Hello dear rose friends … Australia is going seriously ‘green’ – as of this morning, we have a ‘recycled’ Prime Minister … best I say no more other than to wish these amazing people the joy of a garden rather than the dross of politics! Somebody has to do their job!
The first month of Winter is already ending. There are lots of beautiful two-year-old roses being processed but the yearlings, the Standards and the Weeping roses are still several weeks away because Mother Nature calls the shots … firstly too warm and then too wet to under-cut … I’m very understanding and hope you are too! I went to the grower’s at Kalangadoo last week and experienced some magical moments in the rose fields! Here’s a picture of the frozen rose hips …
SO, YOU WANT TO CLOTHE A ROSE ARCH WITH BEAUTIFUL ROSES …maybe to create a romantic pleasure in your garden, maybe to create a fragrant entrance or maybe you just want an arch with roses on it …? Let’s take a look at a few small issues before we start to select the right rose for your location – think about your priorities relative to colour, fragrance, type of rose flower, etc. and then, how big is the arch?
To enable you to enjoy many years of joy from this flowering spectacle in your garden, it is imperative that you select the right rose to suit the size of your arch and we recommend the walkway be 1.5 – 2 metres wide so that two people can walk comfortably abreast through the arch and not be ‘caught’ by the roses – small, flimsy arches are totally inadequate for most roses … the rose will be there for more than 20 years and deserves a structure that will support it!
Being a ‘Consulting Rosarian’, I find that deciding on the right climbing rose for the right location is overwhelmingly one of the most requested tasks. Just yesterday a customer reeled off a list of climbers she would like for the perimeter fence of her garden. She had received several roses as gifts and had them already planted at 3 metres apart – appropriate spacing for climbing roses on a boundary fence – until she mentioned that ‘Albertine’ was there too! NO … this is a ‘rambling rose’ of amazing proportions, totally unsuitable to the back fence/kids playground as it produces very thorny canes in profusion and flowers only in the Spring. This magnificent rose, along with many other rambling roses, deserves a site where it can scramble about – not suitable to the back fence and certainly not over the small archway!
When you come to deciding on the colour of a suitable climber for your arch, there will be at least one highly recommended climbing rose in each different colour range and there is a whole list of those on the allaboutroses.com.au website … you know you are welcome to email or call me if you require more particular advice so that the climbing/rambling rose planting is right for your garden!
QUOTATION FROM ‘NEWS LEAF’ … Biodynamic Agriculture Australia Ltd. produce the most informative newsletter and if you are interested in the soil and gardening … even a small plot, biodynamics is a constructive way of managing your land. I recently read an article and the closing statement is “…. Bridges are able to be creatively built revealing links with past cultures and consciousness at the same time that a deed for the future is done out of pure love for the deed. It is done out of reverence with a strong sense of responsibility towards the destiny of humanity and our Earth”. Take a look at the BAA website : www.biodynamics.net.au
ROSE PRUNING DEMONSTRATIONS … There are still a couple of spots available for this Sunday, 30th June at 11.00am and then we start on the dates for July …
SATURDAY, 6TH JULY – 11.00AM
SUNDAY, 14TH JULY – 1.00PM
WHITTLESEA COURT HOUSE, 20TH JULY- 1.00PM
Don’t forget to bring your pruning equipment with you – we’ve had great feed-back from customers who have attended a demonstration!
RESULT OF LAST WEEKS ‘JOKE’ … The question was: How did the banana skin return to Mother Nature? The answer was: via comPOST … thank you Lisa for lying awake in the night to devise such a ‘gardener’s joke’ … if you ‘create’ a gardeners joke to contribute, let me know and I will publish it for you!
We are now busy potting up the roses and Graham’s best mate, Barry is working with us. The two of them chat and laugh their way through the hours while Virginia and I get on with the job … they laughed so hard at this, we stopped work to join in the fun … they are a circus, believe me!
Gra: What did your old man do before he worked on the railways?
Baz: He was a timber cutter and you could hear his ring barking from miles away …!
IN CLOSING … Enjoy this magnificent Winter weather while it lasts and we’ll see you soon when you come to collect your roses….
Cheers from Diana, Graham and Dingo, Bonnie