Hello dear rose friends …
Yes, the rain has spoiled a lot of the rose blooms – spare yourself the despair and just get the secateurs, cut off those mouldy puff balls and wait for the next round of flowers. Where there is a negative, there is usually a positive and the positive side of this weather event is that you will have beautiful rose blooms at Christmas time!
“SUCKERS” FROM THE BASE OF ROSES …
This is a regular enquiry – happened very frequently during the long drought and is usually apparent where the roses are stressed; too much water, not enough water, not firmly planted so they start to rock back and forth and yes, sometimes it’s grower error which means that the understock was not ‘eyed’ properly and this was not detected at harvest – rose nursery retailer usually sees the problem at potting and either removes the ‘eye’ or like we do here at Silkies, discards the plant!
QUESTION: My well established (9years) Gold Bunny climbing roses on post and chains is throwing red roses and the yellow blooms have a red rim around the petals
Can you tell me what’s happening and how to fix it? There are about 8 down each side.
ANSWER: Hey Linda … is this the first time you’ve noticed the ‘red rose’? What you have is the understock ‘Dr. Huey’ growing as a sucker and you need to take immediate action to remove this understock!!! If you just trim it at ground level, I assure you, within a few years, you will only have red flowers in the Spring and the ‘Clb. Gold Bunny’ will be gone – I urge you not to let that happen!
To remove the suckers, get down on your hands and knees at the base of the plant, scrape back some soil near the sucker and see where its source is – it will be attached to the understock – might be way deep, could be quite obvious not too far down!
Put your garden gloves on!!! Once you’ve revealed the source of the understock branch, grab hold of it and yank it really hard and fast – I liken it to when the kids had a loose tooth and I would ask them if I could take a look and wobble it maybe … quick yank, tooth gone and kid wondering what the heck happened and excited about the tooth fairy coming that night!
Side-tracked … back on topic – ok, so you yanked the sucker away from the understock. Very importantly, is there a nice rounded end on what you pulled away?
If not, get a sharp Stanley knife and remove the ‘eye’ by cutting inwards and upwards under the eye and inwards and downwards from above the eye.
Push the soil back over the wound and give the plant a good dose of liquid seaweed!
If the understock continues to grow, you may have to remove the entire plant and put new roses in this location … have a go at removal first!
Good luck … Diana
GRA’S RAMBLE …
Let’s get warmed up with some corny stuff …
Q. What did the baby corn say to the mother corn? A. Where’s pop corn?
Did you know that Mexican farmers store their harvested corn in trees (stalks and all) to keep them safe from vermin?
Feeding your roses at this time of year is very important because there is enormous sap flow happening in Spring – that’s how we get so many magnificent rose blooms! An organic based fertilizer can boost the minerals to plants and organic matter feeds the worms and soil microbes to make the food available to the roses.
Yes, liquid seaweed applied over the leaves every 10 days as a tonic will:
- Give you up to 30% more flowers than normal
- Offer 5 degrees heat/cold tolerance during weather extremes
- Stimulate more vigorous root development
- Makes the plant immune system stronger … greater disease resistance!
- Gives higher quality vegetables, fruits and flowers
- Assists viable seed germination
Use liquid seaweed in all garden tasks so that you will be successful – “nothing beats success like success” especially in the garden!!
If you have issues with POSSUMS, here’s a trick/tip from Margaret that seems to work:
“I made little “parcels” of blood and bone using the toe ends of old tights and tied them on to the branches – two or three to each main branch. It seems to have worked even though it did look a little odd until the new leaves started to appear. Apparently the little wretches don’t like the smell as they think it is from dead possums!”
IDENTIFYING YOUR ROSES … If you see a particular rose which you would love to have identified, please email or post us a very clear set of photographs of the flower, the stems and the foliage – we don’t always get it right but we enjoy the challenge!
DON’T FORGET …
1ST DECEMBER AT WERRIBEE – THE STATE ROSE GARDEN …
Set this day aside for the Rose Spectacular when there will be all sorts of activities in the beautiful State Rose Garden at Werribee … we’ll be there with bells on – you should be there too!
IN CLOSING …
Have a delightful week in your rose garden and remember this …
“Always leave enough time in your life to do something that makes you happy, safisfied, or even joyous. That has more of an effect on economic well-being than any other factor!”
~ Author: Paul Hawken
– within 500 metres of Hume Freeway exit!