Hello dear rose friends … we slipped out for a few days last week to go and see Graham’s own rose in the Trial Grounds in Adelaide.  WOW!

GRA’S RAMBLE … I never thought I could breed my own rose and to see it flowering in the National Rose Trial Grounds was a real hoot! Read this the other day, a bloke called Walter Bagehot wrote it and it was how I felt along the way while I was cross-pollinating, harvesting and setting the seeds – waiting, waiting for a stunning rose to emerge :

THE GREATEST PLEASURE IN LIFE IS DOING WHAT PEOPLE SAY YOU CANNOT DO!

(Editor, Diana’s note:  Now I understand why he has 10 minute showers, leaves lights on all the time and drives home the long way … damn that Walter bloke for telling him it was okay to do things he ‘cannot do’ someone please send him a verse and tell him about what he ‘shouldn’t do’!)

Climbing Roses that are FANTASTIC –

• CREPUSCULE – a buff/apricot colour which flowers for 9 months, can be pruned with a hedger, has almost no thorns and is lightly fragrant.
• MME. ALFRED CARRIERE – most magnificently perfumed white rose with a blush centre in cool weather, flowers nearly all year – certainly the first and last to flower and is almost thornless.
• GOLDEN CELEBRATION – gorgeous flower as big as a pie, swirling mass of petals filled with sumptuous perfume and all the class of a great David Austin rose.

All climbers enjoy a trim when the flowers are finished and they will be back flowering in 45-50 days … great value!  Do let us help you select the very best climber suited to the situation you would like to cover with beautiful roses.

My good friend Sue at the Whittlesea Court House sent this tip to share:

My tip for weeding (not that I can do it much now – well not on my knees anyway) use some of the bubble wrap plastic to kneel or sit on. I scored some of the larger stuff – about inch size bubbles from some packing, which is great. I have a long sheet of it so can put it down and move along, sometimes doubling it over for more padding. Easy to clean – shake off the dirt or hose it if gets muddy. Haven’t tried the small bubble wrap but the big stuff works really well and I just fold it away in my gardening stuff. Unfortunately it doesn’t come with anything to hold onto to get up. Yes I need something now!!!!

Q.  What did the lawyer name his daughter?  A. .. wait for it ….. SUE !   Keep smiling … Gra

SUMMER ROSE CARE SEMINAR WEEKEND …

THIS SATURDAY 23^RD AT 10.00AM  &  SUNDAY 24^TH  NOVEMBER AT 1.30PM

Yes, we know it’s not Summer yet but the rose care skills you need to have your roses looking their best for Christmas and beyond needs to be planned so come along to a session with Graham in the garden this weekend … booking would be handy but not essential.

MOON PLANTING GUIDE … There has been an overwhelming request for more dates to be published, so this will lead you well into Summer:

No sowing on 25^th November.  Best sowing/planting from 1.05pm on 27^th, all day 28^th to 5.00pm on 29^th.  No sowing before 7.55am on 3^rd December.  Best sowing/pruning days from 8.00am on 3^rd to 11.50am on 4^th;  all day on 7^th and 8^th to 12.50pm on 9^th.  More in 2 weeks!

SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW … A little dream comes true in the form of MOOI LILY (translated:  MOOI : beautiful in Dutch and LILY : 6 year old Logan wanted to name her this) our darling little miniature poodle has stormed into our hearts and become a part of our lives.  Do introduce yourself when you next visit us at Clonbinane.

IN CLOSING … “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world” … Anna Frank wrote in 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 2013 and onwards – be happy and positive while the roses bloom so delightfully!

Diana, Graham and Mooi Lily at Clonbinane

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT EVERY ASPECT OF ROSE GROWING, LOG ON AND CONTRIBUTE TO allaboutroses.com.au

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!”

Those little bags of ‘stuff’ are hanging in this glorious climbing rose ‘Pierre de Ronsard’ close to the portico of this magnificent home!  The smell can’t be too bad!!!

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 …

1^ST 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

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:

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 …

1^ST 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

Hello dear rose friends … Already passed the middle days of Spring and things starting to ‘hot up’ … a taste of the fast advancing Summer and oh, the joy of the roses blooming and the magnificent fragrance makes all the dipping and dunging so worthwhile!  No time to rest on your laurels though … plenty to do in the rose garden now.

RAMBLE ON WITH GRA … Ever noticed all the perfumes we could buy – there are dozens.  The perfume in roses is natural and the best time to smell a rose is when the sun is shining on the open flower.  What ENERGY attracting the bees to create the beginning of another rose – the seeds!  The rose fragrance also gives us lucky humans a lift.  Try smelling some coffee first, then smell the rose;  what a delight for our spirit … it takes us to a higher place.

By the way, what did Cinderella say when her photos didn’t show up?  “Some day my ‘prints’ will come.

• POTTING ROSES: Potted roses can still be planted or re-potted from now on and throughout the flowering season.  If potting, always use a good quality, certified potting mix with added nutrients and water saving granules.  Mulch the top of the pots with compost about 50mm thick and then place milled lucerne or some straw over the compost.  Place the pot on a tray filled with stones and water daily, use Natrakelp or Eco-cweed at least fortnightly.
• ROSE GARDENERS GLOVES:  How good are your garden gloves?  It is so important to use good quality, washable gloves that have material on the back that breathes but also protects your knuckles while moving around the thorny roses as you prune!  Buy two pair so that you can change and wash them regularly – great Christmas present for the avid rose gardener and the one’s we stock here at the Rose Farm come in four different sizes – we’ve used them for years and highly recommend them!!
• MULCH IS CRITICAL:  It is important to mulch the rose garden NOW to save moisture from Winter/Spring rains – plants are 96% water!  Use Lucerne, straw, leaves and soaked newspaper at the edges of the garden beds will keep weeds away and be home to good soil critters and worms.  Place the mulch on damp soil or water before and after mulching.

