There’ll be days like this….

As the Van Morrison song goes

‘When all the parts of the puzzle start to look like they fit, my Mama told me there’ll be days like this’

Van’s lyrics portray my day in the garden yesterday. After a cold frosty start the day warmed up to a glorious, still and sunny afternoon perfect for being outside in the garden. For weeks now I’ve been working on the rose garden with a task list I thought would never end.

The fact that roses are dormant in winter provides a great opportunity to move them around if needed. There is less risk of damage and transplant shock to be able to do this in winter when the rose is virtually asleep. I have been moving some roses for several reasons

To create a colour scheme or focal point based on colour
To make room if a plant was spreading too far in the wrong spot
To highlight a specific rose in a pot or position
To thin out the rose garden if too crowded
To make room to add perennials for contrast and colour as companion plants

Any other reason you may fancy to move roses, winter is the best time to transplant. According to the experts, one should cut back or prune the rose before moving them, then once replanted with compost and some new soil apply liquid seamungus or eco seaweed and water in well.

After a glance at the garden and my progress so far I began to tackle my overwhelming list. Starting with thinning out the mass of groundcovers and perennials to improve air circulation for the roses and continue to pull weeds and dig holes for planting new roses. Large pots were to be filled with potting mix and compost for roses as focal points in the garden.To my delight once I had made considerable progress the post arrived with my order of bare root roses. I eagerly opened the box to find a fabulous selection of very high quality plants with thick strong stems and well developed roots from Diana at Silkies Rose Farm also known as Rose sales online

I had already planted the roses bought from Wagner’s Rose Nursery and their plants were exceptional as well.

‘It is the time you have spent on your rose that makes her so important.’
Antoine de Saint- Exupéry, The Little Prince

My last Rose order Silkies Rose Farm Vic.

This year I had bought bare root roses from several rose growers because online rose sellers showcase different varieties and types and I had chosen specific colours and styles to fit in with my garden scheme. The quality of my newly arrived roses was extremely good.

Some days all the parts of the puzzle do seem to fit and now with all the elements needed falling into place it would soon be time to plant.

Planting comes in as the third best part of gardening. First, is being able to enjoy the rewards of one’s labour by either sitting in the garden or walking through in the early morning. Second, is creating and planning and third is the fun of planting. This cannot not happen without the work in preparing the soil, waiting for the worms to do there job, digging the holes and adding compost. The task list abandoned I called it a day and enjoyed the sense of satisfaction that comes from accomplishing more than I had expected.