MLL wrote:

Hello everyone,

I moved to the UK in Feb and purchased a house in June.
It has the most lovely English Cottage Garden.

What could be the problem you ask?

There are hundreds and I am lost!

The lady that lived here before just plunked down what ever she bought in
any open space
she could find!

There are over 50 roses and they ALL have rot/mildew/wilt/bugs!
They are in the middle of lilies, under trees, stuck in the shade, the list
goes on and on.

I adore the way it looks as if it was just done with a bit of eccentricity.

Here lies the trouble tho. I am at a loss as to how and sort it!
The Lavender and Rosemary are as huge as trees!
How and when to prune?

The Roses are in BAD condition, Do I just chop them all back now?
What about the climbers that are covering buildings and have about 4 leaves
and those are only on the ends?

There seems to be no way to fix this except to rip it all up.
Tho the weather seems so much milder here than in the heat of the
Mid West back home I am still worried about doing that.

I have raked up the dead leaves and twigs from the roses, dead headed them
as well as done My best not to be to fussy about the layout, knowing
that only adds to how lovely it looks all smushed together but I do
need some help!

I have gone on line to look for some advice on these things but it is a
little like
reading flat pack instructions!

My thought, an English garden would need English gardeners advice.

Thank you in advance,

The US Transplant
Lorri

Welcome to URG.. take a look at the FAQ's at:
http://www.tmac.clara.co.uk/urgring/urgfaqs.htm

and look out for the ABC posted on the list at regular intervals.

It has been a wettish year for roses..

Best you can do is

Remove into a bag all contaminated material and either dry and then burn
in a hot fire or put out with the rubbish. SPray with bicarb of
bicoarbonate of soda now (mix with a little washing up liquid (dish
detergent!) to help it stick) In winter prune the roses hard and remove
dead, diseased or damaged wood and burn. You may wish to remove fallen
leaves and then mulch with a compost or well rotted manure.. DO NOT
feed more than this. You will probably wish to identify what sort of
roses (eg rambles climbers etc) they are as they have slightly different
pruning regimes.. THat said roses are just well bred and educated
rosehips/brambles so are generally pretty tough;-)

Also sounds like some things ie the climbers may be suffering from lack
of water.. difficult to say though..

Again, you need to ID them and then work out the pruning regimes..

Check ouyt good RHS reference books in your local library RHS and
local Horticultural societies is the closest thing we have here to the
US gardening clubs and "Master Gardeners"..

Lavender and rosemary.. Prune lightly after flowering.. Propagate now
or later in the year and you can use the cuttings to replace large
bushes next season if wished.. Lavenders do not tolerate pruning very
well. Again refer to a book.. Propagation is very simple.. Y can do it
with the 'rip off a branch and put it in the ground' method although
this is a bit crude;-))

It sounds like the garden has 'gone over' due to lack of attention for a
season or year or so..

Enjoy!

//
Jim W
North London, England, UK