ROSE RAMBLER 24.3.2016 …

Hello dear rose friends who are regular readers and sincere welcome to those who are new to our ramblings – we hope you enjoy all the ‘stuff’ we share to make your gardening experience happy and fruitful!

GRA’S GARBLE …

Q.  How do you make a goldfish old?  A.  Take away the ‘G’ …

if you take the ‘G’ away from my name, you’d call me ‘RA’ – my new rose ‘GRA’S BLUE’ wouldn’t quite be the same called ‘RA’S BLUE’ – glad I’m not old or a goldfish!!!

So, you’re planning a new rose garden?  Before you do ANYTHING, take a good look up, down, all around; check where the sun is throughout the seasons (yes, it is always different and daylight saving also needs to be considered).  Most importantly, will the sun shine for NO LESS THAN 5 HOURS on your roses throughout the flowering season?  This is SO important!!!

Equally important is to check where large trees are growing around your garden … out on the nature strip maybe?  Don’t even contemplate trying to establish a new rose garden where there is a huge tree within 5 metres of your planned garden because the established tree will take all of the water, nutrients and sunshine – here is a copy of email consultation this past week …

Here’s a picture of a magnificent rose we sent this past winter – DUBLIN BAY, the most magnificent red climbing rose was planted at the foot of a huge eucalyptus tree … didn’t have a hope of growing in that location …

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a camera above ground which showed exactly where those tree roots are, indicate an ideal space where we could plant a new rose so it would be happy to get on with growing between the tree roots … now there’s an invention for somebody to work on!?!

Q.  How do you stop someone eating your last chocolate?  A.  Eat it first – don’t eat too much chocolate this Easter weekend – buy a rose instead!  Enjoy the time to catch up with family and friends, have a bit of time in the garden or maybe take a drive out here to Clonbinane … Gra

ART & ROSES TOURS …

If you’re planning a visit to our region on the weekend of 9th/10th April and you have a group, please contact me NOW so that you are eligible for the TRAVEL SUBSIDY of $10 per person when more than 12 attend in a group.

Bookings for this great weekend close on WEDNESDAY, 31ST MARCH – please call Diana 5787 1123 or email:  info@rosesalesonline.com.au to register your booking.

MORE NEW RELEASE ROSES FOR 2016 …

These three will definitely excite you with their intense colour and extreme health and vigour …

CLIMBING FLORENTINA

EYE OF THE TIGER

FEARLESS

Descriptions of all the NEW RELEASE 2016 roses are available at www.rosesealesonline.com.au and you can always call the Rose Farm any FRIDAY, SATURDAY, SUNDAY and MONDAY to discuss your order or for design consultancy which we will discuss in greater detail next week!

Lovely to see that lots of customers are taking advantage of the great special offer
EVERY ROSE ORDER OVER $100 SELECT ONE FREE ROSE – ENDS 31.ST MARCH
Winter roses will be posted from late May until end August so get your orders in NOW!

Have a happy Easter time with friends and family, enjoy the school holidays too …

We are closed on GOOD FRIDAY
but open the usual 9am – 4.30pm on
SATURDAY, SUNDAY & on EASTER MONDAY!

see you soon at Clonbinane …

Hello dear rose friends from a very hot, very dry Clonbinane in autumn when I was looking forward to crawling under the doona at night – not yet, obviously!  Our roses are enjoying the dry heat and flowering magnificently – amazing plants they are for sure!

I’d like to share this quote I read recently:

We are still frequently asked to supply thornless roses – not even our growers are budding the ‘smooth touch’ roses which were released many years ago – seems that a rose without (some) thorns just isn’t a great, enduring rose for planting in our gardens.  Graham trialled several thornless ‘smooth touch’ varieties and established that they were generally disappointing both in pots and in garden beds.

There are several highly recommended roses which have few or no thorns on the flowering stems which makes them an absolute pleasure to cut and put in a vase.

FIREFIGHTER
One of the most highly fragrant, abundantly free-flowering, tall and healthy bushes which produces THORNLESS long-stemmed, darkest crimson red blooms ideal for placing in vases …

THE CHILDREN’S ROSE
Perfectly formed pale pink THORNLESS-stemmed, highly fragrant blooms on a very robust, healthy bush continually throughout the season – one of our most highly recommended roses …

MONICA – THORNLESS
Long-stems of pure dark orange with yellow at the base of each petal and glossy, dark crimson new foliage on a tall, robust bush which flowers freely all season providing bunches of blooms which last for days in the vase …

The list goes on and on but I think it is imperative that whenever you are working in the garden, you must take care – quality gloves protect your hands from contact with biting insects, spiders, and thorns!   When you’re visiting Silkies Rose Farm, please take time to FIT a pair of our recommended garden gloves which afford you the ability to FEEL what you’re doing because they fit snuggly to most hands and are wash ‘n’ wear durable quality!