HELP THE ENVIRONMENT … MULCH THE SOIL!  I’m told that 40% of grass is carbon so lawn clippings in light layers must be useful as a mulch too!

Enjoy the beautiful perfume of the roses while you wonder about the answer to this … what has a thumb and four fingers but is not alive … I’ll tell you next week …. Graham.

EARLY NOVEMBER MOON PLANTING/GARDENING GUIDE … Best sowing/planting days: 4^th from 10.50am; 7^th from 7.45am, all day on 8^th to 9.30am on 9^th.  No sowing on 10^th!

Best sowing/pruning days: from 12.35pm on 11^th, all day on 12^th, to 5.40pm on 13^th;  all day on 16^th, to 1.15pm on 17^th.

MELBOURNE CUP HOLIDAY WEEKEND …  Yes, of course, we’ll be here all weekend as usual and besides, the roses are flowering beautifully so treat yourself to a day out with the roses at Clonbinane!  You’re always welcome to bring a picnic and sit on the lawns or under the shade of the gum trees – we have boiling water for tea and coffee!

TWO NEW ROSES …  It can take a few years for a new rose to make a statement and these are creating an impact now:

MY HERO – Highly fragrant, clear-mid-pink blooms with masses of thick petals on the most disease-resistant shrub to 1.2 metres high and wide

SHOOTING STAR – Fragrant blooms with a swirling mass of buttery-golden yellow petals in dense formation on a sturdy, very healthy foliaged bush to 1.2 metres.

IN CLOSING …  Last week I was kneeling down while mulching the garden and got bitten – probably one of those big ants, maybe a spider …?  Gentle reminder to me and I wish to pass on to you all that the burning welt on my leg lasted for over a week and I will now use one of the kneeling frames.

No I won’t, I’m not old enough to justify using a kneeling frame for it’s intended purpose ie. assist me in getting up from a kneeling position .. giggle .. so I’ll just use a piece of cardboard or layer of newspaper.  I WILL NOT kneel and crawl around the garden unprotected and I urge you all to take care of the same insects lurking in your rose garden!

Enjoy the Melbourne Cup – a real celebration of roses – Diana & Graham at Clonbinane

Hello dear rose friends … A week of extreme weather variables – minus 2 frosts which burned the new tips on the oak trees and totally scalded the ‘Crepe Myrtles’, then 32 degrees on Sunday while I was planting a new section for roses wearing a singlet and getting sunburned;  now it’s raining and cold …..

Whether the weather be fine, Or whether the weather be not, Whether the weather be cold, Or whether the weather be hot, We’ll weather the weather Whatever the weather, Whether we like it or not!

 Author: unknown

GRA’S STUFF …  Different week, different heading … you’re in for a treat either way!

Q. What has to be broken before you can use it?  A. An egg!

Speaking of which, what a great healthy food package.  If you have owned fowls, you’ll understand the joy they are to sit and watch for half an hour .. see their pecking order, their habits – some extrovert, some introvert and some always hungry … like ME !!! and the one who is always last in the pen.

Here are our new LANGSHAN BANTAMS looking in the mirrors along the shed wall

Look after your chooks well.  They need, in this order

• ·        FRESH, CLEAN WATER AT ALL TIMES!
• ·        Protein from bugs and insects
• ·        Green feed EVERY DAY – silver beet, lettuce, grass, weeds
• ·        Organic grain and pellets
• ·        Shell grit or stone dust – leave in trays and watch how they use these!

True free-range eggs are sooooo delicious and so very good for you!

Along with eggs, to grow your own veggies and salads is the best guarantee of good healthy food – fresh is magic for your body and soul – the gardening side of all this manifests a healthy mind and earth! 

Companion planting is so good for the environment – grow carrots, small bush tomatoes, silver beet, lettuce and lots of different herbs among the rose bushes.  Place a bowl of water with corks floating in it so the bees can have a drink!

Grow the heavy feeders together – cabbage, cucumbers/pumpkins/melons, sweet corn and tall tomatoes – when they’re done, follow up with potatoes and legumes to give natural nitrogen back to the soil or compost that section of garden with layers of straw, leaves, fowl manure in thin layers together with layers of herbs like tansy, yarrow and nettles to get the microbes working … yes, my word, they really dooooo!

NEW ROSE CATALOGUE … I am in the throes (and woes!) of putting together a rose catalogue with photos of roses and invite you to send me your favourite NAMED rose photo to make a really sensational contribution to the back page feature – all different roses! 

Trying to sort just 50 roses to be featured in this Catalogue is wrenching – so many glorious roses with wonderful attributes that I would love to share but they’ll have to wait until I write the book of my dreams! 

I took these photos today of a few roses here at Clonbinane which, despite this variable weather, are looking sensational … another few days of warm sunshine and we’ll be fully flowering … see you really soon and enjoy your roses this week …

                             Cheers from Diana & Graham Sargeant at Clonbinane