Roses & Beds
21Wednesday 22 January, 2014 by Uncle Spike
Following on from my recent post called Splittin’ & Moovin’ and the ever so originally thought of follow-up post named… More Splittin’ & Moovin’, I guess the shrubs and flowers are about done for now, but our rose beds also needed a bit of winter work.
.
.
Roses. Now, I’m really no expert on tending these things I have to admit. I know how to treat blackspot, I know they are famous poo-lovers (horse being the well-known favoured variety) and they need decent watering in these very hot climates. I know how to prune them in winter (cut back hard and just above an outward facing joint/stem/leaf). Other than those basics, I am a bit of a Neanderthal compared to many ‘real’ gardeners.
.
.
Watering has always been an issue, as base watering with a hosepipe every couple of days in mid-summer is just not sufficient – the flower heads go brown and die off 50% of the time. So for this year, I have sectioned off mini areas with some spare rock to enable me to ‘flood’ water the rosebeds once a week. Time will tell if this approach helps or not…
.
TWO TONNES OF SPARE ROCK ALWAYS HELPS
.
SECTIONED OFF INTO MINI-BEDS
.
But I do seem to have extraordinary luck in cultivating or propagating from cuttings. This patch of rose plants was grown from a pile of cuttings I took 2 years ago, and just unceremoniously poked into wet soil and walked off. Now there are some 200 or so new plants with roots, all ready to plant out as they are now strong enough to gain their ‘chicken proof certificate’.
.
AROUND 200-250 CUTTINGS TOOK – BEATS BUYING THEM!
.
SIMPLE CUTTINGS FROM 2 YEARS AGO NOW WITH ROOTS
.
THAT’S 50 PLANTS ADDED TO THE FIRST ROSEBED… NEXT
.
Uncle Spike's Adventures 
[…] Roses & Beds […]
LikeLike
[…] followers may recall the efforts over winter at rejuvenating the rose beds. Well, three months down the line and all seems to be progressing quite well. The addition of cow […]
LikeLike
The queen of flowers!
LikeLike
Hmm, prefer king 😀
LikeLike
Okay, part of a kingdom anyway!
LikeLike
lol 🙂
LikeLike
pretty roses, thanks for sharing.
LikeLike
Wow, your rose beds are beautiful. These pictures bring me a smile as I’m experiencing a cold, snowy winter where I live.
LikeLike
Brrr… cold here too now, down to 15 toady (C not F)
LikeLike
I love roses but have never had much luck as a gardener, so I resort to buying bunches as a treat every now and then 🙂
LikeLike
Good plan. I go out and snip a few off, but apparently, ‘thats not the same’, lol
LikeLike
Ha, never thought of that issue lol
LikeLike
Just reading this, my back was hurting. That’s a lot of work! Working with stone that heavy is tough!
And as for roses…..what do you use for blackspot? I must resort to chemicals, which I don’t like to do, and even then, I still get blackspot. If you don’t keep up with the spraying, and there is either a lot of moisture in the air (via rain or huminity) blackspot just pops up everywhere. I have tried to plant disease resistant plants for the most part, so that helps tremendously.
Beautiful job you have done! My never ending battle with my roses is with deer. (sigh) I have an all natural spray for that, but again, if I don’t keep up or new growth comes along, those deer, I swear, smell that new growth and eat my roses. Oh, what a gardener goes through!! LOL
LikeLike
Fungicidal spray I’m afraid, but just 3 times a year on average – very long dry summers here.
Stone, haha, that’s the most relaxing work I have 🙂 First delivery of that I unloaded 16 tonnes as I recall all too well.
LikeLike
Well, man doth have more upper body muscles then doth woman. I do have pics of my main rose garden that I put rocks around the entire perimeter. I went back into the wild part of our property and dug them up and then lugged them to my garden.
Yep, fungicidal spray here as well. That is the only way I know of to combat black spot. And count your blessings for that long dry summer, for it is the humidity here that gets to my roses. Of course, a deep watering for your roses are a must, yet there too, you must be careful on not too much. Roses can be tricky. I’m learning something new all the time with them.
LikeLike
Hmm, we’ll see what happens re the watering. In summer, it’s 28-30 at night, over 35 by 8am and up to 45 from 11am-5pm and stays over 35 till midnight often. Can’t see over-watering if I flood each patch once a week…
LikeLike
Phew! that’s warm, Uncle Spike. I’ve been grumbing about ‘our heatwave’ down here of 42 deg C. Overnights of 18 or more just make me cranky! 😉
Looks like you’ve got nice soil. I’ll have to try separating my beds. Cheerio, CC
LikeLike
42 is darned hot if you get a hot wind (or fires within 50km). When it first drops to 15 in autumn we crank up the furnace 🙂
LikeLike
Ha! Yeh it’s the dry wind that’s scary here.
Is your rainfall good? Or is everyone suffering the El Nino / La Nina whatever?
LikeLike
We have the 2nd highest rainfall in the country, with serious electrical storms every week or two all winter 🙂
LikeLike
roses in the winter would make winter bareable
LikeLike