Hello Dear Rose Friends,
We wish you good health and happiness in your garden as we commence another year of bringing you our weekly email to ensure you grow the loveliest and most bountiful roses in your garden!
I’ve missed writing the Rose Rambler and so found myself frequently chatting to you all. I should learn how to type my thoughts into my mobile phone perhaps because now I’m here at the computer composing this issue and I’m wracking my brain to remember what I was banging on about … over to Graham who’s sure to have plenty to say!
Deep-Soaking Your Garden
Did you get caught out like we did? Soaking rain for months on end so I was sure garden beds were adequately moist until I dug some weeds and realised I needed to turn the tap on. Because the soil had dried so radically, I’ve been making lots of soil-wetter solution and pouring it around my veggie seedlings, newly planted roses and areas where the soil very quickly became hydrophobic.
This happened so quickly and is an unprecedented event in my time as a gardener so I hope you’ve turned on your irrigation system or given particular attention to deep-soaking your garden. (Seems all our QLD, NSW and SA readers have and are still having soaking rain and lots of humidity so this obviously doesn’t apply to you!)
OUR FIRST GIGGLE FOR THE NEW YEAR:
Q: What has four legs and doesn’t walk?
A: A table.
Water Even Though It's Rained
Usually, we don’t need to water the potted roses if we’ve measured 6mm of rain. We’ve extended that now to 10mm of rain simply because the sun ‘packs a punch’ when it shines and we don’t want our pots stressed due to lack of moisture. Our potted roses look absolutely sensational right now!
Fertilizing & Pruning Roses
If you don’t have access to irrigation, don’t fertilize your roses until you know it’s going to rain at least 10mm over your garden!
Otherwise, it’s mid-summer and time to ‘summer prune’ your roses by removing around 1/3 of the entire bush. Leave as much foliage on the plant as is possible. This will protect the plant from sunburn just in case there are hot days in the forecast!
Once you’ve pruned the roses, toss organic fertilizer around the entire root-zone of each plant and then turn on the tap to give a generous deep soaking until puddles form. You’ll be rewarded with lush, healthy foliage followed by masses of blooms through late summer and onwards. Remember my rule here … lots of healthy foliage = lots of beautiful rose blooms!
ONE MORE GIGGLE THIS WEEK:
Q: What did the digital clock say to its Mother?
A: Look Mum, no hands!
Gathering Budwood
Prior to heading off on our holiday, we spent a day in Ken’s garden at Tallarook where Diana pruned and I gathered enough budwood to create 11,000 new rose bushes for our grower who has been extremely sick with Legionnaires disease. We gathered about 2,200 stems with around 5 buds per stem. We’ve never pruned all day as on that day and Diana mentioned that she sure felt it for a few days hence … nice feeling though to be helping our rose-grower friend!
Budwood Stem
This is a stem of budwood so that you know what we had to do with our team of helpers … all family of course!
This budwood stick has been appropriately trimmed by Ben, Jason, Logan and Cooper leaving the petiole so the budder can handle the stick and easily remove each bud to safely insert it onto the understock – budding tape secures the bud in place.
Pic from left to right – Diana, grandsons Logan, 14 and Cooper, 11 Ben and his friend, Jason (newest addition to our team here at Silkies Rose Farm) and Graham. Note the car loaded with boxes of damp-newspaper-wrapped and sealed budwood which we drove to SA the following Monday.
Budwood Petiole
This pic shows the piece of budwood removed from the stem with the petiole in place and ready to have the wood removed (left). The top right is the piece that is inserted to the understock to become the new rose. Below you can see the sappy piece of wood which was removed and discarded.
It was, once again, awesome to see all the roses out in the fields. We’ve selected our 2022 New Release roses so watch this space next week when we’ll have photos and descriptions available for you.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION …
- SILKIES ROSE FARM, CLONBINANE will be closed to visitors until FRIDAY, 4TH FEBRUARY due to Covid-19. Both Graham and Diana, their staff are all well however, extended family have had and still have Covid-19 so we need to protect ourselves and our customers.
- Due to the Australia Day Holiday next week, no potted roses will be posted until MONDAY, 31ST JANUARY to ensure our beautiful roses aren’t held up in transit.
- We urge you to continue purchasing bare-rooted roses for supply this winter as we will RETAIN 2021 PRICES UNTIL 28TH FEBRUARY, 2022.
- NEW PHONE NUMBER – please delete 03 5787 1123 landline as we now use 0418 33 77 65 mobile with better reception – easy too for you to send a quick photo if there are issues with your roses!
We wish you a happy Australia Day and will have a great special offer next week. In the meantime, stay well and enjoy summer pruning your roses … Graham, Diana, Mooi and the team at Silkies …