Hello Dear Rose Friends,
As we exit the second month of winter and here at Clonbinane, we’re hoping to see signs of sunny days to dry our sodden ‘patch'.
Another week passes and still, no standard roses are dug but a little bit of light with a few bush / climbing rose varieties coming through to enable fulfillment of another bunch of orders.
If you are patient, you will almost definitely get the roses you ordered but we have to be able to get heavy machinery onto the paddock; this is impossible under current wet conditions.
Mary had a very good question in her letter I'd like to answer here.
"Dear Graham, Today I will be pruning my final rose, Pierre de Ronsard - one of the many purchased from you. That completes all 75 - plus a huge number of shrubs I decided to use the same method for. For the first time, I utilized my small hedge trimmer, and I must say apart from a few ragged ends requiring a tidy up, it was a very quick and much easier job.
The down-side however, was the picking up being more onerous than the usual cut and barrow drop method, still, the extra bending is a beneficial exercise - always an upside."
There’s absolutely no doubt that mechanical pruning is way, way easier and for the time-poor, it’s definitely much quicker and you’re right Mary, the exercise is very good for you. I find using one of those cheap plastic rakes picks up all the bits, even from within the bush without damaging branches, and with my sturdy gloves on, I can create piles to throw into the barrow.
"My concern is the warning of never using the same sprayer for herbicide and organic spraying. I have done so for years, and no side effects noted, but can you please explain to your many grateful followers just why this is so detrimental. I am now going to purchase a separate sprayer, but I am very curious as to why the directive."
Mary, you must be a very diligent cleaner! Over 35 years in this business, I’ve heard countless sad stories where whole rose gardens were destroyed by residual herbicide in a spray unit … glad you’re purchasing a separate sprayer even though you’ve been lucky!
You should all take Mary’s lead and purchase a spray unit for herbicide and a separate spray unit for applying the organic rose management program.
Never, ever, store chemicals in unlabelled bottles – this happens when people want to share the cost of their gardening products … take extreme care with this – in fact, don’t EVER do it and don’t crowd the garage/garden shed with lots of different products. You or another family member might become confused because lots of products are now sold in similar size/shape packs and it is so very easy to be distracted and use a herbicide instead of an insecticide! TAKE EXTREME CARE WITH THIS AT ALL TIMES.
JOKE THIS WEEK:
Two cowboys are lost in the desert. One cowboy sees a tree that’s covered in bacon. “A bacon tree! We’re saved!” he says. He runs up to the tree and gets shot.
It wasn’t a bacon tree. It was a ham bush!
Our Golden Delights Rose Bundle this Week Includes these beautiful golden roses...
The Golden Child
A magnificent Modern Shrub Rose which produces masses of bright canary yellow clusters of fragrant blooms on a beautifully healthy shrub with glossy mid-green foliage and magnificent crimson new foliage - very highly recommended rose!
The Poet’s Wife
This is a beautiful yellow David Austin rose which produces masses of large cupped blooms of a lovely rich yellow, which pale as they age and are produced in small clusters. The fully double blooms contain a wonderfully rich fruity fragrance with hints of lemon.
Soul Mate
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. This is a beautiful gift rose as yellow is a symbol of friendship and your 'soul mate' is usually your friend!
My daffodils and jonquils are starting to flower. Jonquils are such great value and every garden should have at least one clump of them to brighten the dreary, winter garden.
Once the golden daffodils are finished, have these three beautiful yellow roses to take their place and flower for the next 8-9 months.
Meantime, get geared up for a week of weeding from this Sunday until the following Saturday. I still follow the moon-planting guide, most especially when it comes to weeding. Don’t think I’m crazy; go test this yourself.
Pop outside and pull a few weeds now – because of sopping conditions, they may come out cleanly, roots and all.
However, if you do the same weeding on Sunday and every/any day through next week until Saturday, you’ll ensure your garden will be weed-free for many weeks to come, without the use of herbicide because this is a moon-phase that aligns with weeding!
Bring on the sunshine … cheers from Graham, Diana & Mooi at Silkies Rose Farm.