Month: November 2014

Hello dear rose friends – we’re on the home-run to Christmas – all the family festivities and fun; kids school holidays for six weeks and for lots, annual leave and some blissful free time … yeah!

To help you get gifts organised, here are a few ideas:

GRA’S GARBLE …

The dog run fence is now a spectacle with Clematis scrambling through the climbing roses and I highly recommend you consider planting them together with your climbing roses – no, they’re not hard to grow and they have exactly the same cultural requirements as roses.  They’re tough plants when you plant them deeper than the pot, place them so that the climbing rose shades their roots and cover them annually with loads of compost and mulch.

We have the most spectacular range of Clematis at the Rose Farm NOW.

Q.  Did you hear about the messy soccer player?  A.  He dribbled a lot!

With the recent rainy weather, I’ve been diligent with snail baiting – my potato crop was being decimated.  Because Mooi (our toy poodle) is always in the garden with us, I did some research and have found a product developed by Australian scientist called ERADICATE which is of low-toxicity to non-target animals such as dogs, cats, birds and earthworms because the active ingredient is an iron EDTA complex.  ERADICATE is toxic to snails, slugs and woodlice and while there is some evidence that excessive consumption of Iron EDTA complex baits leads to vomiting and diarrhoea, these effects are probably due to the alkaline nature of the product.

Do your pets and the earthworms a favour – purchase ERADICATE next time you buy snail bait!

Q.  Why did the bacon laugh?  A.  Because the egg cracked a yolk.

ROSE OF THE WEEK

SUNDANCE – a spectacular Hybrid Tea rose which produces masses of intense, unfading yellow blooms with a hint of orange around the tips of the petals and is beautifully enduring in a vase.  Healthy dark green foliage compliments the long stemmed, very quick repeating blooms.  Great rose for a hot-spot in your rose garden.

Hello dear rose friends … the spectacle of the Victorian State Rose Garden at Werribee is something you all deserve to see – it’s a hidden treasure managed by a host of volunteers under the banner of the Rose Society of Victoria and Wyndham City Council … you MUST go there and you MUST take a picnic lunch, a pen and paper and most definitely a camera.

The memory of this magnificent garden will stay in your mind forever but if you like to photograph rose flowers, perhaps you are contemplating planting more roses for your garden and not sure what varieties of roses you like – this is THE place in Victoria to see roses in their glory!

Our son Eric, who assisted us at Werribee last weekend sent this email after he was so inspired by the magnificent specimen trees in the park surrounding the mansion and rose gardens …

If today’s modest financial gain wasn’t necessary to live, provide for my family and have some things for us to enjoy, I would be most happy knowing that the hundred or so people who purchased roses today (and going home with all the knowledge necessary to grow them well) will succeed and hopefully be inspired to grow more and maybe go even further and plant something (like I am) that can be enjoyed (as I did today) by future generations. I would happily do it every day… Thanks for a great day.  Love you … Eric

Plan a visit to the State Rose Garden at Werribee soon!

GRA’S GARBLE …

If you continually pick roses for vases in the house, you are doing your rose bushes the best of favours!  This long-stemmed pruning will encourage strong re-growth which keeps the rose garden looking neat; you’ll enjoy the variety of colour in the new growth (usually red foliage) and older leaves (usually dark green foliage) and most pleasantly, your rose bushes will produce prolific numbers of large, quality blooms throughout the heat of summer!

Keep up the watering and feeding – most important!  Fertilize every 6-8 weeks over the entire soil surface around the rose garden with quality complete organic fertilizer and deliver at least 20 litres of water to each bush every time you water – this will ensure water is soaked to the roots of the plants.

All of this rose management is covered so well in Diana’s newly published book:  ALL ABOUT ROSES which should be in a bookstore near you (ask for the book if it isn’t on the shelf!!!) or can be purchased through our website:  www.rosesalesonline.com.au

Watering and feeding roses is such an important part of rose management and once you understand the mechanics of it, you will grow the most spectacular roses, easily and confidently.

Q.  On which day do giants eat people?  A. Chewsday (thankfully, our day off!)

During coming hot weather months, liquid fertilizing rose bushes fortnightly with AminoGro to which you add seaweed solution will lessen plant heat-stress and guarantee continual healthy foliage and flowering – during hot weather it is most important to have good foliage cover on the bushes – liquid feeds ensure this!!!

Q.  What’s the difference between broccoli and bogies?  A.  Kids will eat bogies

Get the kids into the garden with you and they just might start eating the goodies they have a hand in producing … happy gardening … Gra

ROSE OF THE WEEK …

Gawd, how do you pick just one???  I picked these flowers and put them in the water fountain nearby to photograph their unsurpassed beauty.  The bush is stunningly healthy, a very robust hybrid-tea bush which awes me each time I enjoy its glory – TROPICAL SUNSET …

GIFTROSES.COM.AU

GIFTROSES.COM.AU is now launched and you can order flowering rose plants to be sent anywhere except TAS and WA.  Experience tells us that a gift rose for any occasion has such amazing impact – the rose can reflect joy, it can offer solace – a rose in the garden is most definitely an enduring reminder of an event in the life of the recipient.

