
Little Artist	Miniature	1982	Front-Yard
Madame Alfred Carriere	Noisette	1879	Back-House
Margaret Merrill	Floribunda	1977	Pot
Maria Callas	Hybrid Tea	1968	Back-West
Marie Pavié	Polyantha	1888	Far-Side
Matangi	Floribunda	1978	Back-West
Mme. Legras de St. Germain	Alba	1846	Back-West
Natchez	Miniature	1994	Back-House
Nur Mahal	Hybrid Musk	1923	Walk-Side
Oldtimer	Hybrid Tea	1969	Back-Center
Peace	Hybrid Tea	1935	Pot
Perle d'Or	Polyantha	1884	Back-Center
Phyllis Bide	Polyantha	1924	Back-Shed
Picasso	Floribunda	1971	Back-West
Popcorn	Miniature	1973	Back-Fence
Portland from Glendora	Portland	1882	Back-West
Radiant Perfume	Grandiflora	2002	Pot
Rosa californica	Species	1878	Back-Shed
Rosa woodsii	Species	0	Pot
Rosa woodsii fendleri	Species	1888	Back-Fence
Russelliana	Hybrid Multiflora	1824	Walk-Side
Sacred Heart	Hybrid Tea	2002	pot
Sally Holmes	Hybrid Musk	1976	Front-Yard
Secret	Hybrid Tea	1992	Back-West
Sombreuil	Tea	1880	Back-Center
Stanwell Perpetual	Hybrid Pimpinellifolia	1838	Back-West
Tahitian Sunset	Hybrid Tea	2006	Back-House
The Dark Lady	Austin	1991	Pot
Therese Bugnet	Hybrid Rugosa	1950	Far-Side
Tiffany	Hybrid Tea	1954	Far-Side
Tootie	Miniature	2003	Pot
Zigeunerknabe	Bourbon	1909	Walk-Side

Agave victoriae-reginae

Partial List of Succulents and Other Plants

Adromischus cristatus 'Key Lime Pie'

Adromischus marianae

Aeonium 'Kiwi'

Agave attenuata

Agave guiengola 'Crème Brulee'

Agave parryi

Agave pendunculifera

Agave victoriae-reginae

Aloe aristata

Aloe iriorum

Aloe labworava

Aloe 'pink blush'

Aloe wanalensis

Artemisia absinthum 'Powis Castle'

Astrophytum myriostigma 'Bishop's Cap'

Astrophytum ornatum

Beaucarnea recuvata

Billbergia nutens 'Queen's Tears'

Crassula ovata 'Jade Plant'

Cycad revoluta 'Sago Palm

Echeveria agavoides

Echeveria 'Blue Prince'

Echeveria 'Dolores Taylor'

Echeveria elegans

Echeveria imbricata

Echeveria nodulosa

Echeveria 'violet queen'

Echinocactus grusonli

Echinopsis chamaecereus

Echinopsis subdenudatum

Ferrocactus latispinus 'Devil's Tongue'

Gasteria 'Ox Tongue'

Hydrangea macrophyla 'Lace Cap'

Hydrangea macrophyla 'Lace Cap'

Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi

Kalanchoe luciae

Kalanchoe pumila 'Frosty Pink'

Laurus nobilis

Pachypodium succulentum x. bispinosum

Portulaca 'Elephant Bush'

Sedum spectabile

Sempervivens

Sempervivens arachnoideum

Trachycarpus fortunei 'Windmill Palm'

Velthemia bracteata

Viburnum davidii

Epiphytic cactus

Open Garden, 350 Chaparral Street, Salinas

Ellen Willmott, hybrid tea, 1935

Visit my garden on Sunday, May 27, noon to 5 p.m. Gardening public welcome. All parking is on the street. Enter the back yard through the side gate.

I haven't opened my garden for viewing in 7 years and hope that this opportunity will bring many visitors. Several of the roses have been in the garden since 1993 and are showing at their very best this season.

It's an eclectic selection which includes hybrid teas, floribundas, miniatures, shrubs and climbers. I have a good sampling of damask, alba, hybrid perpetuals, polyanthas, species and noisettes as well. I also have an array of succulents and other garden plants which should be of interest.

Baronne Prévost, hybrid perpetual, 1841 -Winner, Best Old Garden Rose at the 2018 Monterey Bay Rose Society show.

The rose pictured above was one of a dozen roses clusters that bush produced. The fragrance is awesome.

Annual Rose Show is this Saturday

Judges from Central California review all the blooms at a Rose Show

Join rose lovers from around the Monterey Bay at Alladin's Nursery and Gift Shop 12 to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 5, for the 2018 Monterey Bay Rose Society's Annual Rose Show. The show features some of the best flowers grown by experienced professionals and passionate novices. Samples of the many forms of America's National Flower will be on display to delight the senses - except maybe touch. Watch out for the thorns.

