Question
QUESTION: Hi Donna

I have taken up the Rose and the root system was fairly small for a Rose and I could not see if it was grafted or not though.

I got it out in one go (actually, my next door nieghbour did it), and put it in a container. I had half a container of compost and mixed in some border soil to make it feel at home, then I planted it and topped it of with the spare compost.

I hope it survives the winter here in the UK. Last winter was very bad and I am hoping this winter is not as bad because that could kill the Rose now its containerized.

I got the container ready, prepared the soil, dug up the Rose and planted it straight away and gave some water to it. We did it this afternoon. I brought it round to the back garden and gave it a mild trim/prune.

I trimmed the stems down to a bud facing outwards and made sure each bud looked strong.

By the way, I got my calculations wrong, the plants is actually 3ft tall!

That is the problem with me, I can never tell the height untill they are out of the ground or in a container.

I also put three little Roses that have white flowers in the container with the red one. I took these little ones out of the border last week and potted them up. They are about 3in-5-6in tall and they were much taller before I pruned them hard after potting. Before, they was being over crowded by other plants and the stems died back but I pruned them to the living stems and buds.

Hopefully, I will have success with my roses.

I also emptied another container and planted a Pieris Japonica that need acid soil. I have planted it in multi purpose compost.

Will it survive?

Or do I have to feed it something else?

I feel please that my Rose has a good root system and I hope it takes well.

When do i start feeding them?

What do I feed my little Hydrangea Macrophylla to make the flowers blue?

Is it the same feed for the Pieris?

I have to confess something!

I bought a yellow Osteospermum this spring and its now in the greenhouse in a container. On the plant pot it was in, it said 'This plant is protected by the plant breeders and any form of reproduction is illegal'.

I looked up what this means and came across a page saying that some plants are 'patented' and you cannot propagate them; even if it is in your own garden.

I have committed a crime.

I have rooted a cutting of this plant and reproduced it!

That is all for now.

I will keep you posted on my Roses and I will be waiting for your reply.

Bye for now.

Jonathan

ANSWER: Dear Jonathan,

What fun it is to correspond with you!

Fantastic about your rose. Gosh, I couldn抰 get mine out in one go. Congratulations! You dug it up beautifully, got it containerized, gave it plenty of compost plus 搒oil from home?(excellent!) and now just water it, but not too much.

Now that it is containerized, let抯 focus on its care. Because a containerized rose does not have as great a mass of soil to protect it from changing weather conditions as a rose grown in the ground, it is good to take some precautions. I have several containerized roses, and I am in zone 5a, so the temperatures can plunge to -20 Fahrenheit.  So I take my containerized roses and put them in an unheated garage (where it can fall to 0% Fahrenheit) and cover them with an old quilt. Do you have thrift stores there? I managed to get 3 down quilts for U.S. $9.99  - TOTAL. Old blankets will do as well. Then, one a month (I mark my calendar) I give each rose 8 ounces of water. Keep them covered so that the light early in the year does not allow them to break dormancy. Always remember that what kills a rose is not freezing, but thawing and refreezing.

Well done on the Pieris Japonica.  Your instincts are excellent. But do not feed it ?wait until spring for that. I always say, if you do nothing, composting is always beneficial. It will tend to neutralize the ph, but wait until spring to fertilize.

So ?feed the roses in spring, the pieris in spring, and of course the macrophylla. I too have a macrophylla, and mine has pink flowers, so you must have alkaline soil (which is why you want to give the pieris a fertilizer for acid loving plants in spring.) To turn it blue is easier if it is containerized, so that you can completely control its environment, but the usual manner of turning pink ones blue is to add aluminum to the soil. I found a really cool article for you about this process. Go to the section at the bottom of the page:

http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com/colorchange.html

As for patenting a plant, I think it抯 absurd. Once I buy it, I believe it抯 mine. So I am hardly going to chide you for reproducing it. And, generally, these warnings have to do with propagating it for sale, which you are not doing.

Have I covered everything? Do keep me posted!

Regards,

Donna


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi

I must say the article is very interesting and I hope mine changes color like it says on that page.

My Rose has survived its first night in the container.

I have to ask if a plant is 'patented' and protected because it is a rarity, unusual or a special plant, why are people prohibited from propagation; if it is one of the three above, surely the breeders want them to spread across the county, so they will be propagated by other people and they will be more of them and are more spread out, what is the point?

Have I made sense?


I had an Oxalis Inops 'Lucky Pink' and I pulled it up the other day thinking it was dead and at the bottom of the container I found little bulbs and I don't know what to with them. The plant was in my greenhouse as this plant was half hardy but it died #well, at least I thought it did#and now I have got all these little bulbs. What do I do?

I also have Oxalis Tetraphylla 'Iron Cross' that I put into a container as dormant bulbs along with Gladiolus, Lillium and Sparaxis. The Lily needs a cold winter and the rest need lifting and put into storage. I do not want to do this because last year, I had about 30 Lillium bulbs that I stored and the one that is in this container is the only one that survived and it has not flowered this year but produced stem bulbils that I have taken off and put them into a little plant pot together. These Gladioli are from last year too, they have flowered this year but as I said these have been moved into my greenhouse for the winter. The sparaxis have still got leaves but only one flowered this year and the rest were growing pathetic little leaves but they all flowered last year and I put them into storage. I have tried lifting Oxalis Tetraphylla before but the bulbs had tap roots and died but the bulbils survived and grew the next year after storage and flowered that year. To sum up, I have tried lifting bulbs before but failed and I do not want to lift any of these bulbs in case I lose them!

