topic Re: A Time For Change....Digging Up Rose Bushes in Garden

A Time For Change....Digging Up Rose Bushes

tsavorite — Sat, 21 Apr 2018 22:01:29 GMT

I have several knockout rose bushes....had them for a good long while now and I am DONE with it all! All the thorns and cutting back the growth....the disease and bugs and so on. Several of mine get rather big but this yr I was just out there cutting them down....what a huge job this is. Instead of being joyful these things are making me miserable.

I need to find a flowering medium plant that has ZERO pickers/thorns....and is easy to care for as replacement. It is in my front yard...I have a pretty much dead row of thorny reddish purple bushes (which I am getting rid of also) behind them is a row of boxwood bushes and then I had 5 knockout rose bushes.

I think I could plant some low growing flowering plants to replace the red/purple thorny dead bushes....and I don't know what to replace the knockout bushes.

Suggestions? Ideas??

The mood I am in I wish I could rip it all out and start all over from scratch expect for the large Christmas tree which is off to the side and looks great! LOL

Re: A Time For Change....Digging Up Rose Bushes

jlkz — Sat, 21 Apr 2018 22:10:34 GMT

How about sedums: they only need to be cut down to the ground in November and will come up and spread in Spring. Flower heads start out pale green, turn to mauve in September, and then deep purple. “ Autumn “ variety.

For beautiful dark lime green foliage that dies back on its own after the frost: Solomon’s Seal. The flowers are almost invisible: they appear in a single line down the under side of the blades. Spreads out from walls and takes no maintenance. Rhizome is close to the top of the soil and can be picked up and transplanted easily.

HTH

Re: A Time For Change....Digging Up Rose Bushes

Kachina624 — Sat, 21 Apr 2018 22:11:33 GMT

Along the walkway leading to my front door, I've planted a low "hedge" of carpet roses. They bloom from now through the middle of October pretty much non-stop, require no pruning or dead heading and are not bothered by any pests. I throw some Bayer Rose Food on them every 6 weeks in the summer and that's the extent of the maintenance.

I got these plants at Home Depot. They come in a pink colored pot. I see them there every year.

Re: A Time For Change....Digging Up Rose Bushes

bmorechick — Sat, 21 Apr 2018 22:36:19 GMT

Tsavorite... I took two days off work to complete much needed yardwork after all those wind storms here in MD. Picked up branches, trimmed trees back and dug up the last of the four bushes in our front garden. Yep, they got ugly and misshapen over the years, one side alive, other side dead and I was done with trimming bushes.

We planted four small pencil hollys...they stay narrow and small and it takes two minutes to give them a flat top. In front of the porch, no more bushes...we planted phlox and I can’t wait until it spreads. On the other side, more phlox...low growing and spreads beautifully. I have it around back and its perfect year round. Maintenence free stuff for me. We are over it! We did rip everything out except the hostas. It took two seasons, but now we are done. Except for whats left of my 12 deceased leland cypress. Thats another year! Believe me, I feel ya! Give me concrete and high rise...maybe one day.

Re: A Time For Change....Digging Up Rose Bushes

Snicks1 — Sat, 21 Apr 2018 23:41:40 GMT

@tsavorite, I dug my 6 rose bushes out last fall. For the same reasons you listed. So far, I have not replaced them with anything, they served as a division between my yard and my neighbor"s yard. So far, it's working out well.

Re: A Time For Change....Digging Up Rose Bushes

Elri — Sun, 22 Apr 2018 02:14:38 GMT

@tsavorite

What about weigela? Abelia is really a nice shrub to replace the roses. Beauty bush (kolkwitzia) is really lovely.

It mostly depends on your zone plus soil and how much sun the area gets.

Would you consider lavender? Full sun, drought tolerant.

Check out Russian sage - but it might get too big.

Sedums are fabulous plants. i second the person who mentioned them.

I love evergreens. Different shades of green look so pleasing to the eye.