Perfect Moment, a past Queen of Show

Got a rose you'd like identified? Bring a sample to the show and one of the consulting rosarians will do his or her best in telling you what it is.

In addition to the roses, Alladin's offers music, wine tasting, and delicious food from the grill.

Dazzling display of rose sprays

 Alladin's Nursery is one of the oldest, independently owned and operated garden centers along the Central Coast with hundreds of plants and garden items for sale. It's approaching its 100th birthday and is located at 2905 Freedom Blvd, Watsonville.

Exotic and unusual flowers are always on display

Exit Highway One on Green Valley Road. Drive to Freedom Blvd and turn left. Continue to Alladin's Nursery. Got questions? Call them at 831-724-7517.

More photos from past rose shows:

Northern California Nevada Hawaii judeges: Linda Burk, Jolene Adams, Barbara Gordon and clerk Karl Dosht

Much more information on the Monterey Bay Rose Society home page.

The Payoff of Pruning

Madame Alfred Carrière, noisette, 1875

Madame Alfred Carrière was planted in my garden in the spring of 1993 - one of the first and most steadfast of all my roses. She was purchased from Roses of Yesterday and Today in Corralitos while Pat Wiley was running the business. Many of the others on that first large purchase have long since departed, either by death or extraction.

Madame Alfred was named for the wife of the chief editor of Revue horticole - a 19th century French horticultural magazine. She loves her location on a south facing corner of my house and has continued to bloom steadily all season long - in spite of the mosaic virus it contracted from infected rootstock. New canes arrive every year.

Past recent pruning attempts were committed in a frenzy after large pieces of it were torn from its moorings and flung it into the yard by wicked winter winds. She hadn't been methodically guided and supported properly in years. This season, however, she got the attention she needed and the results are stunning. She will continue to grow and bloom also season.

Madame Alfred Carrière, January 31, 2018, morning

Madame Alfred Carrière, January 31, late afternoon

Madame Alfred Carrière, April 28

At the base of this climber is a shallow ditch which actually carries rain water from the back yard out under the fence to the front yard and eventually down a storm drain. The rose's roots reach out under the soil in all directions. It was given two fists full of alfalfa pellets in February and fertilizer in March and early April. Here's the result on April 28, 2018.

All roses benefit from some pruning. If you hadn't done any this year, you still can cut down on disease and encourage blooms by thinning out your bush and allowing the best canes to develop.

Read more about Madame Alfred Carrière:  Older Post

Look out for Downy Mildew

Downy Mildew on the hybrid tea Sacred Heart, April 2018

Danger. Danger. Danger. Downy Mildew is a disease of many plants particularly vining ones like grapes, cucumbers, melons, and squash but it also will affect ornamental plants including roses.

The weather in Salinas has been particularly unusual in 2018. The rains did not start in earnest until March. By then, most gardens had been pruned weeks before and leaves were already out. When the rains began, temperatures dropped and the leaves were often wet for long periods of time. With ever increasing sunshine and continued low temperatures, the ideal conditions for downy mildew were in place.

One of my new roses, a hybrid tea named Sacred Heart, came from a local nursery. It was in the reduced-for-quick-//sale section of the parking lot and had been at the nursery in all likelihood for at least 12 months. That's usually a plus as such roses are eager to have a new pot and fresh soil and respond well when they get them.

Like all other new plants in my garden Sacred Heart was potted up, pruned a bit with all old leaves removed. I hadn't sprayed the pruned canes with a chlorine solution or hydrogen peroxide but trusted things would be fine. Apparently, it brought many spores of downy mildew with it.

Just last week, I noticed mysterious blotches on its new leaves. I've had plenty of experience with the three common fungal diseases in roses: black spot, rust, and powdery mildew. But these blotches were different.

My first diagnosis was sunburn. It can happen to leaves and canes which have been growing in the shade (very cloudy weather even) and suddenly the April sunshine beams down. Reason prevailed. Why did Sacred Heart get sunburned when the other new roses around it did not?

I reached out to fellow rosarians for help and the answer came in: downy mildew.

All agreed the weather this season has been unusual. Winter came late and wet and often days went by when the rose leaves never completely dried off and the temperatures were often highs around 60 degrees and lows in the 40s.

Other reported effects on roses were short stems on the hybrid teas, many blind shoots (new canes with no buds at the top), and "high rose tide" delays by at least two weeks.

Downy mildew on a hybrid musk showing its stoppage at a vein

Details on Downy Mildew

Unlike the true fungal diseases mentioned above, downy mildew is caused by an organism more closely related to algae. Therefore, fungal sprays won't have any affect on curtailing it. The disease isn't all that common along the Central Coast because we usually dry out by the time leaves are in profusion.