I know that the Lillium needs a cold spell to flower next year but the other bulbs around it will not survive the winter outdoors or storage.

What do I do?

I have Viola x Wittrokiana and Viola Hybrida that I have planted but I can never keep them from one year to the next because they get straggly and become smothered in mildew. How to I keep these plants as perennials?

They are winter ones too; but I know the main display for them is spring but this year I had flowers from the plants of last autumn in June this year.

I have got two Vinca Minor cuttings from this year and I want to know when they will start flowering and an if I can train them as climbers?

I have also have a Lupinus Polyphyllus 'Russell' that I have grown from seed this year and it flowered with a purple flower that appeared in July. These flowers have formed seed pods that are now brown and the plant is also producing basal shoots. I have taken it out of the border a few days ago and planted it into a fairly large plant pot. Was this a wise move?

What colour will the seedlings be?

I have two Thunbergia Alata #one with large yellow flowers and the other with orange flowers that are smaller# that I have bought this year and I am hoping to collect seed but I do not know the difference between a bud and a pod on these plants as this is the first year I have grown them.

How to I collect seeds and what do the seed cases look like?

In my greenhouse I have a Sarracenia and a Dionaea and these are insectivores and the flytrap has aphids on the traps but I can not spray with insecticide as it does not like chemicals # Basically, that is why they need rain water# and I do not know how to get rid of these aphids. They are taking the toll on the plant but it has now got a flower bud but the whole plant is growing very slow.

Now for the North American Pitcher.  I got it a few weeks ago and I have never grown one before and I have read that it is hardy in England and needs cold weather for it to flower. Is this true?

The Primula Denticulata is dying off and I thought that they were hardy.

Why is this?

One last question.

I have got a lot of Pelargonium in the greenhouse that were outdoors in summer and they keep on producing seed pods but the pods die before ripening and I have this trouble for as long as I can remember and I have never collected seed. One is variegated and one is a fancy leaf; these won't come true, a load of zonales but I think these are F1 and a Regal. What am I doing wrong?

My Rose is doing well and has not wilted or dropped any leaves.

If I have confused you, I am sorry.

I will keep you posted on my Rose.

Bye for now

Jonathan

Answer

Primula japonica reblo  

Primula japonica   Out all day. Just came back from a two year old抯 birthday party and saw your questions, so here we go.

OK! Let抯 start at the top! I抣l answer some of these now and tackle the rest later.

Plants are patented for the purpose of making money. If you have one patented plant and want three, you have to but two more. If every person who wants that plant buys it, then the propagator makes yet more money. The purpose of the exercise is to make money. It is sweet of you to think that they would like their plant to be everywhere, but they only want it to be everywhere if they make more money from each and every plant. So, sadly, it does make sense.

I have several oxalis. They are tender in my zone (5a) and so I grow them indoors. Oxalis does not seem to die. It goes dormant. You see the little bulbs? Notice that they are increasing? Put them in fresh soil and water them and they will thrive.  If you don抰 want them right now, simply don抰 water them. They don抰 die ?they increase like mad. So you don抰 need to lift oxalis ?just withhold water and put them somewhere that is free from frosts.

I lift my gladiolus every year and put them in my basement in paper bags. You might want to dust a little sulphur or something that will take care of any bugs in them, but just let them dry. In the spring they start to grow again so I put them in the ground. Then when it gets cold I cut off any spent foliage that remains. Not only do they not die ?they produce offsets. I have the great great great grandchildren of some of my gladiolus.

The lily will keep very nicely over the winter in the refrigerator. Make sure there are no fruits that produce ethane gas, like apples, but right now I have 60 lilies in my refrigerator. They need cold treatment. In the spring, put it in the ground. They抣l think they went through winter and will bloom.

I need to do some research on the others but with pelargoniums I always take cuttings and put them in something with no nutrition like seed starting mix. Strip off all the leaves, put them in seed starting mix in pots and put them on trays in a window. Water them from the bottom so they don抰 rot ?not the top.  One plant can produce multiple plants. Cuttings come true. Seeds may not. Don抰 bother with the seeds.

More later!

Regards,

Donna

Ok, here is more:

Here are some images of what thunbergia alata seeds and capsules look like.  Does this help?

http://www.google.com/search?q=Thunbergia+Alata+seed+cases&hl=en&client=safari&r


As for primula denticulata, I attempt to grow primula japonica every year. It is supposed to be the easiest and most reliable. It rarely makes it through the winter despite careful watering during the season and protection in winter. I just love this plant, and it grows like mad in placed like Seattle. I wish I could help. I only got it to rebloom once!

More tomorrow.

Donna

A bit more:

Next subject: our vinca minor cuttings.

Your vinca minor cuttings will start flowering heavily in spring, but if you fertilize them you will get summer blooms as well. They should be planted six to 8 inches apart, and they like soil with a ph of 6, so you may need to give them acid loving fertilizer. Vinca minor does not tend to climb, but it抯 a heck of a groundcover.

Next subject: Violas

Viola x Wittrokiana and Viola Hybrida are indeed perennials but they are usually grown as annuals because they deteriorate from infestation by aphids, slugs and snail or become subject to fungal diseases.

Next subject: North American Pitcher plant:

The North American Pitcher plant does need cold treatment during the winter. Your natural climate will probably do, as the plants are normally grown in zone 8. You don抰 want to keep them in a greenhouse during this time because it is too warm. They grow in parts of Canada, so they are pretty cold tolerant. Experiment with setting them outdoors.

Back later today!

Donna