First Blooms of the Season
I’m sure you would agree that there just aren’t enough hours in every day, despite longer daylight hours with summer edging closer. We’re still trying to mow areas of lawn which remain sodden, so I’m challenging Gra to a gumboot and mower race – there’s no way we can take ride-on mowers but we’ve got two push mowers… what fun!
Sometimes, when we’re challenged in our gardening endeavours, we have to find a creative escape. I remember many years ago when rose gardens around the Pyalong area (just north-west of Kilmore) were devastated by a plague of locusts there didn’t seem a bright side.
Despite the ravaged onslaught, those gardens were more magnificent than they’d ever been in the autumn after the ‘locust prune’! Such a relief and joy to those gardeners who thought their gardens would never flourish.
I’m seeing the current months of deluge as potential for the most amazing blooming we’ve ever seen on our roses! Let’s wait and see…
To enable our soil to ‘breathe’ during and after the amazing rain events across many areas of Australia, can I recommend you do a bit of soil aerating – a simple task!
About 20cms away from the crown – more if it’s a really old rose with a huge base – press a garden fork into the soil, give it a wriggle. Do this four or five times around the base of each rose and if you haven’t already applied fertilizer, toss it over the entire root zone – at least one handful per rose bush.
Although it seems highly unlikely while it continues to rain, before we know it, the sun will shine hot and now is the time to apply a good thick layer of mulch around the base of each rose to protect the soil.
A layer of peastraw/lucerne mulch (or whatever product you prefer to use) will ensure all the worms, microbes and beneficial organisms in the soil will continue to thrive, thus enhancing the proliferation of magnificent rose blooms in your garden throughout the summer.
"We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses."
Abraham Lincoln
First Roses to Flower
It’s been so wet and this past week and we’ve had two severely frosty mornings here at Clonbinane but despite the weather, these two magnificent climbing roses have graced our gardens with their first blooms for this season…
FIRST ROSES TO FLOWER BUNDLE INCLUDING PACK/POST - $95
These two wonderful climbing roses are almost ready to flower in their pots and can be posted NOW for just $95.00
A giggle before you go ...
Q: Why did the turtle have a bad time with her date?
A: He wouldn't come out of his shell!
We hope your garden wasn’t ravaged by recent rain events.
Please, mark
3rd December, 2022 as your day out to celebrate the Gardens of Clonbinane. There are five gardens for you to explore which are all within a 5km radius of Silkies Rose Farm. We’ll have a coffee van here all day too!
More details to come soon.