ROSE RAMBLER 4.12.2015

Hello dear rose friends … we celebrated Graham’s birthday on Monday down in the front garden pruning away the devastation of a severe frost which occurred here the previous Friday morning – yes, minus 3 degrees frost on 27^th November!

We participate monthly as presenters on 3CR Garden Show talk-back radio in Melbourne and it was ME calling in on Sunday morning for advice from Pam, Stephen and the panel on how to deal with recovering different varieties of plants which, by Sunday, we could see were not going to recover without intervention – what to do?

Our orientalal lilliums won’t flower this season, potatoes will recover, so will the dahlias; buddleia will flower later – all affected plants needed to be trimmed and it was recommended we fertilize and deep-water the garden beds – seaweed solution would be beneficial but we had already done that!

So, how did the roses fare?  We trimmed them on Monday too but today, nearly a week later, we have done a complete summer prune of all the roses in the front garden because the buds which were frozen indicated they were not going to flower and there were new shoots producing below the frost damage … so interesting!

My CLEMATIS were unaffected with only slight burning at the edge of flowers – they do make me smile at their toughness while so many gardeners are shy of them!  PENSTEMONS sagged a bit but have pressed on and recovered without trimming.  New shoots on several of the oak trees are burned; we won’t have flowers this season on any of the CREPE MYRTLE down in the front garden but the driveway plants were spared – thank goodness!

There you go, we’ve lived in this garden for 16 years and NEVER had such a late frost!  What it means is that our garden will be ‘different’ through summer and autumn because we’ve had to prune heavily ‘out of season’ but it will survive and the difference will be lovely to witness and record for experience!

GRA’S GARBLE …

With all the variable weather, we’ve been maintaining regular applications of our organic management spray program which will guarantee lush, healthy foliage on our potted roses – interestingly, none of them was affected by frost – fair to say the nursery is on ‘higher ground’ than the front, south-facing garden but the potted roses are getting fortnightly applications of seaweed solution so they’re more pampered!

Q.  What is the easiest way to double your money?  A.  Put it in front of a mirror!

This lovely email is so worth sharing –

Q.  Why did the picture go to jail?  A.  Because it was framed … love sharing a joke … Gra

SO CLOSE TO CHRISTMAS …

Please let us make your Christmas gifting an easy but more importantly, most rewarding experience this year.  Any rose of your choice can be selected and posted as a GIFT ROSE – if you’re not sure which rose to send, why not purchase a GIFT VOUCHER which can be sent directly to the recipient so they can select their own roses – online shopping made super easy at www.rosesalesonline.com.au – gift vouchers!

We cannot more highly recommend a LOWE SECATEUR for all rose gardeners – beaut, light-weight and so ‘fit in any hand’ pair of secateurs which will easily and ergonomically cut through thick branches – make pruning a memorable gift this Christmas:

Please be reminded that we will continue to post roses until 17^th December to ensure your gift rose arrives on time and then we will close the nursery from Monday, 21^st December and re-open on Friday, 8^th January – online orders will continue to be processed throughout the holiday period for books and products – roses will be posted AFTER 8^th January!