Gloves available in small (7), medium(8), large (9) and extra large(10)
@ $14.50 per pair

GRA’S GARBLE…

This weather isn’t funny but this joke is …

Q. What do you get if you cross a chicken with a cement mixer?  A.  A brick-layer!

Some varieties of roses are amazing performers in very hot weather – here is my absolute stand-out selection –

PLAYBOY
What a rose!  Strong healthy, glossy dark crimson foliage which turns dark green with age – there’s slight fragrance in the single-petalled gold/bright red blooms which are produced in clusters with amazing continuity – one of my favourites!

DOUBLE KNOCKOUT
A really handy performer that maintains flowering through intense heat and well into colder months.  Masses of darkest hot-pink blooms on an easy-care, very tough and disease resistant bush – amazing rose!

EDGAR DEGAS
One of the most stunning Delbard roses which performs by free-flowering on a lovely rounded shrub which has mid-green, very healthy foliage.  Most delightful for me is that the flowers are always different colours so there’s a surprise every time you look!

One more joke, but before I give you that, please, please use seaweed solution over your roses at least every couple of weeks – add foliage fertilizer like AMINOGRO once a month and you’ll have beautiful blooms right into winter – this weather is definitely no joke … Gra

Q.  What sort of nails can you find in shoes?  A. Toe nails

ART & ROSES TOUR 2016

Saturday 9th & Sunday 10th April

Get your group bookings in as soon as possible – with a $10 per person travel subsidy for groups of 12 or more, gather some friends to car-pool with or hire a mini-bus; come along and visit our region – you’ll be spoiled with Devonshire Tea and walk and talk in the gardens with Graham here at Silkies Rose Farm, entry and catalogue for the Art Show – just pay for lunch and morning or afternoon tea at the delightful Hidden Valley Country Estate – we promise you a great day out!

ROSE RAMBLER …  3.3.2016 …

Hello dear rose friends and welcome to autumn which we consider to be the most beautiful season in our garden because the colour in the roses is intense and true; the season when all our deciduous trees turn magnificent colours and we start preparing new rose garden beds for winter planting.  It’s also the season when we get cooler nights and can snuggle-down under the doona again … lovely all-round.

It’s been easy to select the FREE varieties because every one of these roses is highly worthy of planting in your garden!  You’ll see them growing beautifully in gardens all around Australia and have proven to give enormous pleasure to rose gardeners year in and year out!

We’ve chosen varieties from the colour spectrum of roses which are sure to please; importantly all these varieties are very hardy, easy-care and will give you years of abundant blooms!

Now, which one will you choose???  Enjoy this gift from us to you …

APRICOT NECTAR	BONICA	DUET
ELINA	GOLD BUNNY	HOT CHOCOLATE
LA SEVILLANA	MEMOIRE	PARADISE
	VALENCIA

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FLOWER & GARDEN SHOW …

MIFGS starts on Wednesday, 16^th March when I will be giving a presentation ALL ABOUT ROSES at STAND 41B (close to front entrance gate – SCOTT’S AUSTRALIA PTY. LTD.)  commencing at 10.30 – 11.30 so get there early!

Graham’s beautiful, Multi-Award Winning rose: GRA’S BLUE will be featured in Kerri Heron’s garden on the AVENUE OF ACHIEVABLE GARDENS.  Kerri is a horticultural student at Melbourne Polytechnic and when she won the honour of presenting her garden design, she wanted a highly fragrant rose for her ‘picking garden’ and selected GRA’S BLUE as it met all her criteria!

Q.  What do you call an angry chocolate bar?  A.  A Violet Crumble.

EASTER IS AROUND THE CORNER …

Here are a few appropriately named roses which you can gift instead of chocolate –

Q.  How do you say “Richard and Robert have a Rabbit” without using the ‘R’ sound?  A.  Dick and Bob have a bunny!

VERY IMPORTANT SUMMER ROSE CARE …

We’ve had several customers email pictures of their poorly roses this past week – an infestation of RED SPIDER MITE will rapidly spread on the underside of rose foliage in areas where there is poor air circulation and very dry conditions.  The tiny insects will be visible using a magnifying glass – there is usually signs of webbing on the foliage as well.

