Month: May 2013

ROSE RAMBLER … 23.5.2013
Hello dear rose friends – on a very bleak, cold Autumn day last Saturday, the switch for our newly installed solar system was turned on … within moments there was the most glorious sunshine and I imagine that our new ‘green energy’ will be amazing! My excitement vanished when the installers told me that we had to wait for the inspectors to come and approve everything … and then the power company had to come and inspect that inspector …?? I was dismally disappointed! How delightfully simple and uncomplicated it is when you buy a rose, take it home, plant it, enjoy it flowering … must be me getting older …?

WHERE DID YOU LEARN TO ENJOY THE GARDEN …? Over the years of listening to customers reflect on their passion for gardening, “My Grandfather/Pop” and “Grandmother/Nan” have been the dominant teachers of the pleasure of gardening, followed closely by “My Mum/My Dad”. With all the ‘busyness’ in our lives, I am wondering if, possibly, the next generation might say that they learned their gardening skills at school …?

For weeks prior to a series of ‘Kids Day’ gardening lectures at Silkies, Graham collected old shoes and boots from the local second-hand shop and when the kids rocked up for their gardening adventure, they each selected a boot which they filled with potting mix and flowering seedlings which they took home to care for – Graham received letters of accolade from those little people and I highly recommend the activity for the kids in your garden.

To extend the activity, get the biggest boots you can find, let the kids drill holes in the soles, paint the boots with water-based paint … do give them lots of colours to select from! While the paint is drying they can set about cleaning up the paint brushes, organising their seeds/seedlings, the potting mix, tools they need to complete the task, along with filling the watering can with liquid seaweed and water – they will talk like crazy during this process and you will have a lovely time of ‘connection’.

Give your kids the experience of gardening at home! They’ll love it and so will you because eventually, they’ll do all the gardening ‘work’ around your place while you kick-back on the recliner reminding yourself of how clever you were to teach them the skills – I promise you, you won’t stay on the recliner for long because you’ll want to be out there chatting and enjoying time with each other and you will all cherish the memories for many, many years to come!!!

TAKE A LOOK AT OUR OTHER WEBSITE … Every week I will be adding at least another two rose varieties to the Rose Encyclopaedia on allaboutroses.com.au and there is a plethora of information there – quite literally, all about roses!

If you have a question or issue about roses which you would like us to talk about on the allaboutroses.com.au website, please call or email me and we will be happy to oblige and include all the rose-growing tips of the trade so that you can stay informed and enjoy your rose gardening experience more.

THIS WEEK IN THE ROSE GARDEN … If you’re a bit of a ‘neat-freak’ it would be great to go around the rose garden and trim off the rain affected rose blooms – in our garden they are mouldy blobs and I really don’t want all that mould falling to the ground, over the mulch. We will cut all those spent rose flowers off – they can safely go into your compost bin but it really is better if they don’t stay around the ground in the rose garden!

If you miss the opportunity of removing them or you would like to ensure a good clean environment for the start of next flowering season, after you have trimmed the roses, start your rose maintenance spray program in the next couple of weeks as follows:

To a 9 or 10 litre watering can add –
¼ cup Eco-rose fungicide powder (add a bit of water to the watering can to dissolve the powder)
¼ cup liquid seaweed – add a bit more water and slosh around the watering can
¼ cup Eco-oil – turn the water pressure up and fill the watering can so that all the products are well mixed

When you pour this over the pruned roses, enough of the product will fall over the mulched area around the roses to ensure you have a good, clean start for next season and if you continue with this rose maintenance program on a monthly basis you can be quite confident that black-spot/mildew and early incidence of aphids will be kept well under control for a beautiful, trouble-free rose blooming in the Spring. All the products you need for your rose maintenance program are available at rosesalesonline.com.au or drop into the Silkies Rose Farm at CLONBINANE.

IN CLOSING … Finally, we have chooks here again … how lovely it is to wake up and hear the roosters crowing! Graham took a few days off to see his ‘chook mate’ Wayne in Young, N.S.W. who shared his surplus Langshans with us. The guys went off to a chook auction where Graham bought a black Silkie hen for Logan, 5 year old grandson who has spent his life around Silkie chooks at Kilmore. Logan had a lonely buff Silkie named ‘Murphy’ – nobody can figure out where Logan got the name from, he contrived the name when he was first able to talk! He has named his new Silkie ‘Hedred’ … go figure where that name came from ??? Eventually, we will have Silkies here too and I’m looking forward to that time because they really are the most beautiful fowls and they so belong here at the SILKIES ROSE FARM! No, I won’t be naming them!

