Second bloom

Although we lost several roses during this long hot summer, we are enjoying a nice second blooming season on the ones that survived. Our roses look best in the spring and truly awful during the summer. This is the first year I've remembered to do a fall fertilization, and these Queen Elizabeth bushes rewarded us by rebounding nicely.

We think the reason we lost several bushes this year was drip irrigation failure. (We also lost a Santa Rosa plum and a cape honeysuckle planted in this area) We had 4 gph flag drippers on them, but as part of our overall drip revamp this year, put circles of drip tubing in wells created around each bush. They should get the same amount of water, but it should be distributed better around the drip line.

In January, we'll do major pruning and fertilization but we should be able to enjoy roses through the Christmas season.