Good luck

Re: A Time For Change....Digging Up Rose Bushes

JustJazzmom — Sun, 22 Apr 2018 15:15:23 GMT

@tsavorite You do not mention where you live. I am going to suggest viburnums— pretty much pest free. Some are deciduous & some are evergreen.

Look at evergreen Burkwood ‘Conoy’ viburnum — they get about 4’ X 4’ at maturity. They will get berries in the fall if there are other varieties of viburnums in your yard that bloom at the same time as this one.

For fragrant flowers try the deciduous Korean spice viburnum.

Look at weigelias too — trumpet shaped flowers in late spring and they are deciduous. Some in the fall have their leaves turn burgundy before falling off.

Great cultivars are ‘Minuet’, ‘My Monet’, a variegated leaf variety & look at ‘Midnight Wine’ or ‘Red Prince’.

Look at any dwarf fothergillas — deciduous with whitish bottle brush blooms in early to mid spring. Their leaves turn orange, red & yellow in the fall before falling off.

All these plants take full sun or part sun/shade.

Re: A Time For Change....Digging Up Rose Bushes

tototwo — Sun, 22 Apr 2018 11:56:41 GMT

I know what you're going thru -- I had a row of 5 red knockouts that curved around a corner of our house for 10 years. They all got that nasty "rosette" disease and had to go. I found I couldn't dig them out myself -- the roots went all the way to China and the thorns were killers. I had to hire a tree service to dig them out. Expensive!

I thought about that empty space for a year and finally decided to go shorter -- so I planted Gold Flame (?) spirea. These have chartreuse foliage and dark pink blooms most of the spring and summer. Don't grow very tall, don't need much (if any) pruning, and very colorful.

Thought I would miss those knockouts, but I don't. Glad they're gone!

Re: A Time For Change....Digging Up Rose Bushes

tsavorite — Sun, 22 Apr 2018 18:47:41 GMT

Hello everyone and THANK YOU all for your ideas I really appreciate it! I will look up all the suggestions posted here so far.

My husband is going to help me get the rest of the bushes out today....hopefully it won't be to bad and we can do it ourselves. The thorns on several are so huge! I am torn up from yesterday....just hacking them down.

I live in MI and this spot gets full sun....and I have quite a wide space to fill. Soil is awful...hard clay...I have tried adding good soil in....thinking I need to do more of that once we get these rose bushes out today.

I am thinking of using several of the plants mentioned here....what my home needs badly is color....something that blooms as I have the boxwoods some big rocks some stella doras and the large evergreen/christmas tree....the space where the knockouts are would be bare and then behind that against my house are some evergreen type bush that was put in when we moved in.

There is enough room to add in several different things to fill it up....just need some color and must be able to handle full sun...not so great soil.

Re: A Time For Change....Digging Up Rose Bushes

mousiegirl — Sun, 22 Apr 2018 18:17:47 GMT

@jlkz wrote:
How about sedums: they only need to be cut down to the ground in November and will come up and spread in Spring. Flower heads start out pale green, turn to mauve in September, and then deep purple. “ Autumn “ variety.

For beautiful dark lime green foliage that dies back on its own after the frost: Solomon’s Seal. The flowers are almost invisible: they appear in a single line down the under side of the blades. Spreads out from walls and takes no maintenance. Rhizome is close to the top of the soil and can be picked up and transplanted easily.

HTH

@jlkz I never heard of cutting sedums down, I have many and never do that, but maybe in your area it is to cold for them.

Re: A Time For Change....Digging Up Rose Bushes

JustJazzmom — Sun, 22 Apr 2018 18:57:32 GMT

MI might not be able to keep those ‘Conoy’ viburnums evergreen over the winter. I originally bought them from a grower in NE called Classic Viburnums. Very knowledgeable people and where he is (hardiness zone 5) they are deciduous. By me in hardiness zone 7, they are evergreen year round.

