Hello Dear Rose Friends,
It was a very hot Labour Day long-weekend but we kept our gardens and potted roses well irrigated and they’ve come through with flying colours!
We hope you turned the water on at your place … after such a hot spell, it’s not too late to give your roses a good deep soaking this weekend unless we get more than 10mm of rain!
I need to share this email exchange with you so that you are reminded to select the right rose for the right location and in order to get it right, perhaps you should have a conversation with us prior to ordering – Diana loves nothing more than assisting with rose garden design and creation from wo-to-go so she’s the person you need to have on team!
We wish we could have consulted with Bron 12 years ago when she was doing this planting …
BRON:
"G’day, I’m wanting to grow a hedge of ‘Blue For You’ roses and need to know what spacing is recommended please. The hedge will go around a verandah with spacing needed for the front entrance. Thanks for your help … Bron"
RESPONSE:
"Wow Bron ... what a spectacle that will be! I was just admiring my own plant as I was weeding this morning ... it's such a gem ...
If you want it really dense, almost impenetrable, 75cms apart but no more than 90cms would be my recommendation ... cheers"
BRON:
"Thanks guys, that is exactly the info I was needing. Now I need to measure and order so that I can get them planted as soon as the time is right.
My mother-in-law has a Blue for You rose buried under her huge Echium. I was blown away by the colour, form and perfume of this dear little rose but she didn’t remember what it was called. That’s when I started digging - she said the tag was there - and I found it! Yay.
I am removing 13 x 12 year old, standard roses from the narrow veranda garden. I made the wrong choice with David Austin’s Abraham Darby Rose. Turns out it isn’t suitable as a standard rose. Its annual water shoots are magnificent, growing to a metre or more and carrying many blooms but this isn’t an ideal trait for a standard rose. These massive stems bend and break in the wind and when rain water fills the flowers they are weighed down even further. They look a mess. I will try to transplant some of them elsewhere in the garden where they won’t be belted around by the wind or accosting anyone walking along the veranda, with their sizeable thorns.
In perfect conditions Abraham Darby flowers are beautiful, with over 100 petals (I’ve counted them!) and they smell divine. Thanks again for your advice. Bron"
A story of two very beautiful roses –
Abraham Darby which we stock as a climbing rose because it will indeed produce flowering stems at least 1.8metres long (available now for pre-order bare-rooted winter delivery) and Blue For You which is a delightfully rounded shrub which has, quoting Bron “colour, form and perfume …” but is not so “little” as the shrub can achieve 1.2 metres around if left to its own devices.
BUY ONE BLUE FOR YOU AND GET GRA'S BLUE ½ PRICE ...
BUY ONE BLUE FOR YOU AND GET ONE GRA'S BLUE HALF PRICE $63.75 PLUS PACK AND POST FOR TWO VERY SPECIAL 'BLUE' ROSES.
HAVE A GIGGLE
Two slices of bread got married. The ceremony was going great until somebody decided to toast the Bride and Groom.
INSECTS WHICH MAY BE CAUSING ISSUES IN YOUR GARDEN ...
These past few weekends we’ve had many customers talking about aphids being rampant which can cause foliage to look like this …
Steve at OCP says: “The shiny stuff on the leaves is honeydew. Higher up on the rose stem they’ll have had aphids, or maybe mites or whitefly, sucking the sap and then creating the sugary waste product (honeydew). If they can’t see any pests then perhaps they’ve since moved on and the honeydew will disappear over time. If they are now noticing they do have aphids (or mites or whitefly) then a spray of eco-oil or eco-neem will get them under control and the honeydew will then stop too.”
LEAF-CUTTER BEE ...
If you have issues with this bee in your garden, here’s Steve at OCP’s advice:
“The circular holes in the leaves are from the leaf-cutter bee. They cut these very distinctive shapes out and use the piece of leaf to line their nests. Nothing to worry about as it’s nice to know there’s bee diversity happening in their garden. If they are worried then just fertilise the rose and it’ll grow some more leaves.”
MONOLEPTA BETTLE ...
Take a moment to watch this video to completely understand the Monolepta Bettle ...
WATCH HERE
Advice from Steve at OCP …
“
The photo you sent is of a monolepta beetle, commonly called the red-shouldered beetle because of its markings. It tends to arrive in “waves” and will chew through quite a broad range of plants, including roses.
Historically it’s only been a pest in the warmer parts of the country but recently I’ve started to hear about it appearing further south. Perhaps it’s a sign of what’s to come.
Anyway to control it you can spray with any broad spectrum insecticide that will control other beetles/bugs. This will rely on good spray covered to ensure the spray droplets hit all the beetles and kill them. Best to spray later in the day when bees aren’t foraging as most of those sprays will kill bees too if the spray droplets hit them."
We stay regularly informed with the great newsletter which is emailed from
ecoorganicgarden@ocp.com.
Go quietly and enjoy an extra day off this weekend to spend time in your garden or out and about looking at roses in other gardens. Love from all of us here at Silkies Rose Farm, Clonbinane …
HAVE ANOTHER GIGGLE
Q: Why did the tomato go out with the prune?
A: Because she couldn't find a date!
Best wishes from all of us here at Silkies Rose Farm, Clonbinane and one more giggle to keep you smiling …