Garden Examination Pt I

[greenstorm]

Okay. side note: lavender's blooming, Crimson King Clematis has buds, baby's breath is about to bloom.

So, the roses so far:

The soil around Cecile Bruenner is just fine. It's damp, it has roots at least in the top inch or two.

Now for the problems: there are a lot of buff-coloured dead leaves that show no sign of blackspot. They just crunch off as if it were fall or something. Minimal inspection of the canes shows nothing amiss there. There is some blackspot.

Worse, one of the major flower candles (cecile bears lots of little roses on a branching stalk which I call here a candle) has a very wilted, pure green leaf on it even now in the cool morning. I'll keep an eye on that leaf and see if it comes back.

Brother Cadfael has some pretty bad blackspot and some defoliation which really surprises me -- it may not be blackspot after all. Blackspot's supposed to need seven hours of moisture on the leaves to infect and I really don't think it's had that in the last few days -- no rain, and when I watered it was warm enough.

If it weren't for that wilted leaf I might try subscribing to the 'water in intense sunlight works like a magnifying glass and burns the leaf' thing, and the traces of damage on Buttercup's leaves do look like they'd be consistent with water. That doesn't explain the wilted perfectly green leaves on Cecile, though. It -could- be fertiliser damage, too much fertiliser in the water drying on the leaves, but... last watering was water-only, no fertiliser, and so I should have noticed it then.

It may be root-bake given how damp the soil is, whereby the deck surface heats up in the sun and kills the lower roots that are resting on it. Then the plant can't uptake enough water, sheds leaves, and the water in the pot isn't useful because there are no roots to take it up. It could be root-rot and I'm overwatering.

Why, though, would buttercup have that odd pattern on its lost leaves?

On the whole I think it's probably baked roots. Cecile got it worst and Cecile didn't have any other pots shading his pot. I need to see what I can do to shade them and group them helpfully for this. If defoliation continues beyond what's consistent with some root loss (from wilt) and if stuff doesn't start looking better over this cool period I'll worry. As is I think I'll do some pruning, take some of this enormous burden of flowers off Cecile, cut Cadfael back, and see what happens.

Heritage, incidentally, is loomingbeautifully with her trademark perfect delicate shell-like blooms. She'll be the perfect match beside Buttercup when I can get them both going at the same time. Smells unbelievable. Everyone needs a Heritage as well as a Reine and an Abe Darby.

Abe Darby showed up on a whole bunch of 'most scented rose' lists over at gardenweb.

I still need something with the Mary Rose scent, though. Ambridge...

But on to pruning, breakfast, and dishes. I may even get some RP in -- I've been doing that lately and it's kind of nice. I did miss it.

And oh, yeah: my sunflowers are up. So pppthbt! to you, Juggler! ;)

Comments

[spectral42.livejournal.com]

Maybe elevating the bottom of the pots from the floor would help? Some wood strips to lift them off the floor a half inch or so would give enough air space to keep the bottom of the pots at air temp. I've got a couple heatsinks from my last computer upgrade I could lend ya too :)

Hum, are we racing sunflowers??

[greenstorm.livejournal.com]

Yes, setting them on 2x4s or buying those little pot feet are also standard heat-aid solutions.

You're silly.

And no, I don't think we're racing them, but I'll be interested to see whose get bigger. It must be my male side.

Plant more radishes if you have the time, will you?