Tag Archive for: Glamis Castle Rose

rose bush

This gardening story is all about one particular rose bush which is located at our small family farm, affectionately called ‘Double S Farms‘. 

I first posted this story about an overgrown, nameless rose 2 years ago.

Since it is time in areas with warm winter climates, to prune back your roses, I thought you would enjoy this story as much as I do 🙂

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This poor rose had not been fertilized, deadheaded or pruned for a few years.  Personally, I think it looks fantastic considering the lack of care it has received. The residents of Double S Farms, (my mother, sister and her family), had only recently moved to the farm, so this rose had been neglected by the previous owners.

I decided to focus on this rose because I wanted to show how to prune a rose and I don’t have any roses that need pruning right now. So, my mother and sister (residents of Double S Farms) graciously granted me permission to prune their rose bush.  Actually, they were more then happy to have me do it so they would not have to 😉

I had no idea what variety this rose was. I was pretty sure that it was a shrub rose and it had a lot of old, unproductive growth that needed to be removed.  When finished, it would be rejuvenated and ready for the beginning of it’s new life with it’s new homeowners.

So I got started….

My tools

My tools – hand pruners, pruning saw and loppers. Oh, I almost forgot – gloves! I also recommend wearing a long-sleeved shirt as well to protect your arms from being scratched from the thorns. 

rose bush

First, because there is so much thick growth, I just started to cut branches in order to make a ‘hole’ like this, which made it easier for me to reach inside with my pruners to remove the interior wood. It is much easier for me to remove the larger branches at the beginning of the process instead of making multiple cuts of the smaller branches and working my way down.

Normally, I remove about 1/2 of the height of the rose bush. But, in this case, I decided to remove quite a few of the large, old branches (canes) at the base of the rose as they no longer produced as many newer branches and roses as the newer canes do. This neglected rose bush has a lot of old growth that had to be removed, so I would be pruning it back by 2/3.

First, I removed the old and dead canes. Then I selected the green, healthy canes that I wanted to keep and pruned back to an outward facing bud and cut at a 45 degree angle.

A Neglected, Overgrown, Nameless Rose....

Okay, you may be wondering why I am included this gross picture of a borer cut in half. Well, borers burrow into the center of the rose canes, causing damage as you can see in the cane to the right.

My son thought it was so cool….he likes anything that is gross.

*To help prevent borers in the future, simply apply some wood glue to the top of the newly pruned canes, which helps seal them out.

two rose bushes

Surprise!  As I continued pruning, I discovered that there were actually two rose bushes which had grown together.

beautiful blooms

Every January, it just kills me to prune back roses and watching all the beautiful blooms fall to the ground. But, beauty hurts and pruning will ensure that there will be more beautiful blooms for these rose bushes in the spring.

pruned incorrectly

Here is an example of a cane that has been pruned incorrectly long ago, (I told you this rose bush had been neglected and mistreated).  You can see where it turned brown and died. When pruning the canes, be sure to prune back to a bud or back to the base of the larger cane.

pruning

I really did the pruning myself and am not just taking credit for someone else’s work 😉

I was almost done. I continued cutting away all the remaining small canes and dead growth with my hand pruners. I used my loppers for the large canes that need to be removed.

A Neglected, Overgrown, Nameless Rose....

I enjoy pruning very much, but I hate this part….

roses and clean up any leaves

But, I was lucky.  I was able to bribe my son and daughter to help me clean up.

Now all I had left to do was to remove all leaves remaining on the roses and clean up any leaves lying around the area surrounding the roses. I do this because the leaves can harbor fungal diseases that will reinfect the new rose leaves.

Glamis Castle

Guess what? I found the old tag from when the rose bushes were planted. It is a ‘Glamis Castle’, which is a David Austin English Rose. I put the tag back on one of the rose bushes.

rose bush

I finally finished.  The roses were no longer “Nameless, Overgrown or Neglected”. Pastor Farmer (my mother) came outside to see what I had done to her roses. She was a bit dismayed to see so little left of her rose bushes. But I assured her that they would be happy and healthy and covered with blooms in spring.

Fast forward a few months, and these formerly neglected rose bushes were thriving again!

beautiful and fragrant

And the flowers were so beautiful and fragrant…

rose bush

It never ceases to amaze me how pruning, done the right way, can bring new life to an old, neglected rose bush.

