Hi Andi ...
I've read your posts about moving and was awed by your determination ...
>>>I love getting rose care advice from other rose growers. I almost gave up growing roses after a couple of winters of dead sticks until I happened upon an own root Austin Wildeve and found the internet rose groups. This was before ATP, but with many of the same people on this board.
The reason I joined ATP was to learn about other plants besides roses because I don't want to have a mono garden. I've been obsessed about roses for a couple decades, but I truly need to expand my horizons. ATP has been a wonderful resource.
>>>I would love to know your recommendations of roses that are cane hardy to zone 5.
If you could send me a t-mail telling me what kind of roses you like, I can narrow down the list ... it's a long one
>>>This is the first time that I heard the advice of topdressing the rose instead of amending the planting hole with compost or manure. By the time I manage to dig a hole large enough to plant a rose, I end up removing so many rocks that I have to add something to refill the hole.
Ralph Moore would often tell me to look at what nature does when planting my roses. He said "God doesn't put junk in the soil for a new plant." Of course that is a generalization because amending soil can help many plants. It's just that the botany of a rose is such that having all of that stuff deep in the hole is useless for a rose. It may be beneficial for other plants that have a different kind of root system.
My primary gardening area is incredibly rocky. When I started this garden, I could not dig a hole with a shovel and a pick was useful only part way down. I don't know if you are removing large rocks or just a lot of small stones tightly compressed together. Mine is the latter. I've learned the hard way, that if I put compost into the planting hole, when it decomposes, the plant sinks because the decomposed particles are smaller than the rocky soil around the planting hole.
If I were to prepare a whole bed at one time, it would not be so noticeable. My back fill consists of native soil and a lot of the smaller rocks that I dug up plus either cinder rock or lava rock.
The reason I use the cinder/lava rocks is that they are more porous and as the compost/manure/mulch decomposes the nutrients, generally in the form of humic acids, can attach to the rough edges of the cinder/lava rock better than other kinds of stones. The nutrients are then more available to the rose.
I don't know if your native soil is clay, but if it is, the use of compost to amend the clay soil is only a temporary fix, but you will find that most sites recommend amending clay soil with compost to improve the soil. It may add nutrients for a while, but once the compost decomposes, you are back to clay soil. Using small rocks along with the native soil is a more permanent fix. The use of the rocks also allows more oxygen to get into the soil, which is required by both the soil bacteria and worms to do their part of improving your soil.
You can add compost to the top part of the planting hole, but be sure to mound it up, if you are not preparing a whole bed because it will decompose and the plant will sink. The feeder roots of a rose are located in that area, so the plant will benefit.
Not planting a rose in a hole that fails the perk test is very wise.
>>>>My grandmother used to put a fish head in the hole with any new plant.
There's nothing wrong with that for some plants, but it is a waste of a fish head for a rose ...
since their feeder roots are located near the top of the soil.
btw ... I have a no-till garden because I have so much rock in my soil. I've been mulching this garden with shredded oak leaves with small wood chips on top so that the leaves stay put for ten years. This year I planted bulbs using a hand trowel. Rocky soil doesn't stay rocky.
I hope this helps.
Smiles,
Lyn