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Holidays, New Year ... and Roses
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 |
#2
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Holidays, New Year ... and Roses
Kirra wrote:
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. Also, next year, at the end of the winter or the very earliest spring, put down some "pre-emergent" crabgrass killer. It has different names, I think the one I bought was called "Crab-ex." Most of the things that grow on runners are related to crab grass and this stuff acts by doing something to the seeds so that they do not sprout. (The things this stuff kills are listed on the bag, too. Just ask your garden center person.) This, together with your thicker mulch ought to do the trick. It did for me. I used 5-7 sheets of newspaper (separated so that I did not have a big block that would prove impenetrable to water)and four inches of mulch and it worked great for weeds, but later I found that too-thick mulch appears to encourage rot and fungus here. It is a delicate balancing act. Let us know how it works out. P.S.--Congrats on your win! |
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