Hello Dear Rose Friends,
We are now surrounded by the glory of early spring … the beautiful words of William Wordsworth …
… The poem goes on but ah, how blissful it is, another season of magnificent daffodils which have been my passion since I was a child when my Dad grew them amongst the roses in our home garden at Pascoe Vale. This year, they’re a joy beyond joy since I fed them continually as their foliage went down last season.
HAVE A GIGGLE
Q. What do you call a beehive without any exit holes?
A.Unbelievable ... unbeeleaveable!
REMOVE PICTORIAL TAGS NOW ...
Since your newly planted roses are now shooting and in some cases already budding up for early spring flowering, it’s very important that you remove all the pictorial tags. David Austin roses have a strip label attached and this must also be removed.
Pictorial tags consist of fine wire covered in plastic, other strip tags are designed to stay on the plant for a very long time without stretching or perishing so, leaving tags on your roses can adversely impact growth on the stem where the tag is attached because they will potentially ‘ring-bark’ the stem and this is particularly dangerous on the stem of standard/weeping roses. Please don’t ever attach labels to the understock stem where they’ll surely kill the rose within a very short time … see this picture of a tie attached to the understock stem high up on a weeping rose –
As I was showing a customer our Pierre de Ronsard weeping roses earlier this week, I noticed this tie, high up in between growing buds – obviously, the pictorial label had blown off but the tie stayed there and when staff diligently went to replace a new pictorial label, they didn’t see the old tie.
That firmly attached tie definitely would have killed the buds ABOVE the tie and I doubt the lower branches would have been adequate to maintain a lovely weeping habit. I would rather you take precautionary action NOW by removing all plant ties so the roses can get on with their job of growing vigorously without any threat to their welfare!
Unless you did a ‘mud-map’ of your garden which you might save to a picture gallery or a file on your computer, in a very short time, you’ll not remember the names of the roses you planted and that’s a shame for the posterity of your garden!
Most of the roses in our gardens are now identified using these sturdy and very classic plant labels produced here in Australia by
www.tagged4life.com.au
We purchase the plant labels in bundles of 20-30 each time we order to spread out the cost and now, it’s rewarding to see folks walking through the gardens and photographing the tags then coming up to the nursery to purchase the rose they couldn’t live without!
HAVE A GIGGLE
Q. What is a snake's favourite subject in school?
A. Hissssssssstory ... we've been alerted by our local snake-catcher that snakes are very much on the move early this year so don't be afraid, but always be aware!
BARE-ROOTED SEASON DEFINITELY DONE AND DUSTED ...
yes, every rose is now potted into our magnificent media and growing robustly ready for spring flowering so as a very first, special offer to celebrate spring …
SPECIAL START OF SPRING OFFER ...
Supremely healthy, delightfully fragrant modern shrub roses which have been potted for many weeks and ready to flower prolifically in your garden soon.
Enjoy the last days of winter and revel in the sunshine of the first days of spring … get out in your garden and if you haven’t pruned your roses yet, be sure to get them pruned this weekend or you might have to wait for summer pruning time!
Cheers from all of us at Silkies Rose Farm, Clonbinane