We recently participated in our first ever rose show, hosted by the Fort Vancouver Rose Society (FVRS), and won second place in the novice category for traditional line design. We had intended to enter in several categories for the show. One week before the show we got heavy rains for several days. This knocked out almost all of our pinks and whites that we had been priming for show. They had succumbed to botrytis. I had also just watered my container roses heavily (anticipating another heat wave) and they showed heavy signs of overwatering damage. This knocked out 40 plants that I had expected to get at least one rose from and instead got zero. It was a wild ride and we ended up entering in seven categories and only winning in one. We didn’t expect to win at all. Our roses were sub-par for show and I was a bit devastated by the results after all of our efforts to grow winning roses.
After the rose show came our Rose Garden Tour, which was also hosted by FVRS. We prepped for that and were happy with the results except for half of our garden is still experiencing the effects of transplant shock. We transplanted ~25 roses out of containers and put them in the ground. Many have yellowed and dropped leaves, but some are beginning to bounce back after heavy nursing with water and fertilizer. I am happy that they are starting to come back nicely, but saddened that we missed the window for the show as we have very unique rose varieties in this new section.
Lastly, our seedlings are bouncing back!!!! We stepped away for a week and discovered that our greenhouse had gotten some uninvited visitors. Our seedlings were under attack by aphids and spider mites and they were not looking good. I took the basic steps of mixing neem oil, water, fungicide, dawn dish soap and baking soda to spray onto the seedlings and eradicate the issue. It’s taken two weeks, but they are starting to bounce back. I sprayed the seedlings again yesterday because the aphids were back and discovered that they were back to a healthy growth pattern. Enjoy the images below.
