goodbye to the evil roses of doom!

[deird_lj]

I dug up two roses today. Very hard work.

*is exhausted and dirt-covered*


There are still two left to dig up. If I just leave them there and keep cutting them so that they can't grow, will they die? (If so, I think I might wait until they die, and then dig them out later...)



Next I'm going to replace the roses with nice bushes of some variety. No idea what - but I'll stop in at a nursery this week and ask for suggestions.

Somehow, I seem to have become a gardener...

Comments

[diebirchen.livejournal.com]

No. Constantly cutting them back won't kill them. One option is a herbicide, causing the roots to dessicate and loosen as the plant dies, making the digging out easier, but you may prefer not to use poisons in your garden. Are you using a shovel? Probably. Bringing up rose bushes is easier with a strong garden turning fork. One can go deeper and use it to lever out the root system. Try that.

[taiba.livejournal.com]

doesn't pruning them only make them stronger?

[diebirchen.livejournal.com]

Depends on how it's done. If one prunes some of the canes of the roses, those remaining will strengthen. Any plant has X amount of growing strength, and intelligent pruning directs more nutrients and so forth to what remains. Just cutting them back doesn't mean the roots below the ground will die. In some freezes, everything above the ground will die, but in spring, the root stock puts forth new growth.

[diamondtook862.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Roses are tough cookies. We keep trying to dig ours out and they still come back seasonally. It's been 20 years! I like them though... Now.

[willowy-dawn.livejournal.com]

Sadly, tho my sweet & simple father was a gifted florist, I was the only one of the girls NOT to work in the biz so I can barely tell a rose from a . . . something that's not a rose. He left the gardening to mum, who generally killed things she was trying to cultivate.

[klme.livejournal.com]

NO!
Which roses???
I planted them!!! Why why why did you dig them up???

[deird1]

Relax - I'm leaving the ones that are actually healthy and not destroying my garden...

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

One word: flamethrower.

[deird1]

Heh. Excellent plan.

[louise39.livejournal.com]

The only true way to kill roses is to want them to live!!

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

Goodbye roses. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.


Gabrielle

[lavastar.livejournal.com]

Eek, sounds tough. Hope it all goes smoothly. :)