Well, the holidays are over and it is time to get back into some serious
rose gardening. I haven't sprayed in over three weeks and there are weeds
everywhere!

Okay, so my idea to put down the newspaper over the top of the weeds and
then put a light sprinkling of Lucerne on top did not work out quite as well
as planned. There were too many couch runners and weed seeds around that my
thin layer of mulch could never kill. I promise that this weekend I will go
and collect more Lucerne and lay an extra thick layer of mulch and pull out
all the weeds.

On good deeds that I have done: Yesterday I finally potted up my rooted
cuttings of Red Cascade and Bloomfield Abundance from a field day to a
Queensland Rose Society member's house, and my red, cupped, fragrant unknown
cutting from last year's holiday destination. They might actually get above
10cm now ... oh and bloom.

In December I won first prize in the Novice HT section at the monthly QRS
show. I've spent so much time reading up about roses on the internet, Usenet
and books, choosing ones I like, looking for disease resistance and yet the
one that won was an unknown that already existed in the garden! Oh, it
turned out to be Peter Frankenfeld so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that
it won. I had only taken it to see if someone could tell me what it was and
they suggested I enter it. Unfortunately being a smaller program, there were
not any classes for my OGR and DAs but I did put them on display after
judging finished.

I like the local rose society; there are plenty of people you can to talk to
about nothing but roses (do you sometimes find your SO or friends don't want
to hear another word about roses?) and they were very helpful with a newbie
showing my first time. Though sometimes I wonder if there are any other
members around my age ... ? Not to worry, just means I need to recruit more
members. I already have my eye on some people who could be candidates - in
fact they are lined up for the next field day in Feb.

Christmas was also a good rose time. I gave 5 potted roses; 2xOklahoma (dark
red, very fragrant) and Bloomfield Courage (single red, LARGE) to my mother,
and Oklahoma and Double Delight (white/red, very fragrant) to my
mother-in-law. I, while not receiving any roses myself, did receive a new
rain wand and rose de-thorner purchased from Swanes on the way back from
Canberra. The rain wand is fantastic and has halved my watering time from an
hour to 30 minutes on the potted roses and other generic potted plants
around my house.

The gardens at Swanes were superb but I only ended up buying one rose from
there. We spent about an hour and a half wandering around the roses and I
got quite a few pictures. I'll have to find time to organise them and put
them up on yahoo, as well as some from my own garden.

Summer in my garden has gone much better than I thought. It's humid and has
not gone below 20oC (68oF), with highs 31-37oC (89-100oF) for the past
couple of weeks. I thought all the roses would have shut down but most of
them are still regularly putting out flushes of bloom. Especially the teas;
Mrs B.R. Cant, Mouns Tillier and Rosette Delizy. The Reds have hit it hard
this last week. Red Devil, Papa Meilland, Kardinal and Mr Lincoln are
looking a little worse for wear with the edges of the petals crisping up.
Francis Dubreuil has a very large flush (20) on its 20cm (8") high bush. I
think the only reason that it isn't crisping up too badly is that it drops
it's petals so quickly Princess de Monaco seems to be flushing every 4-5
weeks at the moment.

I gave bouquets of roses to friends on Friday. One focused on fragrance with
The Children's Rose, Jadis, Princess de Monaco and Double Delight with
supporters of Candy Stripe and Champanger. The other focused on DAs and OGR
with Graham Thomas, Radio Times, L.D. Braithwaite, Mary Rose, Francis
Dubreuil and Mrs B.R. Cant. Tonight I have TCR, Jadis, Just Joey,
Champanger, Red Sunrise, Graham Thomas and Candy Stripe in vases at my
house. I have always wanted enough roses to have vases full in my house and
still have plenty left in the garden. I think I have almost achieved this
and it will only get better since my roses are mostly between 6-9 months
old, 110 roses and counting!

Sorry if this is long, but I though those of you stuck with snow might
appreciate some summer rose talk

Kirra
Brisbane, Australia