WHAT a funny winter we are having. There are some very confused plants with spring blossoms already, leaving themselves vulnerable to frost damage before the winter is over.
Hopefully you have not been fooled by them and become too enthusiastic with your pruning, especially with roses as I have been assured by the old hands that August is the earliest this is safe in Armidale and surrounds.
How many of you are confident your pruning skills are up to speed, particularly with roses?
As most gardens have Hybrid Teas, I restrict this discussion to them this week.
Do your shrub roses look like trees or do they have stems of different ages emanating from the base?
The latter is how they should be with none of the stems older that about three years, if you force your roses to renew their stems each year they will flourish for many years to come.
Roses existing on old ’grey branches’ will eventually run out of puff. To encourage basal shoots I bruise the base when I have finished pruning out old, spindly or inward growing growth, this encourages the new buds to form.
Once you are satisfied with your efforts the next step is to drench the plant and the bed beneath with lime sulphur followed by Bordeau or Copper Oxychloride in 10 days’ time, renew your lucerne hay mulch and await your beautiful reward in spring.
In this climate, don’t fertilise too early or your roses could suffer damage from late frosts. Another important step is to make sure you have removed any old diseased leaves from the bed before you mulch, remember never to put this material in your compost bin, it needs to go in the rubbish. Roses like at least five hours sunshine and good airflow to thrive. Some of the species roses are more adaptable, but black spot loves shady, still and humid conditions and while your roses won’t die from defoliation they certainly don’t look or perform their best without leaves.
Milk and carb soda is the best organic spray while Triforine seems the most effective chemical spray. Before you put your fungicides away don’t forget the prunus species that suffer from curly leaf and your grape vines.
Flowering and fruiting plants are gross feeders, clearly if you expect months of beautiful blooms then you must feed your plants, as roses flower for about eight months of the year they will do so much better if regularly fed with a product designed for their needs.
Another requirement is water, I am amazed to learn that some people don’t realise that watering is essential to establish your plants, rain is not enough, especially over summer.
You can acclimatise many of your plants to deal with mild droughts by watering deeply rather than a quick shower once a day, this encourages the roots to spread out and down in search of moisture.
Combine this with a good thick and preferably nutritious mulch, and your plants will cope with extremes much more easily.
