From: ashley@osc.edu (Ashley Burns)
Subject: Summary: Roses, Tulips, Spruces
Organization: The Ohio Supercomputer Center
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 17:24:37 GMT

Here are the responses I received to questions about tulips declining, 
spruces that had lost their leaders and needed to be trained, and 
roses that were leggy. Thank you! This was all for folks in Manitoba 
(cold country). 

[To Sandy Burke Slowey: I could not respond to your message from
sbs@drfish7.dr.att.com. That is perhaps why you didn't get a response
to your earlier roses query (see below)? Thanks for the info]

--Ashley Burns, ashley@osc.edu

----------------------------------------------------
From joannek@ems.cdc.com Tue Sep 22 14:17:02 1992
In article <1992Sep22.153115.18859@cgrg.ohio-state.edu> you write:
...   
|> 3. Their tulips seem to be declining, with fewer blooms each year. 
|> They are now 3 years old. What do they do? 
  I can only really help on the third question.  Tulips do decline after a few
  years.  I think 3 years is about all you can really expect.  I would suggest
  some new bulbs.  Most bulb suppliers will state that for 'really' good tulips
  you should replace the bulbs yearly ( of course this means they sell more )
  but you will see a decline in the quality after a few years.
...
  Some bulbs, will do well over time some won't.  Tulips and hyacinths I know
  will peter out after a while.


----------------------------------------------------
From: barnettj@sungod.crd.ge.com (Janet A Barnett)

In article <1992Sep22.153115.18859@cgrg.ohio-state.edu> you write:
>My in-laws in Manitoba (zone 2-3) have some questions. 
>
>1. Their Colorado Spruce trees have lost their leaders to some pests. 
>The pests appear to have disappeared but we're wondering if we 
>can somehow make them look normal and grow upwards.  We read in a 
>how-to book about removing all but one of a whirl of side shoots and 
>directing it upwards to make a new leader. Does this work?
My grandparents grew thousands of Colorado blue spruce (free seed from
a local paper company), and whenever they lost a leader, they simply
would train one of the side shoots from next years growth (as you
describe) as a leader.  However, they did not remove all of the other
side shoots.  I would think that removing them would result in a
bare spot in your tree as it grows.  In fact, the tree will probably
compensate by itself and make one or more shoots grow like leaders
next year - just make sure that if there's more than one growing
upwards that you train the extras into regular branches (you don't
want a crotched tree).

This method seemed to work well for my grandparents - you're mileage
may vary.

----------------------------------------------------
From: ceci@lysator.liu.se
>2. How far back should their Adelaide hoodless roses be pruned in order to 
>bush out? They are spindly (but not sickly we think) and the stems 
>fall under the weight of the blooms. Is pruning the right treatment?
It's normal to leave 30-40 cm, but I'm not a rose expert. After you
have pruned the roses, you mound up the soil around them to 30 cm
height. This helps them through the winter.

>3. Their tulips seem to be declining, with fewer blooms each year. 
>They are now 3 years old. What do they do? 
Tulips have a life expectancy of 2-5 years. What you can do to make
them live more than one year is to cut down the flower stalks after
they are bloomed over, but don't cut down the leaves until they start
to wilt. Apply some fertiliser after the tulips are bloomed over. The
healthier the leaves look, the finer next years flowers will be. I
suggest that you replace the tulips you have now. If my estimations
about the Manitoba climate are correct, you should still be able to
plant tulips, but you don't have a lot of time to waste. If you think
that the remaining leaves are unsightly, you could plant the tulips
somewhere where something else will grow up in front of the tulips
after they are bloomed over.

--Ceci .se means Sweden. We have winters, too.

----------------------------------------------------
From: sbs@drfish7.dr.att.com (Sandy Burke Slowey)
|> 2. How far back should their Adelaide hoodless roses be pruned in order to 
|> bush out? They are spindly (but not sickly we think) and the stems 
|> fall under the weight of the blooms. Is pruning the right treatment?
My husband pruned back my Europeana Floribunda roses severely last fall 
(without consulting me!! I usually prune them back to about a foot of canes.).
This year they seemed to come back just fine to their previous height and
with the same abundance of blooms, but the branches could not handle the 
weight of the many blooms for the first time in their 4 year life.
We put a stake near the middle of each and tied the branches to it and that
did the trick.  I asked on the net if there might be a problem with the bushes
but got no response.

|> 3. Their tulips seem to be declining, with fewer blooms each year. 
|> They are now 3 years old. What do they do? 
Maybe the bulbs are crowded or lacking nutrients.  Divide now and add bone meal
to the dirt when planting.  Then each year mix bone meal into the top 1/2"
of soil.

----------------------------------------------------
From: jca@druwa.ATT.COM (Jill C. Arnson)
> 1. Their Colorado Spruce trees have lost their leaders to some pests. 
	It can, however, it is a bit tricky and takes years before the tree
will look "normal" again.

> 2. How far back should their Adelaide hoodless roses be pruned in order to 
> bush out? They are spindly (but not sickly we think) and the stems 
> fall under the weight of the blooms. Is pruning the right treatment?
	I'm not absolutely sure about the pruning part.  But you should
probably cut the stems back to a section that is much larger in diameter (ie
sturdier).  Spindly stems are often a result of improper fertilizing where
there has been too much nitrogen, threfore the stems and leaves grow too
quickly and are not sturdy. 

> 3. Their tulips seem to be declining, with fewer blooms each year. 
> They are now 3 years old. What do they do? 
	Tis the nature of tulips.  Unlike daffodils, tulips decline each
year.  3 years is just about the life span of a bulb.  One thing of note, I've
notice that in beds where I have daffodils planted the squirrels leave the
tulips alone.  Good repellent! (-: