RAMBLER 20.10.2016 …

Hello dear rose friends as we all enjoy long-awaited moments of smelling the fragrance of our roses at the start of what will be an amazing rose season!

Yes, of course we are still posting roses – they’re a little more expensive now because they’ve been in pots for a while; we’ve sprayed, fed, watered, trimmed and given them lots of loving which guarantees they’ll travel well and be a pleasure in your garden!

To post roses now is easy – I remove them from the pot, dust off any loose potting mix, wrap the roots in damp newspaper, seal in a plastic bag and they travel as though they’re still in their pots!  The roses actually continue to grow whilst in transit … as FORGET ME NOT did for 34 days before it found its way back to us recently …

The rose was posted as a bare-rooted plant in mid-August and the roots were still damp in their original package after 34 days so I immediately potted it, watered with eco-seaweed and placed it in a sunny location so the branches could photosynthesise – within two days there was a noticeable change

The GIFT ROSE is different because it is posted in a specifically designed, elegantly printed box which locks a gift-wrapped, potted rose (flowering now through to June, 2017) together with your personal message written in a gift card; including postage, this costs $73.90 – lovely Christmas gift idea!

GRA’S GARBLE …

The race is on for the first roses to flower here at Clonbinane …

ORIGAMI
Has stunningly healthy foliage that clothes long, strong stems which produce unusually shaped blooms of cream with a dark pink/red edge – most unusual and interesting rose!

JUST JOEY
It’s easy to overlook some of the ‘old’ varieties which we’ve sold for the past 30 years and assume every gardener knows this glorious rose!  Deliciously fragrant, waved petals on huge flowers … highly recommended rose!

MRS. B.R. CANT
Is definitely the Queen of our garden as she flounces against the spruce she respectfully shares space with and will produce abundant masses of blooms until late June next year!  Awesome rose!

POT LUCK ROSES

These are roses where labels have blown away, faded or inadvertently been removed so we don’t know who they are … that is until they’re flowering!  See if you can beat us to it … buy them, plant them in your garden and wait for a surprise … daily we go to this group of roses to see if we can retrieve a ‘stunner’, pop it’s label on and it will be sold at recommended retail price!

Some days we forget to go there – you get in first and we’ll gladly identify the rose for you!

Q. What goes up a downpipe down but won’t go up a downpipe up?  A. an umbrella (thanks for this reader contribution – it had me stumped too!)

If you haven’t already done so, I suggest you get a good cover of mulch on the garden NOW if for no other reason than to offer protection for the worms which have been breeding since May and they are the army of workers who will aerate the soil, fertilize it with their castings whilst improving the overall structure and condition of your soil!

Diana was distressed when her recently applied pea straw mulch started to grow.

but I assured her this rather new garden bed will benefit in the extreme because of the nitrogen fixing which is guaranteed to occur due to the peas growing deep roots – being the ‘tidy freak’ she is, she is going to try and encourage my Langshan fowls over to that garden to eat the peas.  (She’ll be like the Pied Piper – throw morsels of bread in a trail to the garden bed???  Not sure she’ll be successful but will keep you posted!)

I, on the other hand, would like to see a good cover of ‘green manure’ and perhaps wait to see if/when the peas flower how decorative this might be before they simply dry up and cover the ground with another layer of pea straw!

Q.  What does MOTHER GIANT say to her children at the dinner table?  A.  Don’t talk with someone in your mouth!