Hello Dear Rose Friends,
With rose budding season behind us, the roses now need to set about growing nicely until winter. We are already prepared for the fact that this coming digging season might be later than in previous years.
This is due to a delay in getting specialist budders into Australia from UK. Also, extremely wet weather conditions meant it was cooler so rose sap was more slow-moving. Then, everything happened to sync because as soon as the budders arrived, the weather improved, the sap was flowing and the budders were out in the field from sunup to sundown!
We are very confident that we have planned well and will have adequate stock to fulfil winter rose orders and get lovely quality roses in the post during June – September.
Glorious autumn weather has had a very positive impact on our potted roses. They look stunning and the lasting quality of the blooms has increased with reduced daytime temperature.
I’m pleased to report that we have transitioned our potted roses from chemical fertilizer over to totally organic fertilizer and although there was a bit of stress along the way, the roses are obviously enjoying it now.
Our reason for making this move is that we know that organic fertilizer naturally increases plant sugars which pests and diseases don’t like and we hadn’t used chemical fertilizer on our gardens for more than 30 years and never had any issues with pests and diseases in the garden roses!
We now monitor the brix level of rose leaves using a portable refractometer. It’s fascinating working with Graeme Joyce from Soilcharge. We’ll have Living Earth Bio Stimulant added to our special coir-fibre potting media this coming season and with the potted roses looking so extremely healthy, moving forward, we’ll never use chemical fertilizer again.
One never stops learning in the adventure of gardening and you can be sure that whilst I’m sitting in Cafés having my chai latte, I’m constantly reading and researching how to grow roses more organically / biodynamically with consideration of our environment at the forefront all the time and I’ll share my information freely!
A GIGGLE FOR YOU:
Q: How long should a pony’s legs be?
A: Long enough to reach the ground!
We’re pleased to finally introduce the 2022 NEW RELEASE DAVID AUSTIN roses
Dame Judi Dench: The blooms of Dame Judi Dench are a particularly rich shade of apricot-orange, paling prettily towards the edges. The striking, red-tipped buds gradually open to reveal large informal rosettes, each with ruffled petals and a button eye.
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James L Austin bears large, many petalled, deep pink rosettes, each with a button eye. It forms a neat and tidy shrub with a bushy, upright habit, and it’s named for the son of David Austin Senior and brother of David Austin Junior.
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Vanessa Bell: Pink-tinged buds open to medium-sized cups held in large clusters of a pale yellow, fading to white at the edges; each bloom has a rich yellow eye. Vanessa Bell forms a bushy, upright shrub.
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These varieties, along with the 2023 New Release varieties, are already planted in our gardens here at Clonbinane so if you’re coming to visit please do check them for yourself – we’re very excited as they were highly recommended by the team at David Austin, UK and performed well in trials during the past few years so they’re sure to grow well in our Australian gardens.
I’ll continue to update with new photos during autumn flowering.
PREPARING A NEW ROSE BED
The most successful and rewarding rose gardens are those where the soil was well prepared prior to planting and autumn is the ideal season to prepare your new gardens for winter planting of bare-rooted roses.
Here’s what we recommend:
- Remove the grass/weeds to a depth of about 5-8cms. This ‘turf’ can be laid in another area to create a lawn or place it upside down on the compost heap where it will break down and provide compost for another garden bed once the weeds are ‘cooked’.
- Do not dig the cleared area because it is backbreaking work and there is no need for you to do it! There is an army of workers waiting underground for you to proceed to the next step of creating this new rose bed and they will happily do all the necessary digging and aerating which is essential to create a well-drained site suitable for bare-rooted roses to thrive.
- Apply gypsum and Eco-seaweed over the area and then pile on any combination of animal manures or whatever composted material is available. Take some litter from under a range of shrubs and trees in other areas of your garden and spread them over the compost. This will supply mycorrhiza (fungi) from your own garden environment and is an integral component in the soil life of a new garden bed.
- Lightly mulch with lucerne or pea straw and water weekly if there is no rain.
- Eco-seaweed applied weekly will act as a soil conditioner as well as feed the worms, your army of workers without whom your garden will not flourish at all. They will rapidly come to the surface and begin aerating the soil as they chew their way through all the manure, straw, leaf litter and goodies you’ve been adding to the site. They’ll generously reward you by adding their castings to the soil.
- If the pile rots down to become humus and the bed needs to be raised, keep adding more manure and straw layers up to four weeks prior to planting new roses.
- When you’re ready to plant, only dig the area at the planting hole. By doing this, you reduce weed activation which occurs when you disturb the soil structure.
This type of garden preparation is called ‘no dig’ which is good for your back and great for the soil – start NOW!
ONE MORE GIGGLE BEFORE YOU GO:
Q: Why is a snail stronger than an elephant?
A: A snail carries its house and an elephant only carries its trunk!
The website www.rosesalesonline.com.au is constantly being updated with new release roses and we are also re-introducing some varieties.
Remember, you can add to or change your order selection by emailing us: info@rosesalesonline.com.au and our phones are only manned during business hours: Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday 9am – 4pm.
NEW PHONE NUMBER: 0418 33 77 65
Happy autumn gardening! Cheers from Gra and Diana, Mooi and the team here at Silkies Rose Farm, Clonbinane …