Hello Dear Rose Friends,
Another month gone by so quickly … magnificent sunny days were preceded by very frosty mornings here at Clonbinane yet there are still lots of buds on many roses so who knows, perhaps we’ll have lots of flowers well into winter which is just four weeks away.
We’re all geared up for bare-rooted roses arriving already and the very first beautiful specimens posted this week in time for Mother’s Day – see special offer below.
… This joke was contrived by a kid who’s almost 100% destined to be a farmer in the future of Australia for sure!
HAVE A GIGGLE
Q: Did you hear about the magic tractor?
A: It turned into a field!
IT TIME TO PRUNE ROSES???
Each year, when we start to experience wintery temperatures, we’re asked this question and our response is a bit like … “how long is a piece of string?” because every place is different and as an example, our two Pierre de Ronsard climbers are treated very differently. This one, on the north (warm and sunny) side of the nursery, finished flowering quite a few weeks ago so was pruned back to make it look tidy.
It's re-shooting now and will offer another round of flowers right up to winter when the plant will naturally shut down due to intensely cold conditions.
However, Pierre de Ronsard on the south-side wall of the shed, is robustly flowering today and we won’t dream of pruning it for at least another six – eight weeks (or, more highly likely, whenever we get a chance to prune the gardens during our very busy winter season). If it looks daggy, we’ll trim spent blooms but otherwise, it will probably be pruned again after it’s first flowering in spring which is exactly what happened this past season!
Our local Shire have already pruned several large rose gardens in parks at Kilmore, Wandong and Wallan – we noticed the park at Broadford on Anzac Day was left untouched and was flowering prolifically!
It’s more about what you can do and when you can do it I guess. None of us has a crystal ball to know what weather we’ll experience this winter, so we believe you can prune at almost any time that suits you just as Tric has done …
“Hi Di and Gra, I pruned back my Lamarque climbers dramatically about 10 days ago and they are covered in new shoots. I don’t have any concerns about frost, however, I was wondering if I should give them anything more than Seasol?
Where the foliage was dense there was a bit of scale which I sprayed with EcoOil and Neem and plan to give them another squirt of EcoOil to ensure I reached all of it.
Is there anything else you suggest? Cheers Tric
MY RESPONSE … It won’t hurt to give them a light feed now and definitely use seaweed solution to prevent any frost damage! Great that you got onto the scale – usually a sign that the soil is a bit compacted so it might be a good idea to fork the soil around this rose … cheers – Gra
SCALE INFESTATION ON ROSE STEMS ...
This can be easily treated using Eco-Oil and Eco-Neem well-mixed and applied with a tooth brush to all accessible areas on the stems. Follow-up spray after the first application will guarantee suffocation of the pests.
Importantly, as lots of potted roses generally incur scale infestation after a few years in the same potting media, it’s time to consider re-potting these roses any time soon.
Roses planted in the garden soil which incur scale infestation need attention around the base of the rose – remove all weeds and ground-covering plants to allow aeration and then gently fork the soil to a depth of the fork prongs and pour seaweed solution around the roots to encourage new, healthy watershoots to emerge and then remove the old, scale-infested branches during winter pruning..
HAVE A GIGGLE
Q: Did you hear about the wooden tractor?
A: Yeah, it had wooden wheels, a wooden engine, wooden transmission and wooden work!
MOTHER'S DAY SPECIAL OFFERS ...
The two offers from last week will stay in place this week but here’s a very special bundle of roses which you can pre-order NOW and the roses will be posted in June so your special lady has time to prepare a bed dedicated to them ….
FOUR MAGNIFICENT DAVID AUSTIN ROSES INCLUDES PACK/POST
- Crocus Rose,
- Lady of Megginch,
- Roald Dahl and
- The Mill on the Floss
These four David Austin roses are what we call ‘flowering machines’ as they ALWAYS appear to have flowers because they repeat-flower so prolifically.
If you would like a card sent along with any of your Mother’s Day gifts, please write your words in comments section and I’ll happily pop a card in the pack.
BEST SECATEURS YOU’LL EVER BUY
Lowe 5 is the most comfortable, reliable and easy-to-use secateur you could use, especially as your hands become less strong or perhaps compromised by arthritis, etc.
$79.50 and the sharpener FREE (RRP $14.50) plus pack and post
$70.00 TWO BARE-ROOTED ROSES INCLUDES PACK AND POST IN TIME FOR MOTHER’S DAY, 12TH MAY, 2024
Two very highly fragrant roses which are very easy-care, can be grown in large tubs and continually flower throughout the season.
Have a wonderful week in your autumn garden …