While, this week, we pay tribute to our most famous English rose when Queen Elizabeth II celebrates 60 years on the throne, Rachel Vogan shows
us how to grow and care for right royal roses, including a new variety
for 2012.Beauty and Bliss – Growing good roses
Roses, like people, come in all different shapes, colours, sizes, types and forms. Being one of the oldest flowering plants in the world, this certainly proves that they are easy to grow.
For some reason, over the years, roses have developed a bit of a bad rep’ for sometimes being challenging. Let’s set the record straight: roses are easy to grow; all they require is full sun, fertile soil, and water through the driest periods.
Even if they don’t get the water they require, it is unlikely to kill them, as they are fairly robust, hardy garden campaigners that, when treated with even a smidge of kindness, will reward gardeners with bloom after bloom after bloom!
Choose a rose that suits you, make it all about you and if you like fragrant red roses, plant a few!
New for 2012:
Climbing Blackberry Nip, a climbing version of the fragrant bush rose, featuring a heady, old fashioned fragrance and deep crimson blackberry flowers. A must have for walls, trellis and pergolas this season.
Order your roses early, garden centres have fresh stocks in June and July. The newer varieties seem to sell through first, so if you are after one of those, order it so you don’t miss out. There are always good stocks of top sellers like Iceberg, Margret Merrill, Freesia and Loving Memory.
Growing Roses – hints and tips:
Prepare your garden before planting, at least a week ahead where possible. Dig over the soil, blend in Tui Super Sheep Pellets and Debco Rose Compost, add a sprinkle of Tui Rose Food and mix well. Water and leave to settle for a week or so. This allows the soil to meld all the goodies together, encourages the worms back and provides a wonderful base for the new root systems.
Prune once all leaves have fallen from the plants and clear the decks. Remove all dead and diseased leaves from around your rose plants.
Protection is prevention, and is the best way to deter attacks from pests and diseases. After pruning, spray with copper to prevent any diseases carrying over to the next season.
Planting garlic under rose plants will control greenfly. Later apply Eco-Fungicide or lime-sulphur to clean up powdery mildew.
Mulch and feed. Add a thick layer Debco Rose Compost to new and existing rose beds. This enables soil to hold onto more moisture and protects the root system. Fertilise existing rose beds with Tui Rose Food or Novatec; both have the goodies the ground needs to feed roses.
Read all about roses. The NZ Flower Garden , has a huge section on growing roses, with page after page of ideas and inspiration for growing all types throughout New Zealand.
Last, but not least, take heed of these well-known words: ‘always take time to smell the roses’, it’s an oldie but a goodie. Happy gardening!
Click here to be in to win a Tui Rose Care Kit.
Contributed by Rachel Vogan
