Mine's doing the same. We had a dry-ish spring. Maybe that did it. None are blooming around here- and I'm watchin'!

This is the first year mine have really bloomed. I don't count two blooms as really blooming and that was last year. One odd thing I've noticed is that although I have lots of buds on lower branches, including some pink peeping through on some, the buds in the upper branches are either non-existent or they appear to have dried up and I have a feeling they won't bloom. Is this from the heat? Mine is in direct, all day long, screaming hot sun.

Mine finally bloomed this week. The ironic thing -- it was still under a pine tree that Ivan knocked down. I remember last year, it was early September not early October when it bloomed.

The pine tree is off of it now and I'm waiting to see how it does - I thought a huge limb (my plant is more of a tree than a bush) had broken completely, but it appears to be just bent (all the way to the ground).

Now here is my question -- when do I trim it back and how far? It's very awkwardly shaped because it was reaching for sun, but that's not a problem any more (no trees left). Any advice?

Thanks,
JR

Mine finally started blooming this week.

JR.....It won't hurt to cut it back. It will put out from the cut. I would wait until it is finished blooming. In fact, if they are in an area where frost or freeze gets them, they will be killed back to the ground. Then, they come out in the spring and grow like mad.

Some people routinely cut them back every year. And root the cuttings. Did you know that they root very easily?

PeaBee --

Thanks for the advice. I don't think this one has EVER been killed back - it really was protected by other trees. I may just leave it and see what happens (excepting some shaping up) -- unless it's better to cut it back? Does the plant seem to care?

I did happen to root some of it and I have about 8 stems in the house in the kitchen window in water and one that I moved up front earlier this year that just might bloom this year too (how cool is that?)

JR

I just saw some approaching 30 feet outside Waycross, GA. How cold does it have to be to 'knock them back"? Maybe it isn't the cold, but the frost, that is geting them? 30 feet seems an awful lot to have to grow in ONE year...this one ( and others nearly as large) seems like it had not been killed back.

I think it's the frost that gets the smaller stems. A really cold spell will take a small one down to the roots, but the main trunk and bigger branches of big ones seem to make it OK unless the freezing temps stay that way for a couple of days.

I am happy to say that in the last couple of weeks, mine has put on a zillion buds and they are beginning to bloom well. I guess it was just a matter of the weather not suiting it.
PB

Can you collect seeds from confederate roses? I'm rooting some to spread around my yard, but would like to send my mom some seeds to try. Any advice?

JR

I don't know how they are about seeds. I do know that you can send her cuttings if she would like to try that.

Someone in Texas mailed me 12 dry 10-12 inch sticks in a manila envelope. I had sent him 5 bucks and I thought I had been cheated. I didn't see how on earth those pitiful dried up things could possibly root. But, I stuck them under a faucet and kept them damp. Nine out of the twelve rooted. I think that all of them would have if I hadn't just rammed them down in just a few inches of space.

Someone sent me seeds for a confederate rose and that's how I got mine started. I know that cuttings root quickly. I keep looking at mine this year to see if it is forming any seeds but thus far, the blooms just fall off.