My rose bush is a start from one my great grandmother brought from Italy in 1911! We don't know what kind it is. While living in Ohio it thrived & bloomed every summer. I cut it back in the winter. I've been in Florida for 2 years. Plant is growing but not blooming. I have not cut it back. We are having extreme hot, dry weather & plant is starting to drop leaves. I'm watering it every day. Any ideas/suggestions?

If your rose is a once-blooming rose, the proper time to prune is after it has bloomed. Old garden once-blooming roses bloom on old wood. Think forsythia which is pruned after it has bloomed.

If you prune a once-bloomer in spring as is the normal time for modern repeat-blooming roses, you will have pruned off all of the old wood and have no bloom this season.

MissAnnette said: My rose bush is a start from one my great grandmother brought from Italy in 1911! We don't know what kind it is. While living in Ohio it thrived & bloomed every summer. I cut it back in the winter. I've been in Florida for 2 years. Plant is growing but not blooming. I have not cut it back. We are having extreme hot, dry weather & plant is starting to drop leaves. I'm watering it every day. Any ideas/suggestions?

Hello Miss Annette, and welcome to the forum. I wanted to clarify what you wrote. Do you mean that when living in Ohio you used to cut the rose back in the winter, but since moving to Florida two years ago you have not cut it back? Or do you mean that you cut the rose back this past winter but not since then?

Mine, I haven't cut it back since moving here. We cut it back before moving it. Haven't cut it back after planting it here in Florida.

OK, I understand now.

So, the problem may not be pruning, but nematodes. The soil in Florida is known for nematodes, and the roots on your rose may not be very compatible. Nematodes can attack a rose's root system and destroy it. This is why many roses that perform well in Florida are those that have been grafted onto nematode-resistant Fortuniana rootstock, rather than growing on their "own" roots as yours is. There is a specialty nursery, K and M Nursery, that provides custom grafting services using Fortuniana root stock. It might be that you can send them a cutting and they could graft it for you. There are others on the forum who know more about this than I do, since I'm located in the northeast and use a different root stock for grafted roses. Hopefully they'll weigh in here shortly.

Here's a link to K and M's website. Use the three-line menu bar in the top right corner of the home page to navigate the site (the links at the bottom of the home page don't work right now).

https://www.kandmroses.com/

By the way, it's wonderful that you have this rose that has come all the way from Italy and down through the generations of your family.

Other than nematodes, it's possible that your rose needs to have chill hours to help it go dormant. I know that some gardeners growing damask or alba roses in southern climates often put ice under the canopy of the rose to provide the chill hours the roses require.

I have never grown roses in these classes as they do not perform well in my climate.

I would be the wrong person to tell you about how much ice or for how long it should be applied to provide those chill hours.