To control RED SPIDER MITE we recommend immediate action by spraying ECO-OIL with NEEM OIL added (if available).  NEVER SPRAY plants when temperature is expected to be 30 degrees or more – as has been the case this past week!

To minimise the spread of RED SPIDER MITE while the weather is still too warm for spraying, wash affected bushes with the hose – particularly the underside of leaves – MITE hate being wet!  This kind of watering will protect the rose until you can commence spraying with ECO OIL (which suffocates them) and ECO NEEM (tells them to stop eating).

Clear around the base of each rose to improve air circulation and deep-soak the affected roses – this is most important to stop reinfestation!

IT’S BEEN DRY … most issues with roses are due to lack of adequate, deep soaking moisture so give the roses a light prune, turn the hose on and you’ll have a spectacular show of blooms throughout autumn and into winter.

ROSE RAMBLER 18.2.2016 …

Hello dear rose friends!  Due to the very many emails we’ve received with queries about summer pruning, there will be …

GRA’S GARBLE …

Seems I caused a bit of confusion about reference to moon-phase pruning which starts today and ends on Sunday so come on up to Clonbinane this Saturday and we’ll go through it together – stick around for a cuppa and chat with fellow rose enthusiasts too!

For those who are unable to attend this weekend, the general rule for SUMMER ROSE PRUNING is to remove ONE-THIRD of the bush WHILST RETAINING AS MUCH FOLIAGE AS POSSIBLE!  This is very important as healthy foliage cover protects stems from sun-burn and foliage is the ‘store-house’ of energy and nutrients for the entire plant.

If you’ve been trimming 1/3 off your bushes since they started flowering this season, a good tidy-up over the coming days will ensure you have lots and lots of roses through one of the loveliest flowering seasons, autumn.  Continue trimming as flowers finish and the bushes will produce lovely blooms right up to winter.

Q.  What has a neck but no head?  A.  A bottle   

If you have pics of your garden, problem foliage or a rose variety which you would like to identify, please bring with you on Saturday.  Pics like this are great to share:

Hope to see you on Saturday; meantime, because of the damp weather, continue with the organic rose management spray program at least monthly as healthy foliage ensures masses of roses … Gra

Q.  What is a complete waste of time?  A.  Telling a hair-raising story to a bald man – believe me, it’s true, I do it all the time!  (Diana)

SPEAKING OF PRUNING …

Every single person who purchases the LOWE SECATEURS just raves about how brilliant they are – you can order online at www.rosesalesonline.com.au or do what Caitlin did,  she came to the Rose Farm on Valentine’s Day and conned her husband into buying her a pair after we’d designed a plan and opened her order for winter roses!

WE’D LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU!

WOMO… Word of Mouth Online … if you have had an experience with our business which you would like to share, please place your testimonial at womo

I know we don’t get it right all the time but we extend ourselves 100% of the time and I think new customers would feel more confident purchasing our roses online if they could read all the testimonials I have in a folder where they can’t see them!

Please, if you could put your testimonial into WOMO, we would be most grateful – thank you in advance! Click the link below to leave us your review!

ROSES FOR WINTER 2016 …

In the next few weeks, I’ll be seducing you with pics and descriptions of some of the new release roses we are listing for 2016 – we’ve seen all these roses growing in the field and they are sensational …

11.2.2016

Hello dear rose friends … with Graham safely home after a jaunt into New South Wales Southern Highlands to visit gardens and ‘chook mates’ and me settled in my ‘new’ office!  Before he was out the gate, I had the first piece of furniture shifted and it’s taken a week of cleaning everything in my path while I changed the whole house around.  Interestingly, Gra is happy with the changes – now I sit here at my computer looking out on the garden and can see when you drive in the gate … really nice!

GRA’S GARBLE …

Get your secateurs sharpened because according to the moon planting guide, the best time for pruning our roses for robust autumn flowering is on the waxing moon – the dates are February 18-20 which are ‘fertile’ dates when plant wounds heal.  If you want to test the value of working to the lunar calendar, prune a few of your bushes on the suggested dates and leave some till a bit later – I know you’ll be amazed!

