Roses are the favourite flower of gardeners. End of. No arguing. Whenever you see polls conducted to get gardeners to name their favourite flower… roses top it.
I have a rose garden, many of you will have roses in your front or back garden, some will be bush roses some will be climbers, but the general maintenance is little changed between them all at this time of year.
Dead-heading is so important when it comes to keeping roses in tip top shape. Touring past your roses once a week, with the scissors and snipping away at flowers which are falling past their best is an essential task if you want to encourage the plant to develop more flowers.
This is the ideal time to be removing this flower
Flower falling past their best will not only make the plant look less attractive but fallen petals, trapped on the leaves, will encourage fungal infection to the plant.
Another common ‘fault’ of the roses is their affliction to suffering from what appears to be every pest and disease going. But this can be easily avoided by keeping the plant in tip top condition by feeding and the aforementioned dead heading.
Plants growing well do not succumb to as many pests and diseases and do not suffer as badly – conditions such as Black Spot can be reduced and prevented by proper pruning and correct feeding of roses.
Many months ago I wrote here about the importance of keeping your roses disease free, as the foliage is the starting ground for the perfume that the flowers produce – so a rose free of disease will carry a better perfume than one inflicted.
For disease control at this time of year you’re best to use a weekly application of a copper fungicide or a fortnightly application of a systemic product, such as RoseClear.
The wellbeing of the plant will be enhanced with a fortnightly kick of Miracle-Gro or such like plant food. Moving forward this Winter your roses will be dramatically improved with an application of ½ bag of Farmyard Manure from the garden centre applied around the base as a mulch.
Now is not the time to be planting roses in your garden, however now is a great time to be admiring other peoples roses to get a shopping-list developed in your mind for varieties that would enhance your own garden – so try to make use of the many fantastic gardens in the Donegal Garden Trail, and if you’re rose focused you absolutely must visit Nora’s Rose Garden in Ballybofey.