Are roses still supposed to be blooming?
I’ve never had roses before, so this is a learning experience. After the big blooming experience of the summer, the occasional few flowers still pop up. This week it’s happening on three different plants.
For some reason there are dwarf irises which also decided this is a good time to bloom. In Spain we only had irises blooming in spring- so I have no idea if this is a special variety, or if they’re just happy to see me 🙂
It is however the right time for the white camellias to bloom, and they’re not disappointing. The trees are covered in buds and some just started to open this week.
We visited building II this morning and all is well. The bathroom tiling is nearly done. It looks fantastic. A good bathroom really transforms how a home feels.
We took the dogs to the little lake today. It’s perfect for them because there’s never anyone but us there. There’s a cute chateau nearby.
Now we’re resting in the green salon.
My Mazamet 
You’ve had very mild weather,haven’t you,so,yes,roses will carry on flowering sporadically until the chill sends the sap down to the roots.
Not important for now, but do you deadhead them regularly? Gives a longer flowering season.
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Lol. Two sabelotodos at the same time. I wondered about the deadheading too looking at the photo! 😀
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I haven’t deadheaded at all… but I will now!
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From memory, it’s usually time to start thinking about pruning back in Spain. It’s when my neighbours start to ask for cuttings. I’ve got mixed views about roses. I’d never choose them, but they are a beautiful flower. So, mild winter, yes, I would imagine so in France. I expect mine to be still in flower when I go back next week.
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Two of the garden walls are half covered in climbing roses. The intense pink of the first picture and then the lighter pink which is almost white. I haven’t done anything to them yet, hence the post. How much cutting back on climbing varieties? I know the regular variety is supposed to be cut 3/4ths down in fall. I’ve already done that.
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Over to Helen. I’m not up on climbers, would think the principle is the same. Prune dead heads throughout the season, and as the season ends, prune further back, it’s nowish when I prune fairly drastically. On my one remaining rose 😀 Don’t forget to get rid of suckers too, usually come up in spring or the growth season, bright green young shoots from the base that sap the strength from the bush/tree.
I leave mine flowering until they stop putting forth new buds, then prune back. I used to have a wild rose though, and didn’t prune her too heavily. GIYF.
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It’s a bit more complicated…..depending on the variety of rose,but take heart! Some learned body tested out taking a strimmer to their rose bushes and the next year’s results were as good as with the conventional method…
For climbers generally I used to tie in strong horizontal shoots, trim off the weaker ends and from those would come the flowering shoots for the next year.
Or you could just let it go for a year and then chop out the dead bits…depends on your take on gardening.
Have you thought about using any of the old fashioned roses? Some are single flowering but there are ‘modern’ versions available now with greatly extended seasons…not just the scent but the form of some of them make them worth their space.
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I think I’ll go with your trimming method.That sounds neater.
And I’ll definitely look into the old fashioned roses. I’m very pleased to have what we’ve got, roses obviously do well in this region.
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See. I told you Helen would know 🙂 Sounds a bit crass, but do you know the difference between hybrid tea, floribunda, climbers and wild? Although if you only have climbers not an issue. We had separate gardens for HT and floris. My patents were probably rosary retentive.
Bottom line is, they are pretty hardy. They do have a shelf life though. Like most of us.
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Depends on your garden too…I had an apricot variety of ‘Kiftsgate’ which was a total thug but was perfect to cover the less than beautiful parts of the outbuildings early in the season before the trees leafed up…in a more formal garden it would have been a disaster.A slighter less aggressive climber was ‘Rambling Rector’ which grew through the roadside hedges..
,
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The flowers look great. I’m sure there are Christmas roses but I have no idea if these fit the bill. The irises are very pretty.
Do you fancy the chatreau by the lakes, that too looks beautiful.Fancy dress parties at Christmas…….
Hugs
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here in south central Pennsylvania I’ve seen violets blooming and forsythia blooming. It’s very not normal to this area. This is supposed to happen in March/April.
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Yesterday on the news they were saying this is the warmest December we’ve had in 142 years.
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I noticed, to my surprise, that my only rose bush (”English Miss”, which has a wonderful scent) has a new bud this week, which has started to open. Normally the latest it flowers is October. And my passion flower, which is in a pot, still has several buds on it. It’s certainly unusually warm this December.
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