Today is one of those amazing mornings after a day of rain when the sun glistens on every leaf, like hanging crystals. It reminded me of the quote above from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, so I’ve added it as the title. In my eagerness to plant today, I went out early only to find, once around the corner to the garden bed I’m working on, an Arctic wind blowing, so I retreated inside for an hour until the sun caught up with my enthusiasm.

Spring is a busy and entertaining time for gardeners. Not only are we hard at work engaged in garden tasks in readiness for summer, but there are also endless ways to enjoy the season by visiting nurseries, open gardens and plant fairs, and spring festivals in towns, parks, or wineries.

Our country town and surrounding countryside is bursting with life. Spring growth whether blossoms, flowers, crops or trees are so intoxicating in their beauty. Rhododendrons are coming into bloom, and new growth is sprouting on almost every tree. The most magnificent are the older Magnolia trees, which always herald early Spring and have been stunning.

September is so changeable, and likewise, gardening. Whatever the weather it is magic to be out and enjoying the new season through the longer days, and to witness the movement of the sun and the changes in light. It is the perfect time to plant whatever you want knowing that growth is a certainty; the signs are slight at first, but always encouraging.

“It’s important not to overlook the therapeutic power of beauty,”

Dr Stuart-Smith

Our high-altitude climate slows the start of spring, and the garden is several weeks behind the warmer areas I noticed on a recent road trip. The roses either the new bare-root plants or the ones transplanted from the rural property will take more time to become established. As a gardener, I’ve learned that nothing happens overnight. Many plants slowly move from the sleep stage to creeping along. Each plant has its own pace, and nature can never be hurried, despite my eagerness to see the leap in growth.

“Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear that the gardener seems to be only one of the instruments, not the composer.”

Geoffrey B Charlesworth

About seventy different types of roses are in the new garden, sourced from the rose growers as bare root stock or transplanted from my garden on the rural property. Many are mass-planted or planted in groups of three to give the allure of a larger shrub. Most roses have begun sprouting new foliage now and are on their way, with some thickened up with red tips of lush new growth. The first fresh foliage is exciting to see after the bareness of winter. Many of my favourite roses had to be left behind, so these are my “must-haves” in the new garden. The list is as follows.

Rose List

WHITES	PINKS	APRICOTS
Iceberg clg BV	Mother’s Love std BV	Lady Of Shalott BV
Iceberg std BV	La Vi En Rose	Soul Sister
Quatre Saisons Blanc Mousseux	Heidi’s Wedding Rose.	Father Of Peace
Summer Memories	Pierre Gagnaire clg BV	Julia’s Rose
Tinecke	The Endeavour®	Shirley’s Rose std.
Knockout White	Pink Intuition std BV	Spiced Coffee BV
Pope John Paul 11	Ballerina old-fashioned	Paul Bocuse
Sub Zero	Monsieur Tillier old-fashioned	Crepuscule old-fashioned BV
Penelope-old-fashioned	In Appreciation	Twilight Glow clg BV
Carmagnole std.	Nahema clg BV	Just Joey std.
Mme Alfred Carriere clg BV	Pinkie clg BV	Princess Charlene de Monaco
Sally Holmes	Olivia Rose Austin® BV	Perle d Or old-fashioned BV
The Wedding Rose	Mme Isaac Pereire clg BV
Claire Austin std.	Jubilee Celebration BV
Suffragette	Pierre de Ronsard clg BV
Coeur de Neige	Scentimental

MAUVE & PURPLES	YELLOWS	MULTI COLOURS
Tangles std	Peace std	Fire Opal BV
Dark Desire BV	Graham Thomas clg BV	Starburst BV
Twilight Zone	The Poets Wife BV	Summer of Love BV
Love Potion	Paul Cezanne BV	That’s Life.
Fragrant Plum BV	Vintage	Claude Monet std.BV
Belle Parfume BV	Elina
Dusky Moon
Gra’s Blu BV
Simplicity Lavender BV
Love Song BV
BV are the roses transplanted from rural garden to watch establish.

A good start in life is as important to plants as it is to children: they must develop strong roots in a congenial soil, otherwise they will never make the growth that will serve them richly according to their needs in their adult life.

Vita Sackville – West

Only when your love of roses is greater than your fear of thorns can you grow a beautiful garden.

Matshona Dhliwayo

Tips on Transplanting a Rose

Moving an existing rose to a new location is easy and best done in winter. However, if you follow up on care afterwards, it can be done anytime.

Very old roses are not transplanted as easily as new roses. Roses 10 years or older risk have a lower success rate than new roses.

