#17 - Jul 2018 - Garden Stuff - © Sandy Lang - slang@xtra.co.nz
PRUNING ROSES July: Mid-July is mid-winter. Pruning time for roses is July/August. Pruning is surgery so use clean, sharp secateurs to get neat cuts and prune in dry weather. Disease organisms enter pruning wounds more easily if they’re ragged and wet.
Leather gardening gloves will save your hands. Burn or bin rose prunings or you’ll find them next summer with your bare feet...
Strategy: You grow roses for their flowers. Roses flower on the current year’s green growth. So your aim is to maximise this new green growth.
Understand that plants try to maintain a fixed ratio of shoots to roots. For most plants this is roughly 1:1 (half shoots : half roots). It follows, if you prune off a whole lot of shoots, the plant will work hard to re-establish this 1:1 ratio by growing back a whole lot of new shoots. Structure: But first, work to create a nice-looking bush of the right size (not too big), symmetrical, compact (not straggly) and of simple structure (not a tangled mess). So, remove dead, diseased and crossing shoots to leave just 4+ shoots.
Ideally these 4+ shoots will be angled outwards from the base to form an open ‘vase’ shape. This will let in light and air to minimise pests and diseases. By now you’ve cut off a whole lot of shoots.
Cuts: Next, cut these 4+ shoots at about their mid-points. Choose exactly where to cut so you have a nice, fat, outward-pointing bud just (5 mm) below the cut. By now your rose bush is about half as high as it was.
Rest of the year: •Plants flower only to produce offspring (seeds). If you deadhead your rose bush frequently, it will keep flowering longer. If you don’t deadhead it, it will divert its energy away from making new flowers into making rose hips - the hips are full of seeds and food reserves.
•Rose roots don’t compete well with the roots of other species. It’s best to mulch all around your rose bush to prevent weed growth beneath.
•Feed your rose bush regularly with a rose fertiliser - especially on sand, feedings must be little and often, as rain and watering quickly wash soil minerals down below the rootzone.
•Watch out for aphids. Spray at least weekly with 2% dishwashing liquid in water (use an old household spray bottle, well washed out). Some rose cultivars are more susceptible to aphids than others.
•Watch out for scale insects. Spray with a horticultural oil, e.g., Yates Conqueror.
IMPORTANT Neither of these sprays leaves a harmful residue, so they damage only the insects you’ve sprayed, not bees and other beneficial insects that come along later.___________________________________
PRUNING ROSES July: Mid-July is mid-winter. Pruning time for roses is July/August. Pruning is surgery so use clean, sharp secateurs to get neat cuts and prune in dry weather. Disease organisms enter pruning wounds more easily if they’re ragged and wet.
Leather gardening gloves will save your hands. Burn or bin rose prunings or you’ll find them next summer with your bare feet...
Strategy: You grow roses for their flowers. Roses flower on the current year’s green growth. So your aim is to maximise this new green growth.
Understand that plants try to maintain a fixed ratio of shoots to roots. For most plants this is roughly 1:1 (half shoots : half roots). It follows, if you prune off a whole lot of shoots, the plant will work hard to re-establish this 1:1 ratio by growing back a whole lot of new shoots. Structure: But first, work to create a nice-looking bush of the right size (not too big), symmetrical, compact (not straggly) and of simple structure (not a tangled mess). So, remove dead, diseased and crossing shoots to leave just 4+ shoots.
Ideally these 4+ shoots will be angled outwards from the base to form an open ‘vase’ shape. This will let in light and air to minimise pests and diseases. By now you’ve cut off a whole lot of shoots.
Cuts: Next, cut these 4+ shoots at about their mid-points. Choose exactly where to cut so you have a nice, fat, outward-pointing bud just (5 mm) below the cut. By now your rose bush is about half as high as it was.
Rest of the year: •Plants flower only to produce offspring (seeds). If you deadhead your rose bush frequently, it will keep flowering longer. If you don’t deadhead it, it will divert its energy away from making new flowers into making rose hips - the hips are full of seeds and food reserves.
•Rose roots don’t compete well with the roots of other species. It’s best to mulch all around your rose bush to prevent weed growth beneath.
•Feed your rose bush regularly with a rose fertiliser - especially on sand, feedings must be little and often, as rain and watering quickly wash soil minerals down below the rootzone.
•Watch out for aphids. Spray at least weekly with 2% dishwashing liquid in water (use an old household spray bottle, well washed out). Some rose cultivars are more susceptible to aphids than others.
•Watch out for scale insects. Spray with a horticultural oil, e.g., Yates Conqueror.
IMPORTANT Neither of these sprays leaves a harmful residue, so they damage only the insects you’ve sprayed, not bees and other beneficial insects that come along later.___________________________________