Hello Dear Rose Friends,
Already the first month of spring is behind us which is seriously exciting times for the colder climate rose gardens … lush, healthy foliage and lots of rose buds sending a cheery promise of things to come.
Thank you for your gracious emails about the FREE Mr. Lincoln bare-rooted yearling rose which we posted with every order recently! Believe me, with every one that went, I packed and sent it on its way singing “… from small things, big things grow!” Be sure and offer your Mr. Lincoln rose a prime location – it’s a magnificent rose and you’ll never have to buy Valentine’s Day red roses as long as you have this beauty in your garden!
Although the earth shook last week, here at Silkies Rose Farm, we have no damage as a result of the reported earthquake. Yes, Victoria is receiving a battering right now and we are truly thankful for your caring!!!
Here at Clonbinane, we’ve got quite a few varieties showing colour which is extremely early. If you haven’t already started, now would be perfect timing to commence the ORGANIC ROSE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM and then keep an eye on things just as I recommended to Sue …
"Hi Gra … I have the 3 products u recommended for spraying (fungicide, eco oil , seaweed) Do I spray fortnightly or monthly.
Also, I moved the Madame Alfred Carriere I bought from you last year, as it was too shady. Going beautifully in pot now, but I want in garden. I have pierre de ronsard on arch, which has beautiful blooms but not a thick cover. Can I plant Madame A C next to existing rose to climb on same arch.
Thanks & Stay well & positive – Sue"
My response to Sue: You can start spraying on a monthly basis - keep an eye on weather and when/if humidity is imminent, it might be worth spraying prior to weather event. It's up to you - we have customers who spray every fortnight just because they have the time and like the regularity of doing this task. We prefer to spray according to plant needs and weather ...
Yes, you could definitely pop that MAC next to PdR ... spectacular! You'll start to believe the PdR has a fragrance which it definitely doesn't!!! Haha!!! Gra
JOKE THIS WEEK:
Q: What do you call a cow that eats your grass?
A: A lawn mooer … we all need one of these now that spring has sprung!
Watering Potted Roses
Potted Golden Celebration
Interesting for everyone to note that Nancy is managing the pot really well because she’s got a fine (lucerne/pea straw) mulch over the potting media. If she ensures every grain of the media is moist by; deep soak watering EVERY DAY during the warmer months, fertilizing every 2-3 weeks, pour/spraying the organic rose management products over foliage at least monthly and sneaking an extra cover of seaweed solution in between, she’ll continue to enjoy a prolific number of blooms all season. SHOP NOW!
Thorns and flowers grow together
So that flowers can be infinitely more appreciated …
-Sri Chinmoy
APHIDS, MITE, THRIP and ONION WEED
This email came from Raymond and it’s important to share since so many of us are confused about the three pesky insects which tend to plague our roses at this time of year.
"Hello, just to let your know that our roses arrived in good order and are now in the ground and growing healthily. So thanks for packing them so carefully.
I've given our other roses a spray with your suggested organic maintenance mix and marked in my calendar for regular application. I notice there are still some aphid on the odd rose. I've never had much success using eco oil to control aphid so fingers crossed.
Here in Canberra I find our roses tend to get mite infestations in the midst of our hot dry summers, and by the time I recognise it, it is usually too late. Should this spray program control mites as well?
Thanks again for your efforts on our behalf.
If you also know how to control onion weed in your rose bed (brought in with some mulch I fear) you will be my all-time favourite people.
Regards … Raymond"
MY RESPONSE
I hope you store this vital information for future use in your garden.
Hi Raymond … a few issues here … there should be some APHID – that means things are in balance … organics won’t KILL EVERYTHING. We need food for the beneficials so having some aphid apparent, is good. What you’ve done with Eco oil is interrupted the breeding cycle by suffocating larval stage aphids. Adding Eco Neem if there is a serious issue works well. Insects ingest the Neem and it triggers them to stop eating and thus perish.
MITES will definitely be controlled by Eco-oil / Neem combo. These pests are usually evident in dry, airless situations and you’ll see the webbing of their presence and on close inspection see them crawling.
However, I’m thinking that you might be referring to THRIP. They’re super pests that fly in on hot, dry winds, burrow deep down into the rose petals scarring as they go, especially pale blooms look dreadful after a thrip invasion. Then the only thing you can do is trim all those flowers off and wait for the next round of blooms. No, no amount of organic (or possibly even chemical spray) will rid you of thrips unless you happened to be spraying whilst they’re landing in your garden – once they’re down in the buds, no amount of spray will get them!
ONION WEED – You may not believe me on this one but let me tell you my experience. It was a relatively new garden bed on the eastern side of the nursery and we didn’t do a great deal of soil preparation prior to planting nearly ten years ago. Diana did a lovely garden design, everybody got on board for planting, mulching, etc. and the roses grew beautifully but the pesky onion weed became a problem.
We would go up to that garden and on the odd occasion, the weeds would pull out, bulb and all. Other times, just the green head pulled away and we knew not to pursue weeding. A few years ago, on a day when the bulbs came up easily, we got into the garden with a few of us and removed every single onion weed that was evident …
Today, there’s the occasional onion weed but honestly, we know that we weeded that bed on a ‘weeding moon phase’. We purchase Better Homes & Gardens monthly magazine and follow the ‘moon guide’ very particularly for weeding programs and it definitely makes a huge difference to garden management!
Since it’s just around the corner, the next ‘BEST TIME FOR WEEDING’ is Friday, 1st October till 5th October. Have a go and let us know your findings. Thanks … Gra
Hope this information helps with your rose garden management during spring and beyond. Enjoy the sunshine and take quiet moments to reflect and be happy in your garden.
Cheers from Gra, Diana, Mooi and the flowers at Clonbinane …