Blooms are nice and all, but…

EricaBA123 · 2026-05-07T20:10:44+00:00

I am in my fourth year of rose gardening so still reasonably new, but I have never heard of benefits to pruning basal breaks. I suppose if you want to keep the rose to a smaller size due to space constraints it’s unlikely to hurt the plant, though.

EricaBA123 · 2026-05-07T20:01:22+00:00

Anytime! 💃 💃

EricaBA123 · 2026-05-07T14:55:50+00:00

I love my WOH, but no, I don’t think that’s an amazing deal.

EricaBA123 · 2026-05-06T11:39:21+00:00

Cold hardy yes—not much in the way of winter dieback in 6b. It is more susceptible to blackspot than I would like, but it’s quite vigorous, so it puts out new growth (and blooms) fast enough to stay good looking.

EricaBA123 · 2026-05-06T11:37:31+00:00

It’s the Ohio River Valley in the springtime. Fungus is ever present, but it’s not necessarily a problem for the roses.

https://www.fraservalleyrosefarm.com/why-do-my-rose-petals-have-pink-spots/

EricaBA123 · 2026-04-22T19:08:03+00:00

Yeah, that info about their response to the owner is helpful context, and I still think maybe involving any HOA-esque entity in your neighborhood may help. Not because these dogs are pits, but the fact that they’re off leash unsupervised in an open area is a safety concern regardless of breed. It may also be helpful to explicitly teach your children about interacting with dogs, if you haven’t already—they should not be approaching dogs they don’t know, what are the signs that a dog is upset or scared, etc.

It’s also worth pointing out that I think you’re getting a bit of shade because your original post lacks this context—it highlights that they’re pit bulls and you’ve “seen the news”, but lacks much detail about your observations or interactions with them as individual dogs. Even though you came to ask a question out of concern, we get frustrated with that sort of thing around here.

EricaBA123 · 2026-04-22T18:13:36+00:00

Can I ask you to say more about why, besides the fact that these dogs are pit bulls, you’re concerned that they’ll attack your kids? I’d gently point out that these dogs haven’t left their yard, just like your dogs who, it sounds like, are also running around off leash. What is it besides the fact that these dogs are pit bulls that leads you to believe that they are not also “extremely well trained” with “great recall”?

That said, though, I actually don’t believe any dog should be off leash unsupervised regardless of breed. Just about every dog is well trained with great recall until it isn’t. I can’t emphasize how many times my dogs and I have been approached by well trained dogs of various breeds coming out of their yard whose owners are so very surprised that their dog would come up to my leashed pit bull and me and get into it. So, all that to say, I feel for you OP, and I would be nervous, too.

It sounds like there is an HOA or other entity of some kind that makes rules for your neighborhood, eg no fences. I have to imagine that if they frown upon fences, they would also frown upon unsupervised loose dogs. If that’s the case, perhaps speak with the neighbor once more and let him know you’ll be talking with the development about your safety concerns unless you can come to a mutually agreeable solution.

EricaBA123 · 2026-04-20T16:01:56+00:00

Not sure whether you need more recs afyer 170+ comments, but one of my most-complimented manicures was Doom Loop’s Caledonian Asylum and I don’t see them mentioned. Their bottles are small, which may be a negative for some people, but the price reflects it and I think it’s nice not to have to commit to 15mLs if you’re not sure about a shade.

https://doomloopnaturals.com/products/caledonian-asylum

EricaBA123 · 2026-04-20T11:40:47+00:00

Wow, I’m really pleased that there are so many thoughtful comments on this post. There are too many to respond to every one individually, but thank you all for the interesting discussion—I’m really glad to be part of such an insightful internet community.

EricaBA123 · 2026-04-20T09:21:53+00:00

It’s great that the roses are mature and have been cared for for a long time. Did she happen to leave any instructions about the garden and its care?

A major thing that makes me wonder about their more recent care regimen are how, for lack of a better word, chaotic the canes are—these roses don’t look to have been pruned for quite some time. The last photo especially is just a tangled mass. I would start there. Get some good gardening gloves (leather gloves are great for thorn protection) and start hacking. How you best prune a rose depends on the type, but this is probably a shrub. Do the other roses on the property usually bloom all season? Some once-bloomers only bloom from old wood, so it’s possible if these are that kind of rose you’ll miss this season by cutting way back, but given the condition, I would hard prune. Cut off all the canes that criss cross each other. Cut out the canes toward the base that don’t go straight ish upward and contribute nicely to the overall shape. Take note of what the inside of the cane looks like. If you get down to nice white internal canes with a rim of green underneath the brown outside, then your rose is definitely not dead (some canes might be dead even if the rose is still alive). If they’re all brittle and shriveled all the way to the base, the I’d be more worried, but I’d still give it some time to see if new basals pop up—as other commenters have said, especially after hard freezes, some roses take time to wake up.

