Hello Dear Rose Friends,
We hope you’re enjoying some cuddly mornings, hunkering down for another snooze while the kids are on school holidays – we remember those times well! All routine was thrown out the window, lazing around in jarmies all morning because we could stay up later than usual and play-out a game of Monopoly … ah, the joys of it all!
… We’re anxiously waiting for the next supply of bare-rooted roses to arrive towards the end of this week – it’s all been very comfortably spaced this season with a very early start and a nice spread of supply dribbling in over the past six weeks.
Now, of course, we look forward to seeing that we actually get the roses we ordered and it seems, from our chats with our growers, things are looking very promising indeed and that means you, our customers will get the rose varieties you ordered!
This means the next few weeks we’ll be flat-out grading, sorting, labelling and posting your long-anticipated roses … if you’re on holidays and don’t want us to post roses during this time, please send an email to: info@rosesalesonline.com.au with the dates you’re away and we’ll mark your order accordingly.
BONES OF THE WINTER GARDEN ...
As most of our deciduous plants have now lost all their foliage after many days of below-zero frosts, this is an opportune time to walk in the garden with our team and decide which branches of the trees should be removed in coming weeks.
Things like, Ben rides the mower – where did he have issues with low branches last season? Diana likes to be able to physically see cars driving by on the main road because if we can see them, they can see us and that adds a measure of security to our home. Which tree branches need to be removed in order that we have this visibility throughout next season?
Jason and Janelle are always maintaining the garden so perhaps they might see issues that, if branches are pruned now during winter, our plants will be healthier, our fruit trees more productive and less diseased and generally, aesthetically, the garden will be more structurally pretty and tidy.
And, of course, our roses show us the bones of their structure and this enables us to make decisions about which branches to remove and which to keep for the coming season of healthy foliage and prolific blooming.
HAVE A GIGGLE
Q. What is a complete waste of time?
A. Telling a hair-raising story to a bald man.
We’ve been asked to video our pruning demos but we’re not quite there yet! Meantime, here are a few BEFORE PRUNING pictures.
FRANCIS MEILLAND, FATHER OF PEACE is very easy because all the watershoots are dark purple and we want those to remain the structure of this plant … most Hybrid Tea roses indicate where to prune once they’ve lost their foliage. Remove two-thirds of each branch and all dead/old foliage should be cut down to the crown/bud-union.
STANWELL PERPETUAL which had frozen flowers just recently is an old-fashioned shrub rose which will just get a neat trim of about 1/3 and remove those two strong new growths back to within the rounded shape of the bush – easy! Most old-fashioned roses will be more than pleased with this type of pruning.
COCONUT ICE is a very typical Modern Shrub Rose … lots of branches which provide an immense amount of lovely blooms over a very long season provided the shrub is trimmed constantly throughout the flowering season … easy to prune by removing all old wood right down to the crown/bud-union and pruning at least half of each branch.
I haven’t had time to take AFTER PRUNING shots so stay posted next week and do buy your ticket at this pruning demonstration to be held on 28th July …
Remember, at all times, you CANNOT do it WRONG but you must DO IT …
POSTING STANDARD ROSES ...
Finally, after establishing an account with StarTrack we are now able to send you our magnificent standard roses … the most cost-effective way to do this is for each of us to create a PARCEL COLLECT SERVICE which means that our boxes go from one business to another business and attract the cheapest possible rates as Road Express – to be delivered to your door would attract a Premium rate which is at least four times higher than Road Express!
Please consider obtaining this free service so that we can send our standard roses to you and you’ll receive tracking notification when your parcel is delivered to your designated Post Office. Here’s the link …
Meantime, for those of you who have received roses this past winter, have you done as we suggested and trimmed them by at least one-third? If not, do it now!!!
HAVE ANOTHER GIGGLE
Q. What happens when a flower blushes?
A. It turns Rosy!
Stay warm and dry – we’ll be working flat-out the get your roses posted as soon as possible so go and dig a few planting holes, pour seaweed solution over the area and have sturdy metal stakes ready if you’re planting standard roses. Best wishes from all of us here at Clonbinane.