ROSE RAMBLER 19.5.2016 …

Hello dear rose friends – we’ve had a beautiful time away from the nursery.  After three days lolling around the Sunshine Coast hinterland, we moved on and had the pleasure of visiting dear friends and viewing gardens to see how you Queenslander’s grow such magnificent roses in such an extraordinary climate – glad so many of you are ‘switched on’ to our organic rose management program which is obviously necessary in such conditions!

You know what though?  Wherever we travel in Australia, the roses adapt and flower according to the local environment – they are amazing plants and we’re so, so lucky to have such a versatile plant as roses in our gardens.

Thank you Queensland rose friends for hosting us and showing us how you grow such magnificent roses – we are inspired!

GRA’S GARBLE …

Hope you enjoyed viewing the new ‘Rosarian’ Catalogue which Diana spent quite a bit of time putting together!  It’s not easy to select which roses to feature when there are so many beautiful roses for us to enjoy – here are a few of my absolute favourites …

MY RECOMMENDED ROSES – ALL TRIED AND TRUE …

They’ve been around for a while but I seriously recommend them for planting this winter if you don’t already grow them …

TROPICAL SUNSET
Such a glorious surprise of yellow/orange/pink stripes on a most robust,
sturdy bush to around 1.2m tall – lovely light fragrant and perfect to vase:

VALENCIA
Largest blooms of old-gold (peony-sized blooms) on long,
strong stems with a delicious fragrance – again, perfect to vase:

PEACE
Still popular, forever gorgeous rose with
HUGE fragrance and simply, one of the best:

Here at Clonbinane we’ve already had quite a few decent frosts so the end of the flowering season is now apparent … if your roses start to show signs of blackspot, don’t be too concerned, they’ll start to shed foliage once the cooler weather sets in and their method of de-foliating generally means the foliage will ‘spot’ and fall.

Q.  What do you call an Eskimo that asks questions?  A.  An Askimo.

Don’t bother going around to remove spent foliage – the soil / mulch will deal with all the fungus spores.  By the time you prune roses and start the organic rose management spray program, taking particular note to spray over the mulch, those fungal spores will have rotted down and become part of the ecological/microbial environment of your garden!
Besides, would you really bother removing all that foliage at the base of your rose plants?  No, of course not … it’s natural!

Q.  What did the constipated mathematician do?  A.  Worked it out with a pencil.

I sure hope you’re adding all the autumn leaves to your compost heap – they are such a valuable aerator and source of nutrients for use when planting roses in coming months!  Keep applying seaweed solution over the roses in readiness for the cold – your roses will enjoy 3-5 degrees of cold-tolerance with fortnightly applications and the foliage will remain healthy until it falls for winter – enjoy the last beautiful flowers of autumn … Gra

BARE-ROOTED ROSES …

They’re almost here – the heel-in beds are ready and waiting so get your orders in NOW at www.rosesalesonline.com.au

If you need advice about designing your garden and selecting the very best, most suitable varieties for your location, please email us:  info@rosesalesonline.com.au with dimensions, a selection of which roses you would like to plant and we can assist you to create the rose garden of your dreams ..