Prepare a hole for the new rose in well-drained, pre-watered soil that has not had a previous rose growing in the same space. Make the hole quite deep to allow room for the roots to expand easily.

Prune the rose to be moved to half or two-thirds the size.

Cut a circle around the rose you are moving with a large shovel and dig down to take as much of the root ball as you can manage. Wrap the root ball in a blanket, tarp, or hessian bag and slide or use a low wheelbarrow to move it to the new area. If it has to be transported, wrap it in wet newspaper and a hessian bag to ensure the root ball does not dry out.

Plant as soon as possible and water with a seaweed solution. If there is a delay, soak the rose for 24 hours in a large container until ready to plant

You can be lucky and simply dig the root ball out onto a shovel and place straight into a prepared hole.

Keep the new plant moist and hope that it rains. The nitrogen in rainfall helps establish transplanted plants.

Observe the rose closely for a few days, and keep it watered with eco-seaweed solution a few times a week.

To garden, you open your personal space to admit a few, a great many, or thousands of plants which exude charm, pleasure, beauty, oxygen, conversation, friendship, confidence, and other rewards should you succeed in meeting their basic needs. This is why people garden. It can be easy but challenging, and the rewards are priceless.

Tom Clothier

With Spring underway, it is time to focus on the herb garden. Amongst the roses and perennials, herbs, like chives, lavender, alliums, rosemary, and thyme, are naturally planted as companion plants. In the courtyard there is a large raised garden bed which is the prefect protected place for a kitchen herb garden. It is close at hand for that quick dash out to pick a bunch for adding flavour to cooking or for a salad.

Gardening with herbs, which is becoming increasingly popular, is indulged in by those who like subtlety in their plants in preference to brilliance.

Helen Morgenthau Fox

.

Did you know that the fragrant Rosemary herb, usually classified as Rosmarinus officinalis, is now called Salvia rosmarinus? I noticed this change yesterday when reading a rosemary plant label. With more research, I found that our common herb, Rosemary, is now considered, from DNA evidence, to be a Salvia. Interesting I thought since both Rosemary and Salvias have been classified as two different plant genera since the plant naming system began in 1753. Rosemary is in a branch of the Salvia family with other familiar salvias; common Sage, Salvia Officinalis, Salvia Sclarea and Clary Sage.

As for rosemary, I let it run all over my garden walls, not
only because my bees love it but because it is the herb
sacred to remembrance and to friendship, whence a
sprig of it hath a dumb language.

Sir Thomas Moore

Herbs bring a profound sense of beauty to a garden because of the diversity of shapes, textures, and interesting foliage. Herb plants grow in varied heights, and colours and their unique flowers and aromas give year round specialty to any garden. A herb garden brings an an instant Mediterranean feel to any outdoor space. No matter how small a garden there is always a place for herbs, they are easy to grow and easy to care for.

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.

Margaret Atwood

Along the outside of the garden, the border is ready to fill with structural plants, in greens, and silver foliage including the English Lavender Hedge and a range of white flowering shrubs. I’ve chosen English Lavender for the hedge, Lavandula Augustifolia because it is cold-hardy and attracts bees and other pollinators. There is a delay in stock of these particular lavender plants, so the last twenty or so will be planted in a few weeks once they become available again. Today is the fun part when I can, after several days of installing new irrigation and preparing the soil, plant these shrubs-

• Suffragette bush rose
• Elina standard rose
• Pope John Paul 11 standard rose
• Convolvulus cneorum Silvery Moon
• Spiraea Cantoniensis
• Buddleia Daviddii ‘White Profusion’
• Salvia Leucantha White Velour
• Viburnum ‘Lanarth’
• Viburnum Burkwoodii,
• Artemesia Ludoviciana Silver Queen
• Artemesia ‘Valerie Finnis’ 
• Verbena peruviana alba 

To finish the border Brilliance, Ice Princess and Desdemona roses will be transplanted to the garden.

The Suffragette Rose is a Kordes Hybrid Tea with classic shaped white blooms in a fully cupped shape with a strong perfume.It will grow upright with healthy foliage and is rated 4.5 by the Treloar’s health score.
Rosa Suffragette was bred in Germany in 2022 and introduced in Australia by Treloar’s Roses in 2023 as  KORgolvida, Suffragette – The Vida Goldstein Rose. Vida Goldstein was a leading Social reformer, feminist and Suffragette who was the first women nominated to run for parliament in Australia. She helped women gain the right to vote in Australia.

If we had no winter, spring would not be so pleasant

Ann Bradstreet

Title quote by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Title Image is Rosa Fire Opal

Content Di Baker 2024

Images Di Baker or as cited