Sacramento Digs Gardening: November rose care: Time for one more round

The Pink Promise hybrid tea rose promises more to come. (Photos: Debbie Arrington)

Bees appreciate November roses, such as this Betty Boop.

Our recent warm weather has given gardeners a bonus: More beautiful roses.

Relatively free of fungal disease thanks to above-average heat, roses are still growing and blooming vigorously. Even the bugs are taking a break.

So, now comes decision time: Do you “deadhead” to encourage more flowers? Or do you let this round of roses be 2020’s last?

Usually in Sacramento, November is last call for roses. Spent blooms are left on the bush to mature into rose hips, the plant’s fruit. It’s a biological signal to the bush that its work is done for the year. Once rose hips form, the bush tends to go into winter dormancy and drops its leaves. Then, it can be pruned – and the whole cycle starts again.

But recent weather has been so warm, bushes think it’s September, not November. They’re not slowing down and most show no signs of leaning toward dormancy and winter’s sleep.

So, snip off spent blooms (what rose folks call deadheading) and water bushes deeply. Make the cut just above a five-leaf leaflet. But skip any fertilizer; too lush of new growth attracts aphids and whiteflies.

Once rose hips form, the bush tends to go into winter dormancy.

After this grooming, one more round of rosebuds will appear. The new blooms will open six to eight weeks after deadheading – just in time for holiday bouquets.

Besides making lovely and welcome late-season bouquets, these late fall roses also serve another purpose: Bee food. Flowers tend to become scarce in November. Bees appreciate having this extra source of pollen and nectar.

Don’t worry if this extra round of roses will throw off your pruning schedule. By mid-December, temperatures should be cool enough to naturally coax bushes into dormancy without much effort. Then, prune in January and early February.

GENERAL GARDENING

An article about gardening.

Keywords:

gardening Sacramento pruning bees roses fall weather fall gardening deadheading aphids flowers

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Food in My Back Yard Series

May 13: Your plants can tell you more than any calendar can

May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success

April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?

April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)

April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers

April 8: When to plant summer vegetables

April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths

March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth

March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space

March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds

March 4: Potatoes from the garden

Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later

Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space

Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants

Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting

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Garden Checklist for week of May 18

Get outside early in the morning while temperatures are still cool – and get to work!

* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.

* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. Transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.

* Plant dahlia tubers.

* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.

* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.

* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.

* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.

* Are birds picking your fruit off trees before it’s ripe? Try hanging strips of aluminum foil on tree branches. The shiny, dangling strips help deter birds from making themselves at home.

* As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape them, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.

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