I’m in awe every day in the garden at the exquisite nature of the roses and the surprising array of rose blooms that at times appear so delicate, soft and angelic and yet some are bold, exotic, and majestic whilst others create an eye-catching display that is charming and elegant. The rose never fails to delight.
Ten Tricks for Perfect Rose Blooms all Season
- Prune hard before Spring, trim and remove dead blooms throughout the season to help develop new growth and provide continual blooms and keep them in shape. Decide where you want to trim and find the closest 5-7 leaflet near the flower, then cut at 1/4 inch above an outward-facing bud at a 45º angle.
- Add eggshells to roses by crushing the shells up and adding to the potting mix or crush very finely and sprinkle to the topsoil around the rose. If ground finely, they will add extra calcium more quickly to the plant and make them more robust.
- Add Epsom salts; they will love the extra magnesium and sulphur and help the plants grow bushier, boosting the flower and chlorophyll production. Epsom salts will help the plant take up nitrogen and aids seed germination.
- Watch for blackspot if the summer conditions are humid and wet and if so, treat them as soon as you see signs of black spots on the leaves and keep insects at bay like aphids, spider mites and grubs to ensure full blooms all season. I use a spray of Yates Rose Sheild to control infestations of both.
- Mulch the garden with loads of compost, leaf and rotted manure or whofungdung to your roses as an essential for mulch and extra nutrients, especially in sandy, clay or poor soil areas.
- Roses must have enough sunlight. They will immediately give you more blooms if they have a minimum of at least six or more hours of good sunlight every day, and if not, you’ll be amazed at the difference if you move the roses into more sun.
- Add banana peel cut up into pieces and buried away from the stem of roses to add phosphorous to the soil and add coffee grounds if available because coffee grounds are full of nitrogen. Your roses will love the neutral to acidic soil.
- Water deeply and wisely is the best fertiliser you can give roses. Always water in the morning so water is not left on the foliage overnight. Avoid watering in the heat of the day and provide a good deep soak.
- Eco seaweed, Seamungus are great products to add extra conditioner to the garden, and they will help protect rose bushes from transplant shock, heat and frost. They are also beneficial as a biostimulant with trace elements, growth hormones, vitamins, and micronutrients, increasing flowering in roses.Biostimulants are not fertilisers, but they aid the plant to make fertilisers more effective and increase plant vigour.
- Fertilise in Spring with Sudden Impact or other good fertiliser and reapply in late January or February.
Across the world, despite the abundance of beautiful flowering plants and shrubs, the rose remains the favourite. Always thought of as a symbol of love and affection, a single rose bloom is not only enchanting but a feast for the eyes when planted en masse.
Meet La Jago; a rose proving to be a colossal extravagant bloomer as it becomes more well established in the garden. La Jago is a very free-flowering bush that is best at the back of the garden bed and makes a tremendous eye-catching garden display high above the other roses. Another stunning Delbard rose, La Jago is never out of bloom and is a striking robust tall rose bush with huge well-structured flowers in raspberry red that withstand the heat and stay well-formed when cut for a vase.
La Jago was bred in France by G Delbard in 1997 and introduced into Australia by Melville Nurseries in 2006. It is part of the Couture Collection of roses and is an elegant Hybrid Tea.
“There may be many flowers in one’s life…but only one rose.”
Anon
Rosa Paul Cezanne is one of my favourites with dusty yellow and peachy pink splashes of colour and distinctive crinkled edges. This year I’m excited to say I have beautiful clusters of roses on the Paul Cezanne plants, and each one does not disappoint.
“Let the beauty and fragrance of a rose touch your soul.” Unknown
“A rose must remain with the sun and the rain or its lovely promise won’t come true.”
Ray Evans
“The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not rob the little violet of it’s scent nor the daisy of its simple charm. If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness.”
Therese of Lisieux
Another favourite rose is Perle D Or which has unique small flowers in a delicate shade of peach. It is romantic, old fashioned and delightful. Perle d Or is a highly perfumed heirloom rose bred by Joseph Rambaux, France, in 1875. It was introduced into France by Francis Dubreuil in 1883 and into Australia by C. F. Newman and Sons – Adelaide in 1894 as ‘Perle d’Or’.
“What a lovely thing a rose is!”
Arthur Conan Doyle
Perl d Or is an Earth Kind ™ rose with perfect shaped buds, in softest pale apricot yellow along with the scalloped bloom form, and it is almost thornless. The blooms are small and grow in clusters of peach and apricot in a compact style and will grow in a lightly sprawling manner between 90-185 cm.
Title quote Stephanie Skeem
Content Di Baker 2021
Images in my garden by Di Baker
