Month: December 2018

Hello dear rose friends as we countdown the last few days till Christmas and we end this year of ramblings with you by sending our love and best wishes to you and yours.

If you need a last-minute gift rose, we’ll be open until 4.00pm SUNDAY, 23 RD DECEMBER.

NOTE: CLOSED ON CHRISTMAS EVE, MONDAY, 24TH DECEMBER, 2018

We’ll be OPEN again at SILKIES ROSE FARM, CLONBINANE from FRIDAY, 11 TH JANUARYwith normal trading hours: FRIDAY, SATURDAY, SUNDAY and MONDAY from 9.00am till 4.00pm – any other times strictly by appointment only.

During the holiday period you might trawl the internet creating wish-lists of roses you cannot live without so www.rosesalesonline.com.au is open 24/7 to keep you entertained with lots of beautiful rose pictures and descriptions. You can, of course, order roses which will be posted when Australia Post are guaranteed to be fully functional after the crazy Christmas rush.

ON MONDAY, 14TH JANUARY, 2019 THE FIRST POTTED/FLOWERING AND GIFT ROSES WILL BE POSTED.

GRA’S GARBLE …

HEDGE-ROW OF ROSES …

You might consider planting a hedge of roses where you otherwise might be installing a fence. Consider any of these hedge roses for a 1 metre wide x 1-2 metre tall hedge which would be considerably cheaper to install than a conventional timber or steel fence and require very low maintenance during its more than 50 years life span! I highly recommend:

KNOCKOUT

Q. Which of Santa’s reindeer has bad manners? A. Rude-olph!

TIPS FOR HOLIDAY ROSE CARE …

• Soak, like really soak the garden beds before you go and make soaking them one of the first chores when you get home;
• Potted roses can be left with a deep saucer of water under them but will need attention at least every second day;
• If your whole-garden mulching hasn’t been done yet, place a thick layer about one-metre square around each rose bush;
• Dose each rose with liquid seaweed which ensures 3-5 degrees greater heat tolerance!

Generally tidy up the garden before you go to make your place look ‘lived-in’ and less attractive to intruders! Have a really lovely holiday season – a break in sending the Rose Rambler will give me time to research more information and find some great jokes for 2019 … see you then – Gra

May 2019 be a lovely year with good health and happiness and may your garden thrive and offer you a special place to uplift your spirit, energise your soul and be your health guardian!

Thank you most sincerely for your continued loyal support of our business!
Graham, Diana, and our poodle Mooi; our great assistants: Ben, Tova and Shelley

Hello dear rose friends as we pack the last roses for posting to you for this Christmas … yes, TOMORROW, FRIDAY, 14TH DECEMBER will be the last opportunity to purchase roses in our online store:  www.rosesalesonline.com.au for Christmas gifting.

Gosh but how lots of sunshine and heat turned our garden into a magnificently special place.   If you live within driving distance, do make an effort to come and walk in our garden soon – if you want to visit with a group, please contact us :

03 5787 1123 every FRIDAY, SATURDAY, SUNDAY and MONDAY … 

we are happy to host a group on days other than our designated open days but YOU MUST BOOK AN APPOINTMENT!

Q. What did the fishing pole say to the fish?   A. Catch you later!

GRA’S GARBLE …

With more drenching rain on the way today, it would be most opportune to spray your roses with the organic rose management program at any opportunity after the foliage is dry – please don’t wait until it’s very hot again!

Because the spray liquid is a dirty colour due to seaweed solution, I find myself avoiding spraying the rose flowers and it has made a significant difference – we used to go around after spraying to trim the affected rose blooms.

It is really quite easy to have a good cover of spray without spraying the flowers – if you think about it, good foliage cover is the principle aim of the program!

REMEMBER NOT TO USE THE ECO SPRAY PROGRAM WHEN THE WEATHER IS FORECAST TO BE MORE THAN 30 DEGREES AND ALWAYS SPRAY BEFORE 10.00AM.

Q. Why are kindergarten teachers so good?  A. They can make little things count.

So, can you spray in the evening after a hot day?  Well yes, you can, however, during hot weather the plant shuts down which means that the stomata (likes pores in our skin) close to protect the hydration of the plant.  Since we are spraying the foliage and we cannot see whether the stomata is open or not, we suggest that your rose spray program be done first thing in the morning before 10.00am to ensure maximum benefit to the roses.

