ROSE RAMBLER 16TH APRIL, 2020… Hello Dear Rose Friends … we guess your Easter was as quiet as ours when normally we celebrate a whole family get-together. We have to believe that by isolating during this time, we will move more quickly to a time of normality … we certainly hope so!
I’d like to share an extract from Diana’s book: "All About Roses which is very topical now that it’s autumn and bare-rooted rose season starts in June – just six weeks away."
PREPARING THE ROSE BED FOR WINTER PLANTING
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 garden beds for winter planting of bare-rooted roses.
- Remove the grass/weeds to a depth of say, 50mm – 100mm. This ‘turf’ can be laid in another area to create a lawn or place it 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 back-breaking 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.
- Apply gypsum and liquid seaweed over the area then pile on any combination of animal manures or whatever composted material 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 when preparing a new garden bed. Lightly mulch with lucerne or pea straw and water weekly if there is no rain.
- Sprinkle rock dust and liquid sea minerals to ensure a balanced range of earth and sea minerals are incorporated into the soil.
- Liquid 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 for you. As they chew their way through all the manure, straw, leaf litter and goodness you’ve been adding to the site, they will generously add their castings to the soil. If the pile of manure you have applied 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.
- When you are ready to plant the roses, the only area to dig will be at the planting hole. By doing this, you reduce weed activation because you are not disturbing the soil structure of the entire garden bed.
Q. What do you get when you cross a pine tree with an apple tree? A. A pineapple tree.
After all the fabulous rain, your soil should be moist and easy to dig so if you plant potted climbing roses now, they’ll be beautifully established and flower magnificently again in spring.
Enjoy your garden in this magnificent autumn weather! Graham & Diana