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Bill Raimond
 
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10 MAR 08
Public
Its a warm and sunny day in the Rose Garden. The temperature is a balmy 72 degrees F.

Its way past our weeding and pruning time and as you all know, weeding can be quite a chore, yeah, and as far as I'm concerned, its right up there with the pruning of those pesky climbers. But to be honest about it all, I really haven't weeded my beds in years--- Our beds are, for the most part, weed free, but, on the other hand, the lack of weeding is offset by the amount of pruning that we do. I can tell you right now that pruning and retying those pesky climbers is the pits, especially when the wind is blowing, as it usually is here in Okla.... and I know you have heard the song "Oklahoma", and the lyrics "where the wind comes right behind rain" and you know what, there right!!! When I'm through pruning my climbers I feel like I've been hog tied in barb wire. Nuf said.

This RRD business has really upset me, my roses are just like my children... I don't want anything to happen to them!!! Now for a real sad story, we found two more roses that have also been infected with RRD... The two infected roses are 'Suma' ('Harsuma'), which is sport out of 'Nozomi' (I've heard otherwise-- it could also have been a seedling out of 'Nozomi') and its an excellent ground cover; then theres 'White cap' an HTCL (Some call it a Floribunda-- I don't care what they call it, its a great rose) that is very beautiful that repeats remarkably well, and is very hardy to boot. 'White cap' is one of those great Brownell roses.
25 FEB 08
Public
Its a windy and cold day in the Rose Garden. The temperature is a sunney 42 degrees with winds in excess of 22 mph and the soil temperature is holding at 36 degrees F.

I'm very upset at this point in time--- it looks like I've lost 27 different rose varieties due to RRD (Rose Rosette Disease) since last Fall (Sept 07 - Feb 08). I was told many years ago that it only attacks 'R multiflora-- HA! thats a joke. I could list all of the rose varieties that I have grown in my garden that have succumbed to this insidious disease, but I doubt that it would be of help since it attacks much more than 'R. multiflora' or for that matter any of the R. multiflora Hybrids. Over that last four years I've noticed that the wild roses that are growing in our area have become infected with what looks like RRD and are in varying stages of dieing. It also appears (as I'm told) that the vector of RRD is a garden mite called Phyllocoptes fructiphilus. Phyllocoptes fructiphilus is a microscopic, wingless mite, which is frequently found on roses and travels from rose to rose by air currents (blown by the wind). When an infected mite lands on a rose bush and starts to feed it infects the rose bush with the pathogen RRD. I'm no expert on RRD, I only know what I've been told or what I've read in past issues of American Rose, however, I understand that Ann Peck, a Consulting Rosarian, is an expert, and that she has written a book/paper on this subject that is available on her website; if I can find the site I'll include the website address in my next Journal entry.
28 JAN 08
Public
Its still a cold and windy day in the Rose Garden (28 F winds 21 mph with gusts up to 45 mph, soil temp 32 F). Lost some more trees due to Ice build-up and high winds and in one case the top of a tree broke free and flattened one of our roses ("Georgetown HP"). The rose was not planted under the tree;it was a good 150 feet away. What was left of the Rose ("Georgetown HP") has been pruned back to about 3 to 4 inches; lets hope she comes back from the roots this spring.

Our Rugosas are all covered with large bud eyes awaiting spring, one exception--- 'Belle Poitevine' (BP) whose bud eyes have all frozen off, or at best, nothing but frozen dried out stubs. The canes of BP are, however, still quite healthy as are all of our Rugosas. None of our Rugosas suffered wind or ice damage,
21 JAN 08
Public
Its a very cold and windy day in the Rose Garden (28 F degrees, winds out of the North at 10 mph). Since my last entry (December 30, 07) its been very cold. Temps at night have been in the mid-teens and during the day the temps have been in the low 30's to the mid-20s. Most of our roses, with the exception of our Old European Roses, e.g., Gallicas, Centifolias, Damasks, and Mosses, seem to have weathered the storms quite well (3 Ice Storms). The Portlands, Rugosas and a number of hardy shrub roses have also stood up to our weather as well. We did have one surprise or should I say two, Clotilde Soupert, Climbing and its bush form, Clotilde Soupert, both of these Polyanthas have also stood up against the freezing temps, winds and ice.

As you can guess, we are preparing to rebuild our rose garden, once again, and, as if to add insult to injury, mother nature decided to let RRD attack our roses- Baron Girod de I'Ain and Madame d'Enfert have both succumbed to the disease.

Before the day is out I'm planning to order the following roses-- White Knight, Herbstfuer, Jazz Club and Moje Hammarberg.
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