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Getting Your Roses Ready for the Show! In
addition to the regular garden chores which we have already discussed in the
August "In the Garden"article, there are some other chores that you
will need to accomplish if you want to have roses for the district show on
September 29th. First,
you will have to prune your plants so they will be in full bloom when the show
date arrives. This takes some
knowledge of the different varieties that you grow as not all roses have the
same bloom cycle. Most exhibitors
prune standard size roses 50 to 40 days before the show date, depending upon how
long it typically takes a given variety to repeat bloom.
If you are not sure about repeat bloom, a good rule of thumb is that
varieties with lots of petals take longer to repeat bloom than those with fewer
petals. An example would be Uncle
Joe, which has lots of petals, a full 50 days to repeat bloom, while Marijke
Koopman, a variety with fewer petals, will bloom in about 42 days.
We will start pruning for the show around August 10 and complete our
pruning by August 19th. Fall
pruning is much less severe than the spring pruning.
It involves removing the weak and spindly growth that is not capable of
producing good sized canes. We
recommend you do this to all of your roses.
For the varieties that you are considering entering in the show, you will
also want to cut back about a third of the bush, assuming the plant is strong
and growing well. If you have
multiple plants of the same varieties, you should not prune them all the same
time. For instance, if you have 3
plants of Uncle Joe, you should prune 1 plant about 52 days before the show
date. Prune another plant 2 or 3
days later. Complete your pruning of
Uncle Joe by pruning the third plant about 2-3 days after the second.
This is typically referred to by exhibitors as stagger pruning.
If you only have one plant of Uncle Joe, you can still “stagger
prune” by pruning a third of the plant one day, wait a couple of days and
prune another third of the plant, wait a couple of more days and prune the final
third of the plant. Our
fertilizer program will also be altered for the show.
Around the first and again around the middle of August we will apply a
high nitrogen liquid fertilizer. We’ll
switch to the “bloom booster” type liquid fertilizers in September which
contain a high middle number and very little nitrogen. Remember
that if you don’t maintain your spray program to prevent blackspot and
disease, you will not have good roses for the show.
Also, given the extremely hot weather we are experiencing, keep your
plants and yourself well watered. At
the August meeting of the Tri-State Rose Society of |