To improve clay soils, add compost or composted manure which will make the soil less moisture retentive & clumpy. Another option which wouldn’t change the pH of the clay soil is to add gypsum to it. Go to a large nursery (not a big box store) for that and follow the directions on back of package as to how much to apply. I’m not sure if it’s granular or a dustlike product.

Re: A Time For Change....Digging Up Rose Bushes

tsavorite — Sun, 22 Apr 2018 19:15:43 GMT

@JustJazzmomthank you for the soil tips! I will put that on my list.

I have another question if you might know....what about a few Hibiscus plants? I see another topic here in garden asking about the CF one's well I had seen him presenting some the other day and thought they looked really nice and he said they were grown in MI. It is a new set of 2 he has out....would something like these work....I would want to put in the ground. I know nothing much about them...but it would put some really stand out color which my home needs badly in front. The row of knockouts were cherry red and well they were beautiful and blooming. We just got them totally out today and I am glad...no more thorns for me.

Thank you for any ideas and help...

Re: A Time For Change....Digging Up Rose Bushes

Lilysmom — Sun, 22 Apr 2018 21:46:00 GMT

@mousiegirl, I am in zone 5b (may be closer to 6 if you look at the recent changes in zoning). I have to cut down my sedums every year. They die in winter and come back in Spring. LM

Re: A Time For Change....Digging Up Rose Bushes

nana59 — Sun, 22 Apr 2018 21:53:49 GMT

had a large flower garden off to the side of my backyard....always needed maintenance...finally convinced my husband to remove everything and plant sod....he was reluctant at first...but now he tells me he's glad he has one less outdoor chore!

Re: A Time For Change....Digging Up Rose Bushes

jlkz — Sun, 22 Apr 2018 21:53:56 GMT

@mousiegirl

The first year that I planted sedums, I left them in and enjoyed looking at the bare, blackened stalks that had the hardened flower heads on them. They really stood out in the snow !

What I did not like come April was getting pricked by the thorns on these stalks....and right through the leather gloves !

Lesson learned here the hard way...cut them down to the ground. They become larger in diameter each year....need to divide or give some away !

Re: A Time For Change....Digging Up Rose Bushes

JustJazzmom — Sun, 22 Apr 2018 23:03:01 GMT

@tsavorite Hibiscus are either patio, perennial or shrub/tree types.

Patio types you see for summer only at say Hone Depot/Lowe’s/Walmart & they bloom in the summer & die once the weather cools into winter.

Perennial hibiscus comes back year after year — rose mallow is the common name (Hibiscus moschuetos is the Latin name). They may need staking or else they lean.

Shrub/tree types are permanent (Hibiscus syriacus) — lose their leaves in late fall, one of the last trees to leaf out come spring. Lots of colors & are either a double or single trumpet shaped flower.

Many are called Rose of Sharon — the original purple self seeds all over the place & in my opinion is messy. Newer cultivars are supposed to be sterile but some throw off seedlings but not as profusely as the original purple ones.

All hibiscus can get camellia scale or Japanese beetles. Just a warning...

Anecdote: I used to have years ago a purple rose of Sharon my Dad gave me. Every year DH sprayed Weed be Gon to kill the seedlings or we pulled by hand.

In another part of the garden I chose a newer cultivar called ‘Aphrodite’, a rose pink with a deeper color center. Nice plant trained as a tree, but this threw off seedlings.

One time visited Longwood Gardens in the summer— saw the perennial hibiscus ‘Lord Baltimore’— huge almost dinner plate sized red blooms. No seedlings being thrown off and needed staking.

Bought one from somewhere — local nursery or online. It is the star of that corner of our backyard every summer. It blooms until almost October, but it is the last perennial to emerge from the ground.

Several year’s later I purchased it’s companion ‘Lady Baltimore’ to be in other corner of the yard. Similar habit.

Lord Baltmore can reach heights of 6-7’ in height. Lady Baltimore is shorter for me due to less intense sun so that might be 5’ in height.

HTH explain about hibiscus.