Hello Dear Rose Friends,
As roses emerge from their winter dormancy and are flowering across all States now, there’s been an unprecedented demand for us to pack and post our beautiful potted roses which are nicely budding up and nearly flowering.
We all know transit times are somewhat longer than in the past however, our roses are enduring this well since they’re conditioned and well-prepared for the journey. We’ve had some amazingly positive feedback which you can read on our website HERE.
As usual, the challenge NOW is to keep pesky pests and disease under control so diligence with spraying the organic rose management program is imperative to retain good healthy foliage – more foliage = more flowers!
To 10 litres of water add:
- ¼ cup Eco Oil (if pests are rampant, add 20ml Eco-Neem too)
- ¼ cup Eco Fungicide powder
Seaweed product of your choice – We use and recommend Eco Seaweed because you only need a 5g scoop of powder (super economical)!
Vigorously mix all the products together and you can even add a bit of liquid fertilizer as a bonus for the roses setting flower buds. Remember, the seaweed solution is NOT FERTILIZER. It is a plant and soil tonic.
So that you know why to use Eco Oil and Eco Neem on a united front when your plants are under significant impact from pests like aphids is they work differently. Eco Oil suffocates, Eco Neem induces starvation. Used in a program like this:
Frequency to Spray
Spray today, then in 3 days time, 5 days time, 7 days time, and if pests are still visible after diligently spraying undersides of leaves, spray again in 5 days then again in 7 days. I would consider this a very intense spray program which we have never had to undertake as there is lots of good air circulation around our nursery stock plants.
Because we’ve been growing organically for all these years means that we have an army of workers on our team. Aphids are being parasitized by predator wasps which significantly reduce their numbers. Ladybirds are in abundance, hoverflies are evident and our gorgeous little birds like finches, pardalotes and wrens are feasting where aphids prevail.
Weather Conditions Matter
But, saying this, we must always remain diligent and aware of weather conditions because we cannot spray when it’s raining or the temperature exceeds 28-30 degrees. The organic rose management spray contains oil that would burn flowers and foliage if used during hot, sunny conditions!
ECO-NEEM is a registered organic insecticide for the control of a broad range of chewing and sucking insects including: caterpillars, curl grubs, grasshoppers (wingless), aphids, mites, lawn armyworm, citrus leafminer, whitefly, mealybugs and fungus gnats in soil. It will also control sooty mould.
POSSUM PROOF YOUR GARDEN
“Hi Graham - I redesigned the garden to minimise possums grazing the roses. I used the measurements mentioned in this document below and I have been mostly successful with keeping the possums away from the roses. They did come across from the fence last summer on a nearby creeper but I cut that back. It does help having a dog to keep the possums from coming down off the fences.
Our handyman built three obelisks and we installed them away from the fences and had the trees trimmed back. Climbing roses are lovely to look up into. One of our friends said growing them on a fence is like growing the possums’ favourite food."
Some of your Rose Rambler readers may be interested. The measurements of how far possums can jump are in the document below…
‘How far can a possum jump?
The bushy-tailed Brushtails are agile climbers and are able to leap significant distances as they traverse the urban forest. The distance they can jump is dependent on their take-off platform, whether they can get a run-up to it and also how far vertically they need to jump. The more vertical the distance they have to cover, the shorter the distance they can leap (Cavanagh, 2007).
An agile (young) possum can leap from a fixed, solid base, up to 2.5m horizontally or downwards, around 1.2m at an angle of nearly 50o to the horizontal (close to optimum of 45o) and with a run-up, 1.7 m upwards at an angle of around 18o. Vertical jumping appears to be less than 1m (Cavanagh, 2007).’
A GIGGLE TO MAKE YOU SMILE THIS WEEK:
Q: What do you call roses who are BFFs?
A: BUDS!
And one more for good measure...
Q. Did you hear about the lazy rose who finally got his act together?
A. He just needed a kick in the bud.
ROSES THAT WILL MAKE A STATEMENT
Last week I suggested bright yellow roses and now the first orange/apricot roses are flowering, take a look at these beauties which are absolutely sure to make a statement when flowering in your rose garden!
The New Look Rose - extremely healthy foliage adorns the rose and as the orange bud opens, it magically seems to form a central secondary rose inside, which really encapsulates this extraordinary and unique bloom. BUY NOW!
Bathsheba - such a wonderful modern shrub rose which produces a tidy rozette of muddled warm yellow petals on a very free-flowering, healthy shrub which branches to about 1 metre. BUY NOW!
For Your Eyes Only - Voted Rose of the Year for 2015 in UK, this repeat flowering floribunda/modern shrub rose will flower continuously throughout the flowering season. This beautiful, interesting rose is the result of over 30 years of selective breeding by Chris Warner, UK. BUY NOW!
All the above roses are very different so, if you only need one climber, one ground-covering shrub-type and one bush, order all three and you’ve got yourself a garden bed of roses!
You’ll definitely have the neighbours asking where you got your roses because I know for sure they’ll smell Bathsheba through the fence from your place!
Have a great week in your garden. Breathe the fragrance of your roses and know that whatever our current situation incurs, you and your garden will prevail. Our sincere best wishes to you all … Cheers from Gra, Diana, Mooi and the flowers at Clonbinane …