Hello dear rose friends … welcome to 2013 – may this year be a really grand year for your roses! How easy it is to become complacent and expect the water to fall from the sky – according to one of my very special ‘old’ customers, Carmel, this particular period of weather is worse than all of the twelve years of drought and I couldn’t agree more!
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: The Rose Rambler Weekly
By request, The Rose Rambler is now coming to your Inbox every Thursday.
If the street trees and plants in your locality are suffering through this unusually hot, dry period, please contact your local Council and ask them to come and water. There is plenty of water in storage around the country and if you stop and consider the fact that when plants die, the replacement costs are far greater than what it would cost to help them through this dry spell … sometimes Mother Nature needs a hand and if you could extend a hand right now, I know she will be most grateful!!! Driving around the streets in Melbourne last week was almost heartbreaking – the street trees are gasping for water and if you have a tree outside of your home, please give it a good soak … reduce your shower time to save the plants in your garden and on your street too!
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: The encylopaedia of roses.
Our new website will be launched in the coming weeks, focusing on everything roses.
A complete listing of every rose in Australia, hints and tips about growing roses and an in-depth look at events for rose lovers.
So why are the plants dying when they had such great rain over recent times? Very perplexing because we thought the subsoil would be lovely and moist and keep everything in order … well, apparently, because of the very wet season, our plants produced lots of surface roots (deep roots literally ‘drowned’ because there was too much moisture) and then of course, with the incredible heat and dry conditions, those surface roots have also died! When you visit Silkies Rose Farm at Clonbinane, take a good look at the trees which are not coping with the current weather conditions … those trees were sodden during the rainy seasons and now they’re turning up their toes – 3 of our more than 20 year old established eucalyptus trees have suddenly died! Some oak trees are severely stressed and the west-facing (15+ year old) maples are all burned. Unfortunately, we can’t see what’s going on in the soil and as in our situation now, we only became aware of a problem when the trees started showing signs of severe stress! Hopefully all the trees will survive because they are such an intrinsic part of the infrastructure of our gardens … please, please deep soak your trees and give them some liquid seaweed!
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Pearly Petals, a beautiful new product from Silkie Gardens.
Our Rose Rambler next Thursday will give you all the details of this great new enhancement to your dining table. Here’s a sneak peak.