Q.  What happens when ducks fly upside down?  A. They quack up.

Now is the time to organise pruning to ensure you’ve got a plethora of flowers through autumn.  Because we need to have our potted roses looking spectacular for…

The gardens will be regularly watered, the pots will be managed with our organic rose management spray program to ensure premium foliage cover which will guarantee beautiful flowers throughout this last month of summer.

Q.  What did the bee say to the flower?  A.  Hi, honey!

ROSE RAMBLER …  4.2.2016

Hello dear rose friends as time speeds up again with only 10 days to VALENTINE’S DAY … when I send a gift rose to your loved one this year, it will have love-heart chocolates in the box to make your gift even more special!  Please get your orders to us AS SOON AS POSSIBLE and definitely by next Monday, 8^th February!

Here are a few roses varieties which I highly recommend …

SOUL MATE
Masses of bright golden blooms continually throughout the season with ruffled petals and stunning glossy foliage – yellow symbolises FRIENDSHIP in roses – this glorious rose is an easy-care, nicely rounded shrub which would also be suitable to grow in a large tub …

LINKED HEARTS
Perfectly formed pale-pink buds open to exude a most delightfully sweet fragrance.  Dark healthy foliage compliments the continually free-flowering attribute of this highly recommended rose …

MR. LINCOLN
If Valentine’s Day means long-stemmed, darkest red, most highly fragrant roses, this, our Best Selling Rose again this year, is the one you should gift …

GRA’S GARBLE …

To test for fragrance in a rose, pick a semi-open bloom and keep it in your pocket or under your cap for half an hour – you will soon know whether or not it’s a fragrant variety!  (Yes, Gra does just this – I get rose petals through the washing if I forget to check his pockets and yes, he wears a cap ALWAYS but I thought it was to keep his bald head warm … there’s always something funny going on here!  Diana)

Blooms picked when the outer petals have fully reflected will exude perfume for days in a vase at evenly warm room temperatures!

Q.  How do you start a flea race?  A.  One, two, flea, GO!

ROSE MANAGEMENT FOR THE LAST MONTH OF SUMMER …

Last week I fertilized the whole garden and incorporated rock-dust in the blend – we had good rain within hours!  This will guarantee healthy foliage and masses of blooms throughout autumn when I will do another application of Complete Organic Fertilizer to ensure flowers right into winter.

In between this fertilizing, I highly recommend regular applications (fortnightly is great!) of seaweed solution with some Eco-aminogro or other liquid fertilizer added.

When watering, ensure deep, deep soaking – I cannot stress this enough as most customers who have issues with their roses under-performing, the cause is generally lack of adequate water!  Yes, roses are very ‘water-wise’ but they are such prolific blooming plants when they have good, healthy foliage cover and to maintain this, they MUST HAVE water deep into the root-zone of the plant!  You’ll see the rewards … Gra

Q.  Why are mosquitoes religious?  A.  Because they sing over you before they prey on you!

ART & ROSES – 9^TH & 10^TH APRIL

It’s that time of year again when we start to round up bus groups for the Art & Roses Tours … please insert flyer here … I couldn’t do it!!

Due to overwhelming interest in this day tour of our beautiful region we needed to find another suitable destination for our visitors to have lunch as our Expo Café has limited space.

We are very excited to announce that the FIRST FOUR BUS GROUPS who book will enjoy a gourmet barbeque luncheon with Kevin and Rhonda Butler in their shearing shed where BLAZE-AID was conceived.  Volunteers from around Australia came to assist in recovery after the 2009 Black Saturday fires and the shearing shed became their ‘meet and eat’ destination.

Come and listen to Kevin and Rhonda share their story of BLAZE-AID; how it started, how it works and how it continues to assist Australians wherever disaster strikes!  Members of the Rotary Club of Southern Mitchell will host the lunch (cost $12.00).

Click here to download the full flyer

Hello dear rose friends … hope you all enjoyed Australia Day as much as my friend who emailed this:

Graham and I went to lunch with our friends – a German, a Greek, a Scot, a Pom and I’m Dutch – eight of us laughed till we cried whilst learning to do the Zorba which was safer than playing cricket on the back lawn … is cricket our NATIONAL DANCE???

One thing is for sure, we live in the most magnificently lucky, multi-cultural country!

GRA’S GARBLE …

I’ve been doing experiments with ‘bio-char’ which I created from a very slow burning, very hot bonfire several months ago.

