Margaret says:

July 13th, 2009 at 10:38 am

I have 7 or 8 different shrub roses. The one in the picture looks like a rugosa from the leaves. It should do fine with little care and you should be able to either leave it alone or prune it for looks for most of it’s life. For now, make sure it gets plenty of water. This fall, put some compost or rotted manure around the base and mulch it well. I did that the first couple of years and got very little die back. Latter years, not so much and got more but the whole bush is bigger so it wasn’t too bad overall.

Deb says:

July 13th, 2009 at 11:51 am

Frau Dagmar is fabulous and not at all frumpy like her name - lots and lots of blooms and a nice round shape. Yes, it is always good to add compost, fertilizer, and mulch, but she is so hardy that she’ll be fine without a lot of attention and you don’t need to cover her for the winter. Carefree Sunshine might be more tempermental. I’ve found yellow roses need a little more protection. Sven and Ole are great too although my Lena didn’t make it over the winter. I have Morden Centennial too - it is really beautiful - gets very tall for me with canes above 5′.

Kathie says:

July 13th, 2009 at 12:42 pm

question re: peonies: all the ants have disappeared therefore the peonies will not open — now what do I do?

questions re: irises: my irises are not blooming. planted last fall, the plants have beautiful green leaves, no flowers, now what do I do?

Judybusy says:

July 13th, 2009 at 2:07 pm

Kathie, we had a dry spring; I wonder if that’s why the peonies didn’t open. Aslo, ants have nothing to do with getting them to open–it’s just a myth!

Auntie K says:

July 13th, 2009 at 2:47 pm

Like Margaret, I have a lots of shrub and rugosa roses (a dozen or so, I think). The first year, I composted and covered with marsh hay. Everything came back the next year. I side/top dress with manure a couple times a summer. And, prune out the dead stuff as needed or the stems that are crowding others. (I am going to cover my Graham Thomas this year — not so much for the weather but as protection from the bunnies, who munched it down to the crown.) It did come back, but took a long time.

Al Reller says:

July 13th, 2009 at 9:07 pm

I have a plain old Hansa Rugosa which this year makes people come into the yard and sniff! Also it has really big hips. As for hardiness we had one in our yard when I was a child which my father would mow down, my mother would put a fence around the stubby remains and next summer it was bigger and better than ever!
I too have buried iris. I read some where to late for the iris I got from Anderson’s Iris farm in Wite Bear that you iris should float like a duck on a lake. Good image and a good idea!

Al Reller says:

July 15th, 2009 at 10:49 am

Thank you for identifying my plant last summer. A visitor came up the drive pointed at the blue flower, asked, “What’s that?” I handed them the printout from last year’s column and went back to weeding. Al Reller