THE SPRAY PROGRAM …

Apply at least monthly. To 10  litres of water add:

•     ¼ cup Eco-rose / fungicide powder (mix with some water to dissolve)
•     5g scoop Eco-seaweed powder (check exact measure if you use other product!)
•     ¼ cup Eco-oil insecticide (also ‘sticks’ spray liquid to leaves)

Mix all the products together and stir well.  You can add Eco-aminogro (fish based fertilizer or say, Charlie Carp or some other product) which will act as a foliage fertilizer.

This spray program is suitable for most plants and should DEFINITELY BE USED IN YOUR ORCHARD AND IN THE VEGETABLE GARDEN!  You can spray edibles in the morning and harvest them to eat for dinner!

Isn’t it great that we have such brilliant products to assist Mother Nature in managing possible pests and disease in our gardens – leads to this beautiful quotation:

Anna Frank quote from her diary written during the invasion of Holland in World War 2 and very much necessary for us to remember every day in these last days of another year – be happy and positive while the roses bloom so delightfully!

CHRISTMAS GIFT IDEAS FOR HAPPINESS IN A ROSE GARDEN* …

GRA’S BLUE ROSE

Meantime, we’ll talk with you next week in the Rose Rambler – take time out in all the busyness to stop and smell the roses … cheers from the team at Silkies

HOLIDAY TRADING HOURS

Please note, SILKIES ROSE FARM will close from…
MONDAY, 24TH DECEMBER – 14TH JANUARY, 2019

Hello dear rose friends after celebrating Sinterklaas yesterday with some of my Dutch family… how privileged I feel to have connections with such lovely traditions which are still celebrated more than 60 years after my parents migrated to Australia from Holland.

GRA’S GARBLE …

Thank you to you all for your beautiful, thoughtful and kind messages to celebrate my birthday last week. Here’s a joke about my age …

When my grandson asked me how old I was, I teasingly replied, “I’m not sure.” “Look in your underwear, Poppy,” he advised. “Mine says I’m 6 – 8.”

I promised to give you some tips for managing your roses through summer and I guess one of the most important tasks is to dead-head the roses regularly – take secateurs and a bucket of water with you EVERY TIME you go to the rose garden.

Removing spent blooms will encourage a new flush of blooms more quickly and keep the rose bushes looking tidy – the new growth is sure to be healthy too!

Because you’re regularly dead-heading the bushes, you MUST fertilize them to be sure healthy foliage remains prolific and disease resistant – remember, more healthy foliage, more flowers! We use and recommend Complete Organic Fertilizer which is available from our Rose Farm at Clonbinane – source a quality product in your locality!

By regularly feeding the soil, you’re sure to be rewarded with continual flowering!

Mulching is imperative now that summer and hot weather is imminent! We’re using pea-straw again this year – I prefer a few peas rather than the hay/straw weeds which tend to dominate and I think might rob the soil of nutrients rather than enhance the soil!

Watering your garden is NOT difficult but it is one of the most misunderstood areas of maintaining a healthy, robust and free-flowering rose garden!

Please water DEEPLY and LESS FREQUENTLY! Once a week in most weather conditions is more than adequate – give each rose bush at least 20 litres of water delivered at the same time – that’s just two buckets of water once a week. In extremely hot weather, do this twice a week.

Check what amount of water is delivered by your drippers/shrubblers or stand at the tap with a 10 litre bucket and time how long it takes to fill the bucket … if you hand water, you’ll know how many seconds to stand and water each rose. This is SO IMPORTANT!!!

Please don’t waste our precious water but make it work to the advantage of a beautiful, free-flowering garden at your place! BE WATER-WISE! Inspired by this email you’ll now read about why I take a bucket of water out to the garden when I’m dead-heading …

Hi – I have ‘A Shropshire Lad’, a ‘Jude The Obscure’ and ‘The Alnwick Rose’  David Austin roses.  They are quite young and have not yet grown into substantial rose bushes.  I notice that if I put the flowers from these roses into a vase, the petals often fall off, the flowers don’t stand up very well and overall they don’t last long.  Will this change when these roses mature?  Some of my other bushes are lovely and strong as are the flowers that grow on them.  Would be very appreciative of your advice. Regards, Lorraine

My response: Lovely to hear from you Lorraine … In the case of your roses which you are wanting to place in a vase, DA’s are especially short-lived most of the time.  However, I’m very successful at bringing them indoors and placing in an open bowl – they do last a bit longer that way!  Of the varieties you mention, THE ALNWICK ROSE

Yes, a gentle reminder that Christmas is looming – last roses will be posted from Clonbinane on FRIDAY, 14TH DECEMBER; posting will resume on MONDAY, 14TH JANUARY 2019.

Enjoy the peace and quiet in your garden … until next week, best wishes from the team at Silkies Rose Farm, Clonbinane.