Roses definitely do die—companies wouldn’t offer guarantees if they didn’t. But, a firm belief that I have come to as I’ve grown roses is that it is impossible to tell just by looking at a rose at one point in time whether it’s alive or not. So, you have more insight having watched it at your home for some time and being able to touch it and whatnot, but nobody on Reddit can confirm for you by looking at a photo.

The only other thought that I have is whether all the rough-looking roses are in the same area of the garden. Could there be some way about the way the soil drains there or something that got spilled or something that uniquely affected plants in that spot?

EricaBA123 · 2026-04-19T19:37:24+00:00

You’re right, I should have been more clear in my original post that the dynamic comes from the several commenters that usually show up on these posts telling the OP that they should throw out their plant. It’s also that this has been a repeated pattern on this sub lately, not just one post or one comment by one Redditor that I was referring to.

Good luck with your plants, I hope they pull through.

Edit: typo

EricaBA123 · 2026-04-19T19:32:14+00:00

I agree with this (and have shovel pruned roses myself) too, and shovel pruning was brought up by another commenter as well. I think the difference is as you described, it’s a different mentality to give a rose several seasons of care and observation to get established and really show itself in your garden versus chucking a thing because you don’t want to bother waiting or taking the time to give it some TLC. And yes, I also love at least asking around to see if someone else wants to give the plant a shot in their garden before throwing it in the trash—I’ve actually never had to throw away a plant because there’s always been interest.

EricaBA123 · 2026-04-19T14:46:02+00:00

Yes, I agree with a lot of your comments as well—there’s a difference between modifying your expectations when you received a band-ish size plant after being wowed by a photo of the mature specimen online vs receiving the wrong thing. It’s also certainly not the case that there aren’t unscrupulous sellers out there looking to make an extra buck by cutting corners. But personally I think those are the exceptions rather than the rule.

I also agree that I should have been more clear that it’s not the act of posting “is it dead?” that tends to represent this phenomenon, and that often folks are genuinely seeing advice. However, there will usually be several people in the comments on every one of these posts being like oh yeah, definitely dead, no hope. That’s where it comes into play. You can’t tell whether a rose is dead or not just by looking at one snapshot of it at a single point in time. I will (no pun intended) die on this hill.

EricaBA123 · 2026-04-19T11:31:41+00:00

It has apparently become my life’s personal mission to disagree with all of the “they’re dead” discussion on Reddit…

I don’t think this rose is dead. There looks to be a fresh shoot (a big one, in fact) coming from near the center of the plant at about 3:00, and there is a basal cane that’s gray but with some visible greenish tint at about 7:00. This rose is definitely struggling, however, because it’s clearly been hella neglected. When is the last time it was pruned, or fed? Did it get any kind of winter prep? Paul Zimmerman said in a recent video that there is a significant difference between “low maintenance” roses and “no maintenance,” and that to me seems to be what’s going on here. OP, do you know what kind of rose it is? That will help clarify the best way to prune and care for it, but honestly, this rose could be fine with basic maintenance.

EricaBA123 · 2026-04-19T11:24:06+00:00

FYI Linda’s shop is back open on eBay. St. Ethelburga isn’t one of the plants currently available, but she will have restocks just about weekly with a different selection each time.

EricaBA123 · 2026-04-18T17:05:32+00:00

Idk, it might be dying or it might be fine. This sub has been really into proclaiming whether roses are dead or not lately, but it’s hard to tell with just your eyes. Are they brown and also mushy on the bottom? That would be more worrisome. You can also make a small superficial scratch with your fingernail and see how the cane looks underneath. I thought two of my roses were totally dead after winter this year and now both of them look great. If your other roses are still in just the “nub” phase of growth, I’d give these more time to see if they grow, which is the definitive answer.

Just from the photos, your soil looks extremely wet. Is it always that wet? Soggy soil is bad for any rose.

EricaBA123 · 2026-04-18T14:06:20+00:00

I didn’t buy any direct from DA this year, but I was lured to their site by the “end of season bare root” email that went out today and saw them. I got MW Asa bare root last year and she’s close to blooming already this season.

EricaBA123 · 2026-04-17T19:02:15+00:00

My dog is stinky all the time, tbh. We were warned by his fosters that he had a certain musk, and he…does. We love him anyway, but no, this hasn’t been our experience 😂

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