Rose Winter Protection!

Once you have your roses planted it is time to look out for those predators lurking out there which thrive on your blooms.

Most Summer insects that trouble roses are best treated by a forceful spray of clear water. This is an easy preventative measure to take and should be done early in the day and again in the evening. It should keep most rose pests in check. A good insect repellent powder or spray from your Garden Centre are also good.


The rose-bug or chafer should be hand-picked or knocked off early in the
morning into a pan of coal oil. The leaf-roller must be crushed and any mildews can be controlled with a sulphur spray

For winter protection, all garden roses should be well mulched with leaves or coarse manure in the Autumn. Place a mound of earth round the root and this will afford more than adequate protection.


Another approach is to bend down the tops and fasten them carefully with twine. You can then place a thick layer of dry, dead leaves over and around the plants - ensure they are dry though! Then you can make use of those lawn clippings - simply
put handfuls round the dry leaves, heaped highest in the middle and at least 4 inches thick. This will hold the leaves in place and will allow water to run off.

This protection should be applied to your everblooming roses, including the
teas. The tops should be killed back if not bent down, but this protection
saves the roots and crowns - so when bent down, the tops will be undamaged in most Winters.

Of course most garden centres will sell you strong plants of everblooming or hybrid tea roses at very reasonable rates, and rather than go to the trouble of protecting
them in the Autumn, you may prefer to buy what you need for bedding purposes each Spring. If the soil of the beds is well enriched, the plants will make a rapid and luxuriant growth, blooming freely throughout the Summer.

Pruning Roses!

I've been asked again about pruning roses. I am never sure why there is so much doubt about this subject - something to do with the fear of over cutting perhaps. When about to prune roses, you should first determine whether they bloom on canes arising each year from the ground or near the ground, or whether they make perennial
tops. You should also form a clear idea of whether an abundance of flowers is wanted
for garden effects, or whether large specimen blooms are desired.

If you are pruning the common garden roses, you need to cut back all very vigorous canes to perhaps one-half their length immediately after the June bloom is past. This will have the effect of producing new, strong shoots for Autumn flowering, and also to make good bottoms for the next year's bloom.

Very severe summer pruning, however, is likely to produce too much leafy growth. In the Autumn, all canes may be shortened to 3 feet, four or five of the best canes being left to each plant.

In Spring, you can cut canes right back to fresh wood, leaving perhaps four or five good buds on each cane because it is from these buds that the flowering canes of the year are to come. If you prefer fewer blooms, but of the best size and quality, then leave fewer canes and only two or three new shoots should be allowed to spring from each cane the following Spring.

The rule in trimming all cane-bearing roses is this - cut back weak growing
kinds severely - cut back strong growers moderately.

Climbing and pillar roses need only the weak branches and the tips
shortened in. Other hardy kinds will usually need cutting back about
one-fourth or one-third, according to the vigour of the branches, either
in the Spring or in Autumn.

All everblooming or hybrid tea roses will need to have all dead wood
removed at the time of uncovering them in Spring. Some pruning during
the Summer is also useful in encouraging growth and flowers. The
stronger branches that have flowered may be cut back one-half or more.

Sweet briers, Austrian and rugosas may be kept in bush form; but the
trunks may be cut out at the ground every two or three years, new shoots
having been allowed to come up in the meantime. All rampant growths
should be cut back or taken out.

Planting out Roses!

When planting roses, you must take care to avoid exposing the roots to the
drying effect of sun and air. If you have bought dormant field-grown plants
make sure that all broken and bruised roots are cut off smoothly
and squarely. The tops also will need to be cut back. The cut should
always be made just above a bud, preferably on the outer side of the
cane.

Strong-growing varieties may be cut back about one-fourth or one-half,
depending on whether they have good or bad roots. Weaker-growing kinds, as most
of the everblooming roses, should be cut back-most severely. In both
cases it is well to remove the weak growth first. Plants set out from
pots will usually not need cutting back.



Hardy roses, especially the strong field-grown plants, should be set in
the early Autumn. It is better to get them out just as
soon as they have shed their foliage. If not in Autumn, they may be planted
in the early Spring. At that season it is advisable to plant them as
early as the ground is dry enough, and before the buds have started to
grow.

Dormant pot-plants may also be set out early, but they should be
perfectly inactive. Setting them out early in this condition is
preferable to waiting till they are in foliage and full bloom.
Growing pot-plants may be planted any time in Spring after danger of frost is past, or even during the summer, if they are watered and shaded for a few days.

Open-ground plants should be set about as deep as they stood
previously, other than budded or grafted plants, which should be set so
that the union of the stock and graft is 2 to 4 inches below the
surface of the ground.



Plants from pots may also be set an inch deeper than they stood in the pots.
The soil should be in a friable condition. Roses should have the soil
compacted immediately about their roots. As a general rule the
dryer the soil the more firmly it may be pressed.

Generally, roses on their own roots will prove more satisfactory than budded
stock. On own-rooted stock, the suckers or shoots from below the surface
of the soil will be of the same kind, whereas with budded roses there is
danger of the stock (usually Manetti or dog rose) starting into growth
and, not being discovered, outgrowing the bud, taking possession, and
finally killing out the weaker growth.

Still, if the plants are set deep enough to prevent buds of the stock from
starting at all, this can be avoided.

Grow Roses!

In looking back over the many articles I have written over the years on this blog, I have to say that my interest has been largely directed at Lawns and Vegetables. How remiss of me to ignore to a large extent that area of gardening which is the crowning glory of any garden - I mean growing and viewing and smelling FLOWERS - one of God's greatest gifts.

This year, I will try to make up for that lack by spending more time looking at flowers in the garden, and there really is no better place to start than with my favourite flower - the ubiquitous Rose!

It's true.....No garden is complete without roses. There are so many kinds and classes that varieties may be found for almost any purpose, from climbing or pillar roses to highly fragrant teas, great hybrid perpetuals, free-blooming bedders, and good foliage subjects for the shrubbery.

Roses are essentially flower-garden subjects rather than lawn subjects,
since flowers are their chief beauty. Yet the foliage of many of the
highly developed roses is good and attractive when the plants are well
grown.

To secure the best results with roses, they should be placed in a
bed by themselves, where they can be tilled and pruned and well taken
care of. Ordinary garden roses should rarely be grown in mixed borders
of shrubbery and it is usually advisable also to make beds of one variety rather than to mix them with several varieties.

If you want to have roses in mixed shrubbery borders, then you will do well to choose the single and informal types. The best of all these is "Rosa rugosa."



This has not only attractive flowers through the greater part of the season, but it also has very interesting foliage and a striking appearance. The great profusion of bristles and spines gives it an individual and strong character. Even without the flowers, it adds character to a foliage mass.


The foliage is not attacked by insects or fungi, but remains green and glossy throughout the year. The fruit is also very large and showy, and persists on bushes
well through the winter.


Some of the wild roses are also very excellent
for mixing into foliage masses, but, as a rule, their foliage
characteristics are rather weak, and they are liable to be attacked
by thrips.