With so many gloriously healthy, appropriately named roses available, do take advantage of this opportunity of gifting to your loved ones!  Take a look at the website which my creative assistants have recently developed and let us make your gift-giving a beautiful experience … giftroses.com.au…

And better a week late than never!  Hello dear rose friends during this most glorious of rose seasons where roses are featuring in all their beauty everywhere.  Here at Clonbinane we have still been experiencing cold nights but gorgeous sunny days which has produced the most magnificent garden and potted nursery display that we have had in some years – we were starting to think our garden was just a ‘summer garden’ which became a picture very late November-early December but this year the weather has been kind.

A violent windy storm late this afternoon reminds me to tell you that staking your standard/weeping roses is a most imperative task in the rose garden – one that screams ‘DO IT NOW’ … you might see a slipped tie or a broken stake as you’re racing into the house after work … please do stop and tie the standard/weeping roses appropriately – re-stake with steel as necessary!

Yes, you might think it’s great for the industry when a gardener has to re-invest in a new rose… I despair at the waste which could well have been avoided – it also improves the overall aesthetic of the garden when your standard roses are appropriately staked.

I really like the ‘look’ of the ‘rio-rod’ because it is almost invisible and very, very easy to use – my local hardware cut the rod into 1.8metre lengths and they were simple for me to (standing up on a wire crate) bang into the ground.

When you purchase standard roses, they usually come with a cane stake which is totally inadequate for long-term support.  The rubber tie is designed to rot after a while – please make it a high-priority task to properly stake standards!

GRA’S GARBLE …

Gotta start with a funny one:
Q.  What’s worse than finding a worm in your apple?
A.  Finding just half a worm in the apple!

This applies to harvesting organic fruit and veg from your garden and you can be assured that you won’t die from eating a grub in an apple or a caterpillar on the lettuce or silverbeet; earwigs which are in the broccoli will float to the top when you cook it.

So important that you get out in the garden – whether it’s harvesting veggies, mowing lawns, trimming the roses – oh, by the way, be sure that when you are trimming roses, use sharp secateurs.  Blunt secateurs ‘tear’ the stems of the rose which will almost definitely result in dead/woody ends which may take time to recover with healthy new growth.  Good sharp cuts – whether to an outward-facing bud or not will result in healthy new shoots and flowering stems – time now to trim, trim, trim and don’t be shy.

Cut 30cm lengths of spent flowers and you’ll have an amazing display of roses for Christmas.

Q.  What do you give to a sick lemon?  A. Lemon aid.

ROSE OF THE WEEK …

There are so many glorious roses but EYES FOR YOU is outstanding with the most amazing fragrance which is distinct from other rose perfumes.  The eye-catching blooms are continual and the rounded, healthy bush is ideal for pots or garden borders.

Hello dear rose friends … here’s a pinch and a punch for the LAST day of the month – another one gone and yep, our roses are blooming.  They’re so healthy and robust – inviting you to come and take a look at how beautiful they are and the outstanding queen this week is FIONA’S WISH with her heavenly fragrance and stunning HUGE blooms demanding attention from the moment you step out of your car … gawd, what a rose …

Following on from last week’s Rose Rambler, the sharing continues and we are all benefiting from the input of readers – Noeline has this great contribution which will please those of you who are plagued by rosellas and other birds who strip your roses …

Ok, so what is the product Noeline is successful with?  Here’s the information you need …

It would be most interesting to know if this tape, when attached to roses where there is possibly some night light may deter possums … might be worth a try for those gardeners who despair at the destruction of the rose garden due to possums – let’s keep this conversation alive.

Here’s another tip: Yvonne has the snails stumped …  “Even the snails (of which there were many) are few and far between as we now use coffee grounds around the plants, and snails and slugs do not like coffee grounds.  The lemon tree was being attacked by snails and the fruit skins were snail marked.  So, out came the coffee grounds.  We sprinkled it around the tree and have not been bothered with snails on the lemon tree since that time.”

GRA’S GARBLE …

We’ve been collecting coffee grinds from a local Café since we left our own Café at Kilmore … we KNOW the coffee grinds are an amazing addition to the organic garden because worms absolutely LOVE them!!!

Q.  Where do ants go for their holidays?  A.  Fr-ants of course!… laugh till you cry.

So that you get great, CORRECT information to assist you in your quest for caring for our environment by employing organic management principles in all aspects of your garden adventures, please keep these addresses handy and sign up for their very useful, extremely informative newsletters: www.sgaonline.org.au
www.ecoorganicgarden.com.au

SGA is Sustainable Gardening Australia with whom our business is registered as a Sustainable Garden Centre while OCP are the creators of our eco-friendly rose management products.