Its spores are airborne and usually associated with poor sanitation and lots of water. It's an algae so think wet: wet infected leaves, stems and soil.

Also different from the fungal diseases, downy mildew is a pathogen. If left untreated, it will kill the plant. It is parasitic.

Jolene Adams, former president of the American Rose Society and a resident of the East Bay, responded with the following comments:

"One of the "defining" characteristics of Downy is that it does not cross the leaf veins.  So - in your photo you can see the blotches of the mildew stop at a vein and start on the other side.

People do get it confused with BS because it is often on the same leaf at the same time.  And its blotches can be oval or circular - but they still do not go into a vein.

Baldo (Villegas, an environmental research scientist for California’s Food and Agriculture Department and a noted expert of plant pests and diseases) taught us - long, long ago - to turn the leaf over, pinch it closed so the mid-vein stands up and then look closely at the blotch close to it with a 10x or better lens.  You'll just barely be able to see tiny fuzzy growth rising from the leaf surface.

My eyes are so bad now I don't bother anymore. I just de-leaf."

The best control involves isolating the plant immediately if it's in a pot. If that's not possible, pull off all infected leaves and spray what's left with a mild solution of a tablespoon of bleach to a quart of water. If you halt its progress (and the weather warms up again), you will most likely get it under control. As a further safeguard, remember to remove all leaf matter at next season's garden clean up.

Safest way to control downy mildew. Water well and leaves will reappear.

Celebrate Earth Day in your own yard

Gabilan Mountains Slender Salamander (Batrachoseps gavilanensis) in Salinas, California

Ever since I began gardening in Salinas in 1993, I've come across a tiny, worm-like salamander sharing the yard with me. My first encounters, sadly, had to do with mistakenly cutting the poor creature in half with my trowel. Its tail twitched and writhed in rapid convulsions and startled me awake from my routine digging and weeding. It captured my entire attention. I've since learned that that display was one of the slender salamander's primary defense mechanisms.

While I watched its very long tail flop about on the soil, its body scurried away to hide and find a safe place to grow another one.

Working in my front yard recently, I lifted a brick and discovered a slender salamander. It laid perfectly still, its color not dissimilar to Salinas adobe soil. That was another defense mechanism.

Two days before, I'd assembled a terrarium in a fishbowl with dark green ground moss, dried bark-covered rose canes replete with bright green moss, and attractive rocks. I captured the salamander, carried him over to the terrarium and placed him inside. He (or she) immediately disappeared beneath a few rocks and into the moist soil.

This encounter set me on a path of discovery. I needed to know more about California slender salamanders.

In 2001, scientists (Jockusch, Yanev and Wake) did an extensive survey of these long, thin amphibians identifying differences great enough for them to determine several unique species inhabiting California. They include the Gabilan Mountains Slender Salamander (Batrachoseps gavilanensis), the Santa Lucia Slender Salamander (Batrachoseps luciae), and the most widespread - California Slender Salamander (Batrachoseps attenuatus).

Gabilan Mountains Slender Salamanders range begins in southern Santa Cruz County includes the Salinas Valley and San Benito County down to northern San Luis Obispo including the eastern side of the Santa Lucia Mountains. The Santa Lucia Mountains Slender Salamander's range includes the western side of the Santa Lucia Mountains out to the Pacific Ocean and down the coast to San Luis Obispo County. There are places where the two species share ranges. The California Slender Salamander inhabits most of northern California from Santa Cruz County north.

Members of the genus Batrachoceps have several distinguishing characteristics:

• they breathe through their skin and through cells in their mouths and have no lungs
• they are terrestrial and do not need water to mature in but need moisture to be active
• they lay 10-19 eggs in clutches which hatch as live juveniles ready to live on their own
• they eat insects, insect larvae, spiders, mites, small slugs, sowbugs
• they are active when nights are warm and the ground is wet
• they estivate which is similar to hibernate, but occurs during dry periods. However, if the ground is kept moist such as in Salinas gardens. They stay awake the entire year.
• they have four toes on their front and back legs where most other salamanders have five
• they use holes and underground passages made by worms or other animals 
• they are eaten by moles, raccoons, skunks, and oppossums
• they can live for 12 years.

Slender salamanders are not considered endangered but their habitat is challenged by use of pesticides on lawns and in gardens, by the shrinking size of home gardens, and by the increased amount of paved surfaces.

You can establish them in your garden by providing a few flat boards, bricks and smooth rocks lying on the soil throughout your garden.

In fact, every true garden should have a dark, moist corner with a few rotting logs on the surface to encourage some diversity of life.