World Bee Day
We hope all the beautiful women who celebrated Mother’s Day last Sunday enjoyed the moments you deserve and you cherish the memories of being surrounded by your loved ones!
With such stunningly sunny autumn weather, it was a busy weekend here at Clonbinane and we remind all visitors to take time to stroll through the gardens and revel in the glory of our magnificent deciduous trees and the last of our beautiful rose flowers for this season when you visit soon …
This coming Saturday, 20th May, 2023 is WORLD BEE DAY so ...
I recommend you might consider taking a bit of time to do one of any of the following chores in your garden to ensure you support lots of bees and butterflies to find food and refuge due to your actions:
- Plant a diverse set of local native plants and ornamentals that flower at different times of the year;
- Allow your garden to become a little messy so that herbs and veggie flowers readily go to seed;
- Provide safe drinking water sources where bees can alight safely without fear of drowning – rocks in a pond or fountain are great;
- Avoid all chemical sprays; even pyrethrum-based sprays kill bees!
- Get kids involved in making bee ‘hotels’ … hollow plant stems of different thickness like bamboo tied together and lodged in trees;
- Purchase one of the following varieties of roses which are bee-magnets because their boss of nectar-rich stamens are so attractive and sweet … Bright as a Button, Afrikaans or Harmonize Climber.
All these varieties are available NOW as 20cm POTTED PLANTS, established and flowering, ready to plant into warm soil before winter frosts - $42.50 each plus pack/post delivered to your door.
Do your bit to attract bees into your garden – current species extinction rates are 100 to 1,000 times higher than normal due to human impacts!
Rose varieties which open to display fragrant stamens are particularly attractive to bees so every garden should have at least one ‘single’ variety!
Many customers say: “but that’s not a true rose” yet I suggest that as your tastes mature, those single varieties may well become your most favourite roses due to their absolute simplicity and exquisite beauty!
A giggle for you ...
Q: What kind of driver never gets a ticket?
A: A screwdriver ...
Rose Care as Winter Approaches
… with noticeably shorter days and cool/damp nights, the roses realise that winter is around the corner and they start converting food made in their leaves to store beneath the bark of their woody stems … this stored food will be readily available when the sun shines warmly again during spring.
Autumn temperatures and wet weather will, of course, encourage black spot infection on rose leaves – this is a mechanism for roses to lose their foliage and go into dormancy for a winter holiday.
Once you’ve tidied up the bushes by removing mouldy old flowers, leave the roses to get on with this process of defoliation and then, come July, they’ll show you exactly where you need to prune them!
Meantime, be sure to apply eco-seaweed solution over the entire rose plant as this will strengthen the cell wall of the foliage and stems. This is especially important in very cold climates as regular applications of eco-seaweed will increase frost tolerance of up to at least 5 degrees!
A giggle for you ...
Q: What room doesn't have doors?
A: A mushroom!
Janelle's Rose Bundle of Bare-rooted Roses
… in her brief, Janelle said “you know I love a good Guillot rose” … here are three absolute beauties … $89.90 which includes pack/post for all three to be delivered as bare-rooted plants this winter.
Since 1834 the Guillot family has, for generations, produced some of the most exquisitely tough, delightfully fragrant and beautifully colourful range of roses which reflect the charm and diversity of old roses with the qualities of modern roses.
Our experience of the Guillot collection which are planted here in our gardens at Clonbinane is their incredible durability, stunningly various fragrance and willingness to flower over a long season – they are also significantly long-lasting in a vase!
I read this recently …
"The rose is a rose from the time it is a seed to the time
it dies.
Within it, at all times, it contains its whole potential.
It seems to be constantly in the process of change.
Yet, at each state, 'it is perfectly all right as it is'."
Paulo Coelho
Thank you for your continued support of our business and enjoy these last weeks of rose blooms as the plants now commence their journey into winter dormancy and we look forward to the next season … aah, it never stops!
We wish you happiness in your flowering rose garden and thanks for supporting our business!