Roses, all Roses
Fun story, you are supposed to prune your roses in Autumn, the coldest month of Winter. Wellll Spring arrived early and all of our roses are budding already, they wish we pruned them in July, oops. Gah.
What I'm obsessing over this week
Roses, of course. I have been pruning some really gnarly old things that were threatened with death if they don’t behave this season. It has led me to the following photos-
Count the pruning marks- this is 18 years of rose in this one shoot. The client has a 16yr old grandchild. Grandchild was born about 10cm in from the left.
I struggle to estimate the age of this- ten years plus. Sometimes you have to take big lumps off like this as they get too congested, or you need to stimulate growth lower down. This one was really past its best.
I have a client who moved houses recently. At her old house, we pruned her roses down to about 30cm high max every year, 5-7 shoots maximum coming up from the ground. They flowered spectacularly every year.
This year she is in a place with roses that are from the 1960s and were pruned much higher. She has cut them down to the ground. I am eager to see what comes of them this Spring but I suspect that her method is the most consistently successful, assuming your roses are in full sun and ideal circumstances.
The thing with such aggressive pruning is that roses lose all of the energy and vitality in the parts you remove. The rose has to work really hard to put out all of the new growth. So any roses that are struggling should be pruned higher, and not let off from pruning entirely, but only cutting about a third off every year. Then there are the different types of rose- some hate almost any pruning, some we cut back to just above the base every time we deadhead because they are so vigorous (carpet roses). I haven’t managed a deep dive into anything this week, my brain has been far too busy!
It is Spring- tasks for the garden
Mow those lawns before they explode with new growth;
Have a cuppa and stare at your garden for a bit;
If you have a greenhouse you can start your Spring seeds- what about tomatoes and peas? Pumpkin, zucchini, beans, corn will grow too big before you are able to put them outside if you start them now.
Dig in compost or other solid fertilisers in any part of your garden that you will plant into this season. They need a head start.
Feed your citrus trees. All of your trees!
Check out the Edible Garden catalogue one more time.
See if your compost needs emptying, a job that you will thank yourself for when you go to add a bunch of weeds to it and it’s full.
Hunt for snails- they like smooth surfaces (like plastic pots) and cardboard.
What staff learnt about this week
Our weekly focus was not roses (that’s next week) but mowing overgrown lawns. It’s the time of year that everyone who usually mows their lawn admits that they haven’t done so for a few months, and those lawns are thick, high, and usually wet! The general rule is to book twice as much time as you think it will take, and go over with the weedeater twice at the end to get any stray bits.
Highlights: Weedeat- mow high- mow low works out well for everyone.
Lowlights: Somehow along the way we have ended up with two Stihl mowers with these big white heads. They are awful. Don’t get them. They are twice as heavy as any similar mowers, and they clog/lock up unless the grass is already quite short. Because we mow so many overgrown lawns, they are exceptionally impractical and are going to be gifted… it is frustrating to be troubleshooting with staff when you know the issue is not related to their behaviour, it is a fussy, crappy mower.
*shakes fist at mower*
Interviews are postponed, Spring is much too busy!
Unless I happen across one!