RECYCLING …

Don’t throw away any old shoes or boots.  Get the kids to drill holes in the soles, paint them all the colours of the rainbow, then fill them with quality potting mix and plant flower seedlings or herbs for a beautiful display.  Ask this joke while you’re busy helping them:

Q. Why did the picture go to jail?  A. Because it was framed.

GET LOTS MORE ROSES – TRIM THE SPENT FLOWERS …

To get more blooms as soon as the flowers finish, continually trim 30cm of stem and I guarantee you will have new roses within 50 days.  Some people call this ‘summer pruning’ but if you do it at least once a week throughout the flowering season, you’ll have a continuous display of beautiful flowers and keep the rose bushes neat.  Remove any dead-wood when you see it as this will make the winter pruning a whole lot easier.

APHIDS …

We highly recommend that you NOT squish them with your fingers because you will very likely squish all the beneficial insects that are there trying to eat them!!!

If you have a severe outbreak of aphids, apply ECO-OIL (suffocates mainly the larval stage) with ECO-NEEM (starves both adults and young) at 3-5 day intervals until the blighters are under control but WILL NOT HARM all the beneficial insects!!!

Enjoy these last magnificent weeks of spring and do come and visit on this beautiful Victorian holiday weekend for the ‘race that stops the Nation’ … Melbourne Cup, for us, is all about the glorious roses but if you back a horse, may you back the winner …

Hello dear rose friends … more sharing as a result of last week’s Rambler.  It’s amazing how ‘toilet stories’ attract this kind of sharing … giggling still … but sad that nobody offered to take Graham on his long-worked-for holiday???

Yes, for a minimal postage fee, I can post our organic rose management products direct to your door – call me on 03 5787 1123 if this works for you!

VERY EXCITING NEW RELEASE ROSE NOW AVAILABLE…

We had to wait for this rose to be ‘baptised’ so that we could attach labels – we now have the labels and some stunning plants ready to be sold.

Every family has one, every child thinks they are the one, every parent knows that each child is one … so which rose am I referring to?  Of course, THE GOLDEN CHILD.

An amazingly sturdy, bright yellow floribunda rose, THE GOLDEN CHILD was awarded ROSE OF THE YEAR in 2013 for extremely healthy, glossy dark foliage which is a brilliant foil for the stunning mass of fragrant, non-fading, waved-petal,  yellow blooms produced continually from season start to end.

This highly recommended rose is ONLY available on our website as a GIFT ROSE bush which means it will be gift-wrapped and a card with your personal message attached then posted to THE GOLDEN CHILD in your life.  Please send one to each of your children to alleviate sibling rivalry – I know which of her children my Mum would send the rose to; she has one son and three daughters … giggle!!!

Standard specimens of the rose are available FOR PICK-UP ONLY at Silkies Rose Farm, Clonbinane – limited numbers available this season.

GRA’S GARBLE …

To stop pots from drying out use glazed or plastic pots that lose less moisture from evaporation.  Paint the inside of terracotta pots with a sealer or plant the rose into a plastic pot, place it in the larger decorator pot and disguise the edges with mulch or a trailing ground-covering plant like ALYSSUM or other seedlings.

ALWAYS use top quality potting mix which you can be sure has a blend of quality ingredients including water-saving crystals and nutrients.

EVERY rose can be grown in a pot and since there is a good range of sizes available in the self-watering decorator pots, we recommend you purchase one of those so that you can guarantee your rose will always have water and nutrients available – pour seaweed solution into the water well.

The size of pot you select will determine the eventual size of the rose; climbing roses and large-growing hybrid tea roses, old-fashioned and modern-shrub roses perform beautifully in large tubs.  Use smaller pots for miniatures and some of the smaller growing floribundas. Group your pots together so that you’re not walking all over the yard with the hose running – it’s easy to forget ‘that one over there’!!!

EARWIGS IN THE ROSES …

Since they don’t fly, there’s only one way they can get to the flowers … crawl … soooo, if you have creepy-crawlies in your roses, try smearing petroleum jelly around the base stems.  Yes, it’s tedious but we know they won’t walk over it and if you end up with glorious roses to bring into the house that aren’t spilling earwigs over the kitchen bench, it’s worth it!

Q. What happens if you pour a bucket of hot water down a rabbit hole? 
A. You get hot cross bunnies!

Let us know what results you have with this method of deterring crawling insects in your flowering roses.  Clean up around the garden where the earwigs are camping … have a beaut week in your garden …. Graham

DATES TO LOCK-IN …

The roses are almost flowering here at Clonbinane so do call in soon – when you come, please feel free to wander through the gardens …