To provide a steady feed on my rose garden, I put fine lumps of charcoal into a solution of seaweed and liquid fish emulsion, left it to soak for 3-4 weeks then placed it around the base of my plants.  Once a week, I poured seaweed solution and my weed-tea over the bio-char to keep it actively releasing microbes which are stored in the charcoal.

The results have been amazing – as I’ve been reading:  “Bio-char is proving to be the greatest, most significant beneficial revolution in organic growing techniques for years”.

To replicate this ‘brew’ you could buy a bag of pure charcoal (not heat beads which are impregnated with kerosene!), soak it in water, seaweed, fish emulsion, add some weeds, raw chook poo (or other animal manure) and after a few weeks, place the soaked charcoal around your roses.  Use the remaining liquid by adding about 1 litre ‘brew’ to 10 litres water and pour over all plants – stand back and watch them grow!

Q.  Why do you feed cocoa to tadpoles?  A.  To make chocolate frogs.

If you do nothing much to your roses during summer, please pour some seaweed solution over them at least fortnightly – we use and recommendECO-SEAWEED POWDER because:

• It has 60 vital nutrients which all plants love
• Includes 16% potassium to strengthen plants
• Is 100% pure soluble seaweed – no clogging of spray head
• Super concentrated – 1 teaspoon per 9 litre watering can
• Certified organic – no nasty chemicals!

Q.  What goes through a grasshopper’s mind when he hits the windscreen of a car driving at 100km per hour?  A.  His legs! 

Hope you’re enjoying your summer rose garden as much as we are here at Clonbinane – it’s a sight to behold… Gra

MAGGIE
Gorgeous modern shrub rose at the best of times but she ‘shone supreme’ during the extreme weather – highly, highly recommended rose if you love to pick bunches of flowers for a vase or simply love a rose which produces clusters of creamy-white blooms continually on a very disease-resistant, neatly rounded shrub to around 1.5 metres –

Hello dear rose friends … another week of perfect Victorian weather living up to reputation, has seen our roses sweltering at 45 degrees with north-westerly wind blowing a gale one day then less than 15 degrees the next day – we marvel at the roses adaptability – so long as they have water!

GRA’S GARBLE …

I didn’t cope so well with the 45 degrees – lost my sense of humour well and truly by 4.00 in the afternoon but the roses prevailed and here are three varieties which absolutely staggered me:

Just to let you know my sense of humour is back in place:
Q.  What is the difference between a television and a newspaper?
A.  Ever tried swatting a fly with the tellie?  

KNOCKOUT
This modern shrub rose deserves to be planted wherever you have a blank space to plant a rose and is especially ideal as a hedge!  Amazingly healthy, robust in all weather, extraordinarily free flowering and a stunning colour to brighten the dullest area of your garden … the potted specimens of KNOCKOUT did not bother one bit about the scorching sun and howling hot wind –

LORRAINE LEE
Bred in 1924 by Alister Clark at his property in Bulla, Victoria, this rose queen is still in demand because it is so suited to Australian conditions – it’s most prolific flowering can be during February when some roses like to have a bit of a spell after the hot summer.  LORRAINE LEE produces masses of fragrant, smoky apricot-pink blooms in flushes throughout the season on a neat shrub to around 1.5 metres.

There is also a climbing form which is most suited to a tennis court fence or similar large structure as the climber can reach massive proportions and requires very little attention!

ROSE MAINTENANCE DURING HOT WEATHER …

If you need to spray the organic management products, especially if you experience humidity which can induce black pot/powdery mildew, do so, but ONLY WHEN IT IS NOT GOING TO BE OVER 30 DEGREES and we highly recommend morning application.

ECO-OIL is a very effective insecticide – it also makes ECO-ROSE FUNGICIDE and seaweed solution STICK TO THE FOLIAGE to improve efficacy of the products.  It will BURN FOLIAGE if applied during hot weather!!!

If you notice brown/crisp edges on foliage, check soil moisture and be sure to apply at least 20 litres of water per plant AT EACH APPLICATION once a week – not 5 litres per plant every day!  Such watering is pointless as it doesn’t reach the root-zone which is where roses require water.

Q.  How do you fit more pigs on your farm?  A.  Build a sty-scraper.

To increase the healthy vigour of your roses and have them produce quality blooms throughout summer, deep soak your plants to ensure their roots travel way down into nutrient-rich clay sub-soil – there are usually good reserves of moisture down in the sub-soil!  Good watering will ensure a healthy cover of foliage which is the absolute ‘life-force’ of your roses!