Picture an old rose bush that had been neglected over the years.  With new owners now in charge of the garden, this rose received much needed attention back in January.

Some of you may remember my post An Overgrown, Nameless Rose”  back in January.  This old rose bush graced the front garden of Double S Farms, which is where my mother, sister and her family are new residents.

old rose bush

 Unlike many rose bushes, this particular one continued to bloom without any help….no fertilizer, sprays or pruning.  But, there was a lot of dead growth and old canes (branches) that needed to be removed.  In other words, this rose bush needed a face lift.

pruning
old rose bush

When I finished pruning, this is what was left.  My mother, Pastor Farmer, may have been a little unprepared for how far back I had pruned her roses, but I assured her that this was essential for their health and that new growth would soon appear.

rose bush

Well, this is what they looked like this evening, just 9 weeks later, when we stopped by Double S Farms to celebrate both my husband and nephew’s birthdays.

The rose bushes are flush with new growth and there are no old canes (branches) to be seen anywhere.  I like to think of pruning as like giving a plant a face lift.  The results are usually remarkable and you don’t have to pay a lot of money like you would to a plastic surgeon 😉

rose bushes

For me, the icing on the cake was to see both of these formerly neglected rose bushes covered with rosebuds getting ready to open.

rose bushes

I can hardly wait….

Yesterday was a glorious winter day accompanied with warmer then usual temperatures; 68 degrees F.  I went over to Double S Farms to help my brother-in-law (Farmer Dad), prune the fruit trees – (the fruit trees had sadly been neglected and mistreated by the previous owners, so we had to quite a bit of corrective pruning).

I brought along, my now repaired camera, intending to take pictures of how to prune fruit trees for a later post.  Once I arrived, I was so happy to see early signs of spring all around me….

A single peach bud, just beginning to show a flash of pink.

A single peach bud, just beginning to show a flash of pink.

 Snap Peas beginning to grow in the vegetable garden

Snap Peas beginning to grow in the vegetable garden.

The grapefruit tree is heavily laden with delicious fruit.

The grapefruit tree is heavily laden with delicious fruit.

signs of spring

The “Formerly Overgrown, Neglected Rose – Glamis Castle” beginning to leaf out.

signs of spring

The apple trees were full of buds and I was able to find this glimpse the pink petals impatiently waiting to burst out.

signs of spring

Double S Farms resident Costa’s Hummingbird, was happily perched on top of the almond tree watching over our activities.

January is the slowest time of the year for blooms in the desert.  However, due to our year-round growing climate, there are still a lot of flowers to see…

Bower Vine

 Bower Vine (Pandorea jasminoides)

Valentine shrub

My Valentine shrub (Eremophila maculata ‘Valentine’) is in full bloom.

Bird-of-Paradise

One of my Mexican Bird-of-Paradise trees (Caesalpinia mexicana), happily blooming away…

Desert Sunset

Radiation Lantana ‘Desert Sunset’ is still blooming underneath my Dalbergia sissoo tree.

The tree has protected it from frost damage.

Silvery Cassia

The flowers are starting to peek out of the Silvery Cassia (Senna phyllodenia).

More blooms will soon follow from this Australian native.

Bloom Day

One of the Geraniums in the Children’s Flower Garden. 

In case you are getting tired of the flowers in my garden or just want to see more colorful blooms, I thought I would also show you some of the flowers currently blooming at Double S Farms.

Bloom Day

Baja Ruellia (Ruellia peninsularis) is a reliable year-round bloomer.

Bloom Day

The flowers of the ‘New Gold Mound’ Lantana lighten in the winter, but are still beautiful.

Bloom Day

I found this single flower on the Cape Honeysuckle (Tecomaria capensis)

Bloom Day

Autumn Sage (Salvia greggii)

I’m not sure if fruit counts as a bloom for GBBD, but just in case….

Bloom Day

Kumquats reaching towards the sky.

And lastly, a photo of a single rose from the Neglected, Overgrown, Nameless Rose just before I pruned it back.  I realize I did not take the photo on the 15th, but it would have still been there if I had not pruned the rose bush back over the weekend.

I also wanted it to have one last opportunity to show off it’s flowers before the new flush of rose blooms come in March.

Bloom Day

English Rose ‘Glamis Castle’

Thank you for joining me for January’s Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day.  Please visit May Dreams Gardens for more sites featuring Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day.