Hello dear rose friends – welcome to summer and exactly four weeks to Christmas Day! As the excitement of the holiday season builds, I’d like to focus on
HOW TO WATER ROSES so that both you and your plants are prepared for your garden to flourish this summer.
In my book, ALL ABOUT ROSES, which I urge you to buy so that you can keep it on hand to give you ‘personal’ advice for the management of your rose garden, I dedicated a whole chapter to watering the rose garden and there’s a tip which I would like to share because when I talk with our customers and tell them this, they’re visibly astounded at how easy this is and why they never thought of it themselves.
Roses will continue flowering with 20 litres of water per rose per week so do a flow-rate check of your water pressure. Get a 10 litre bucket, turn the tap on full pressure and fill the bucket. Accurately time how long it takes to fill the bucket.
Once you determine the water pressure/flow rate, create a simple design of garden beds, take a core sample of your soil and then go visit a specialist irrigation supplier who will advise the best method of watering your garden.
After 30 years of (mostly frustrating) experience and having installed every single type of irrigation system available, our garden is now very satisfactorily watered using ‘shrubblers’ on an automatic system which we treated ourselves to having professionally installed!
We both like to SEE water being delivered to our plants and shrubblers offer this – they’re also very low maintenance and the flow-rate can be adjusted where plants with different water requirements are planted in the same bed.
GRA’S GARBLE …
There are plants that help other plants keep insects away, often commonly referred to as ‘companion plants’ – roses love a range of plants which provide shelter for beneficial insects which make a feast of aphids, whitefly and thrip – insects which cause nightmares for rose gardeners because they seriously damage the flowers.
You can plant calendular, alyssum, nasturtiums and of course, garlic but I find it much easier to buy packets of seeds called ‘BACKYARD BUDDIES’ which I plant in large pots, polystyrene boxes and greensmart (self-watering) pots so that I can move them around the garden if/when there is a prevailing insect attack.
I planted seeds and within days the plants are emerging – a mix of annual and perennials flowers including Red clover, Lucerne, Anise, Sweet Alice, Dill, Caraway, Coriander, Cosmos, Buckwheat, Baby’s Breath, Marigold and Queen Anne’s Lace … last year, the flowers from all these plants were beautiful companions around the nursery amongst the potted roses.
Kids will love to plant these seeds so here’s a great Christmas idea – call OCP on 1800 634 204 and order a few packs, plant them with the kids over the holidays and watch them be entranced by how quickly the plants emerge and let them observe how ‘their’ plants manage to keep pesky insects under control in your rose garden this summer. This is a brilliant opportunity to get kids involved outdoors and in the garden!
Q. What do you get from nervous cows? A. Milk shakes!
A MOST EXTRAORDINARY ROSE …
Men can be difficult to buy gifts for … this gloriously fragrant rose, named FATHER’S LOVE is a perfect gift for the ‘difficult to buy for’ Dad in your life. This rose is so appropriate as most men LOVE red roses – they also NEED to have FRAGRANT RED ROSES.
FATHER’S LOVE couldn’t be more appropriately named because it meets all the demands of a guy in a rose garden – red, supremely fragrant, healthy and surprisingly, not ugly with thorns! I took pics of it in the garden today and as with most photos of red roses, this doesn’t do the rose justice but gives an idea of what a delightful addition this rose would be to any rose garden … if you’re struggling with what to buy your Dad this Christmas, take a look at how beautifully we package our ‘gift roses’ at giftroses.com.au – perfect solution and a gorgeous gift …
IN CLOSING …
Don’t wait until the very last minute to get gift roses sorted for this Christmas because…
CUT OFF DATE FOR ORDERING IS
MONDAY, 15TH DECEMBER
FOR ALL INTERSTATE ORDERS
Take respite in your garden when things get frantic in the lead-up to Christmas or come and visit us here at Clonbinane … see you soon
~ Diana, Graham and Mooi
