Autumn Roses
Hello Dear Rose Friends! As we experience the most glorious autumn weather here at Clonbinane with these lovely misty mornings, sunny days and cool evenings, we wait for daylight savings to end. We love to start our days early but it’s not light until 7am!
Now is a great time to take wonderful photos of roses as the depth of colour in the cooler weather is superb. Go visiting public gardens or take pics of roses in local gardens on your daily walk. Don’t hesitate to ask the garden owner for the name of a particular rose you’d love to grow in your garden. You can add it to your winter bare-rooted rose order!
If you cannot find the rose name, take good close-up photos of the flower and don’t forget to capture the foliage as we can often identify a rose more easily by the foliage than the flower.
A little giggle for you this week:
Q. What do you get if you cross an angry dentist with an angry manicurist?
A. A couple who’ll fight tooth and nail!
If you bring a rose to the Rose Farm for identification, please bring flower, stem and foliage!!! This is vitally important for correct identification.
Autumn Rose Management
- Trim: Trim your roses now and in 45 days and right into May/June you’ll have lots of beautiful rose blooms. Trim 15-20 cm right down using clean, sharp secateurs.
- Fertilize: Give a handful of complete organic fertilizer (COF includes a balance of N:P:K and trace elements) sprinkled around the canopy of each bush (check for best quality fertilizer at your local garden centre).
- Water: Soak at least 20 litres of water to each rose bush at least once a week throughout this dry period; water in the morning only!
- Spray: Spray organic rose management products on bushes, perhaps every 10 days whilst humid conditions prevail.
- Plant: Plant a new rose in your garden this autumn. This is such a special time to plant roses because they will settle well before winter and be well established and flowering in spring!
Old-Fashioned Roses to Plant in Autumn
Large ramblers are ideal to plant in autumn so they’ll establish well and then flower prolifically again later this year. Below are a couple of my most favourite old-fashioned roses which are still available as potted specimens.
ALBERTINE: One of the most prolific and magnificent old-fashioned ramblers to plant for protection against property invasion – this thorny beauty only flowers in spring with breath-taking abundance. SHOP NOW!
New Dawn: Stunningly pretty-in-pale-pink and flowering all season this thorny beauty is ideal in many, many situations where the dense cover and continual flower is necessary. SHOP NOW!
Stanwell Perpetual: As the name suggests, it will flower perpetually in your garden all season and take your breath away with its constant beauty! SHOP NOW!
Rugosa Scabrose: Flowering now and right through autumn it will then set hips which you can use for decoration or cooking – very versatile rose! SHOP NOW!
One last giggle before you go!
Q. Why can’t you keep secrets in a bank?
A. Because it’s always full of tellers.
Enjoy the freedom to wander around your State during time-out and get organised for an Easter holiday somewhere here in Australia …
Hope we see you soon here at Clonbinane ... Graham, Diana & Mooi