Hello dear rose friends … we’ve had a week of broken sleeps due to health issues with our lovely Dingo, Bonnie; she is today having surgery and we look forward to having her back home this evening ready to get on with the rest of her happy life here at the Rose Farm! How easy it would be to have no animals but oh, how sad to miss out on the love and pleasure of having this very special Dingo in our lives. Yes, she’s 14 years old now and never created an inkling of concern to us … except when she ever escaped out a left-opened gate to chase and return home with a rabbit – with her mouth filled with a dangling rabbit, you could still see her smile! No thought or care for the fact that cars have had to come to a screeching halt up and down the Spur Road because she has absolutely no road-sense … cats have ‘nine lives’ and I don’t know how many lives dogs have but Bonnie has surely used up all of hers playing ‘chicken’ up and down the Spur Road here at Clonbinane!
YOUR ROSE ORDERS … Yes, it’s a very long, protracted season but I assure you, all your orders are ‘safe’ and we are still waiting for many varieties to be dug … this is happening now! Once all the bushes have been processed, the standards will be very close behind them and on behalf of our grower, Brian, we apologise for the delay!
Please understand that because of our growing policy to let Mother Nature set the pace of how we manage the roses, we are at Her mercy with when they are dug – the very warm Autumn prolonged the flowering season and natural defoliation would not occur during such warm weather. At the end of the day, you, the rose gardeners are the winners because the roses you eventually plant in this Winter season are now very well conditioned so you will enjoy robust and healthy roses for many years!!!
Some rose orders have been posted and here is one testimonial of the quality roses being sent this season:
Hi Diana,
The roses arrived on Friday. We would like to congratulate you on the quality and size of the plants. We are already doing up a wish list for next year.
Thanks,
Louise
YES, GO AHEAD AND PRUNE YOUR ROSES … Because it has been cold and your roses will mostly be defoliated. Sharpen your secateurs, pull on your gloves and coat and get out and prune your rose garden – enjoy the experience and be sure that whatever you do, the roses will forgive you by resuming flowering again this coming Spring.
After pruning, give each rose a handful of high-quality, organic rose (or all-purpose) fertilizer, wash them down or spray with liquid seaweed to which you add the Eco-Rose and Eco-oil rose management products. Depending on the weather in your zone, the roses will start to produce healthy foliage within the next six weeks and be flowering again in Spring … amazing!
The rose pruning demonstrations continue … cost is $25.00 per person and we remind you to bring along ALL your pruning equipment so that we can show you how to maintain your gear – remember too that if you have a group of four or more, we will conduct a seminar especially for your group on any day which we mutually agree upon! Coming up dates at the Silkies Rose Farm:
SATURDAY, 6TH JULY – 11.00AM
SUNDAY 14TH JULY – 1.00PM
WHITTLESEA COURT HOUSE – SATURDAY, 20TH JULY – 10.00 AM
SUNDAY 21ST JULY – 1.00PM
SUNDAY 28TH JULY – 11.00AM
END OF AN ERA … on Tuesday this week Graham and I, with our (gun-pruner) son, Eric, spent six hours of head-down, bum-up pruning at the old Silkie Gardens Rose Nursery & Café in Kilmore. You’ve heard me rave about my Pellenc pruning gear … I’m really glad that I had it last Tuesday because I’m quite sure that such a huge undertaking with a pair of secateurs would have rendered me physically disabled! Both Eric and I used Pellenc ‘green technology’ pruners/loppers/blower while Graham resorted to conventional pruning gear, to remove two fully laden trailers of rose prunings … Eric doing the ceremonial ‘final cut’ in a garden which we created, developed and loved for 30 years … and will never, ever prune again!
You try and turn the picture up the right way because I sure as heck cannot!!! Have a giggle and hold your computer screen around while you’re trying to see that last cut at the end of an era!
IN CLOSING … This rather short Rose Rambler wouldn’t be complete without a little bit of humour ….
AND GOD PROMISED MEN THAT GOOD AND OBEDIENT WIVES
WOULD BE FOUND IN ALL CORNERS OF THE EARTH..
THEN HE MADE THE EARTH ROUND… AND LAUGHED AND LAUGHED AND LAUGHED …
If God was a woman, such a random statement would never have been made without due consideration of the consequences … I’m glad that God made roses …
Cheers from Diana, Graham and Dingo, Bonnie