Have a great time in the last week of Autumn in your rose garden – rug up and go dig over a new patch of earth for the Winter roses which will be available in early June … call and book your place in the ‘ROSE PRUNING DEMONSTRATIONS’ which start next weekend … cheers from Diana, Graham, Dingo Bonnie and chooks at SILKIES ROSE FARM, CLONBINANE

Hello dear rose friends … the other morning during a shower of rain we had an enormous flock of yellow-crested white cockatoos fly over the property and I stood and watched as a couple of them ‘took a shower’ hanging upside down in the trees and fanning their feathers right out so the rain washed all the dust and grit away –for a second I felt like a ‘peeping tom’ as it seemed such a ‘personal hygiene moment’ – they were having a ball and not one bit perturbed by me watching! Getting so close up and personal with nature is one of the most significantly beautiful aspects of our shifting the nursery from Kilmore to Clonbinane.

When you visit the Silkies Rose Farm at Clonbinane we offer you the opportunity to spend some time here – take a wander through the gardens and you are always welcome to bring a picnic as there is a lovely area under the gum-trees close to the kids play area where you can sit and enjoy the fresh country air!

ORGANICALLY, NATURALLY!!! … We have used this phrase on all our printed materials for more than 20 years and supported our organic status by “practice not preach” using only high quality, Australian researched and manufactured products. We encourage the use of organic methods and I will quote this description of organic farming from HRH, the Prince of Wales’ book “HARMONY – A NEW WAY OF LOOKING AT OUR WORLD”… page 57 …

“A truly durable farming system – one that has kept things going for 10,000 years – is the one that is commonly called ‘organic farming’. In a sense this is an unfortunate term because it has the ring of an alternative approach, or even a new one, when it is actually how farming was always conducted before industrial techniques came to dominate agriculture. It means farming in a way that preserves the long-term health of the soil, which comes down to giving back to Nature organic matter to replace what has been taken out. It means maintaining microbes and invertebrates in the soil and good moisture. It means using good water catchment management, planting trees that prevent the soil being eroded and maintaining the teeming biodiversity, including the beneficial and essential insects, such as bees.”
Smart man, HRH Prince Charles – the book is extremely worth reading – we received our copy by responding to a public notice which Dick Smith placed in ‘The Land’ newspaper and a sticker inside the front cover reads: “Donated by Dick Smith for our world’s children and future generations”.

IN THE ROSE GARDEN THIS WEEK … Most gardens will have had a good shower of rain this past few days so it is time to add CALCIUM over the rose garden. Calcium is a macro nutrient that performs many critical functions both within plants and the soil. Traditionally, calcium is applied in a powdered form as either GYPSUM, DOLOMITE OR LIME however, since powders are very slow to activate in the soil and are bulky and messy, the new eco-flo products represent a breakthrough in effectiveness and convenience. Using superfine particles, the eco-flo products with added seaweed are 40 times more concentrated than powdered forms of Gypsum, Dolomite or Lime and commence work straightaway.

We will use eco-flo Gypsum over the recently turned soil where my new rose garden will be established and eco-flo Dolomite over the other rose gardens. While you’re at your local garden centre purchasing these products, pick up a pH test kit and check the soil in your garden. If you need further advice, please email your questions to your ‘In-House’ consultant: Graham Sargeant at Silkies Rose Farm – info@rosesalesonline.com.au

ROSE OF THE WEEK … A HUGE thank you to all the wonderful people who volunteer their precious time to do all manner of work in our communities! I had the pleasure of once again being able to gift wrap the roses for centre-pieces at the Mitchell Shire’s Volunteer Luncheon this week and the most outstanding rose of them all was ‘PLAYBOY’. I so hope the rose went to a lady with a sense of humour because in my description of this grand rose I always say, “If you can’t have a PLAYBOY in the bedroom, you must have a PLAYBOY in the garden”! With shiny crimson new tips, the dark green foliage is a magnificent foil for the single-petalled blooms of yellow eye, bright orange and red edges; this extremely free-flowering and healthy beauty should grace every garden for the shocking fun of it … here’s a picture …

IN CLOSING … I wrote to the local newspaper telling them of my near-miss with a pink-spotted black pig on the dirt road I’ve travelled into Kilmore for the past 13 years on a daily basis – do you think they would believe me if I wrote another letter telling them of the ‘mother-of-all-pigs’ which I encountered on another road into Kilmore today? Six cars stopped and one brave guy guided the very friendly (obviously hungry) pig into a verge and when the gorgeous blond owner arrived on the scene, the pig promptly bit her on the foot … I’m still giggling … have another great week in your rose garden!