The Weather in North East UK is highly bothersome this June. I keep seeing gardens on TV which are full of flowers and colour and all I have are forget me nots and a recently delivered rose which has been enjoying some southern sunshine.
I’m a bit worried it looks like some balling is occurring on Diamond Jubilee. If this is not too bad can I still open up the flowers and see whether the reproductive parts are viable? I’ve not had this problem with D.J before, it’s just a very funny year of weather!
P.S anyone else in the UK struggling to get things to flower this year??
I’m not in the UK, but what you describe is normal for this time of year along the coast of California. Sure, pull it apart and see if botrytis has started yet or not. You may be able to still use it if you’ve caught it early enough. Good luck!
Thanks Kim, I’ve given it ago. Everything seems well formed, and by the evening it was sticky and considering the amount of pollen I threw at it things look good! First ever cross accomplished!
Congratulations! Here we call this May gray, and June gloom because that is when the AM fog really rolls in, but it is unpredictable. Not much of it this yr. It is a good thing to know that you can pull petals off of a developing bud almost anytime after you can get a little ‘sponginess’ feel to the buds if you give them a squeeze, for either the purpose of applying pollen or harvesting pollen, or in many cases both. Sometimes pollen will be reluctant to shed or ‘release’ when harvested a day or two early but many roses will not have a fertility issue when pollinated a little early.