How to prune a rose bush

How to prune your rose plants

Winter pruning;

For standard roses the best time to prune (in Melbourne) is late winter when the plant is dormant. I pruned my roses a few weeks prior to writing this blog entry.

Why do you need to prune roses?

• To remove weak spindly growth and direct energy to stronger braches and therefore give a larger flower size.

• To remove dead or diseased branches which can harbour pests and disease.

• To direct the growth of the plant outwards to produce the classic vase like shape of a rose bush and also increase ventilation by eliminating inward crossed over branches

• To shorten back last seasons growth by two thirds or maybe a little more to encourage regeneration and keep a more compact shape

Making the cut;

So you are ready to make your first cut. You will need a sharp set of secateurs and if you want to get really thorough you can sterilize the blade(s) with some Alcohol or bleach. Sterilizing them can help prevent the spread of diseases. Commonly it is taught that you need to make an angled cut 5mm above an outward facing bud. You want to cut to an outward facing bud to direct growth outwards and create what is known as a vase shape.

 Cutting 5mm above the bud is important as it prevents die back. Die back occurs to all the stem above the last bud which you cut to which is why a close cut matters

The theory behind why an angled cut is necessary is that an angled cut directs water away from the bud. Some people have told me they don't believe in angled cuts as they increase the size of the plants vascular plumbing and therefore encourages water to pool in the vascular entry points. Personally I don't worry too much about the angle and concentrate more on the position of the cut in relation to the bud.

The last point I will make is that if using bypass secateurs you want to cut with the blade facing towards the part of the stem you want to keep and the anvil facing the direction of the part of the stem you are going to discard (see picture below). This is to prevent bruising the stem / bud.

Summer pruning (dead heading);

Which is essentially dead heading old spent flowers from the rose bush. If you do not dead head the flowers then a rose hip will develop from below the spent flower. This has the effect of suppressing further flower bud development. I've always been told that when pruning off the old flowers you should go down to what is known as a five leaf set. People have told me that if you do that you should get new flowers appearing from the bud which develops from the base of the five leaf set. I'm not sure whether the science supports that theory but it was worked for me in the past. As I'm writing this during winter I can't provide any pictures for this procedure but I will write an entry in the Summer which includes pictures to help you understand this method.

Picture of a rose bush during mid - late winter in Melbourne. More specifically it is in the garden of my main workplace (one of many) which is the college called International House (Melbourne University). This is the 'before shot'.

Hopefully you can see important things in the picture below. The first is that I have the blade of the secateurs positioned on the side of the stem I want to keep and the anvil on the side of the stem I will discard. The second thing that I hope you can identify is the little bud which I'm aiming to cut roughly 5mm above.

This is the 'after shot'. It looks bare now but will look fantastic once it has new growth and flowers.

After a few weeks that little bud you pruned above should be putting out new growth like the one in the picture below which is a rose bush in my home garden. This particular but looks a bit rough maybe I should have sharpened my secateurs before pruning.

Yay I won some roses in a competition and my bulbs are finally emerging

During my visit to the Melbourne flower and garden show this year I signed up to receive as many catalogs from plant / flower growers that I could. One supplier was from Silkies Rose Farm in Clonbinane Victoria Australia.  They have regular competitions they promote through their mailing list and I was lucky enough to win one of them. The prize was my choice of any 2 of their roses. Last year I learned how to prune roses for the first time but, until now, have never had any of my own. I chose a David Austin English rose called Munstead Wood (a shrub rose) and a hybrid tea rose called New Kleopatra. The garden bed I planted them in at my home garden in Macedon had previously had hydrophobic soil but I dug lots of mushroom compost through it some time ago and when I tested it today it was all over its fear of water. Also I have noticed that several bulbs have started to pop through the soil. Hopefully when the weather warms I will have lots of flowers.

also 

HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE!!!   to all those in the southern hemisphere who may be reading this post.

This is the tag on the New Kleopatra hybrid tea rose that I won. It has orange on the underside of its petals and red on the upper.

This is the Munstead wood rose. It is a small growing shrub rose with massive blooms and a strong perfume.

The next 2 pictures are the roses as they are planted and I hope they enjoy their new home. The soil there is looking really fertile now that I've spend some time and money improving it. I am a little worried because the location is not full sun. Hopefully there is enough sun for them to thrive.

These shoot are from some daffodil  (narcissus) bulbs my daughter planted about 2 years ago. Its amazing to see how they have multiplied and seem to be thriving in poor soil. You can see from the clay and moss that drainage in this part of my garden must be quite poor but these dafs have soldiered on nonetheless.

These shoots are nerines. I bought them at the Melbourne flower and garden show from Hancocks bulbs. Not sure what will come of them this year. You can see in the background the dormant top of another of the nerines.  I think they are possibly shooting at the wrong time (not sure why that would happen though).

 

Although not much of a picture this is a tulip bulb. I am crossing my fingers that all the tulip bulbs I planted will flower. I managed to get about 40 bulbs for free from a friend after they finished last season. They looked a little dry so I thought they may not shoot again but I have at least 1 of  them emerging. If only half of them shoot I will be happy.

 

When I received the roses Silkies rose farm also included a retail catalog. For anybody who is interested the roses there are really cheap. I have wholesale plant supplier accounts and the price of the roses from Silkies are basically the same as the wholesale supplier prices. If you are interested their website is

www.rosesalesonline.com.au

Visit to the Castlemaine botanical gardens.

Last week I went to Castlemaine to go to the market there and also to visit the botanical gardens. Castlemaine is North of my home in Macedon and lies outside of the Macedon Rages shire. It is in what is known as the 'Goldfields' area because it along with other towns was part of the old gold rush in Victoria. The climate of Castlemaine is warmer than my home Macedon due to the elevation (310 metres compared to Macedon's 505 metres). The difference in temperature makes a huge difference to the type of plants that can grow and thrive. Also the gardeners of Castlemaine must be a tough bunch of people because the ground there seems like rock hard clay without any topsoil. It must have been back breaking work for the miners that once dug into the ground there.

The gardens are over 150 years old and 25 hectares in size. They were officially gazetted on the 21st of February 1860. The biggest draw card the gardens has is its magnificent collection of established trees (over 850 species). There are several national trust trees in the gardens. Near the entrance is the man made Lake Joanna which when I visited was unfortunately in poor shape. The lake had a green tinge from blue green algae and one of the trees on the island in the middle of the lake had broken and was lying on the ground. However at the front of the lake there were several nice gazebos and garden beds.

The first curator of the gardens was Philip Doran who was appointed in 1866 and was still the curator when he died in 1913 aged 87. The overall design and layout still reflects Doran's design although as time inevitably took Doran it has also taken some of the original trees. These have been replaced to try and retain his original vision. Many of the original trees were sourced from Baron Ferdinand von Mueller who is responsible for many of the original tree plantings in Melbourne. The walking path around the gardens is lined by mostly elms and oak trees which cast attractive shadows over the path. The size of some of the trees is staggering, especially the English Oak (planted by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1867) which is the largest of its kind that I've seen.  

One of Two gazebos near the entrance to the gardens.

You can't go past some white roses for classic old school appeal.

Wisteria was climbing over the roof of this structure which produced filtered light.

Fountain near the entrance circled by standard roses.

Another gazebo with a climber rambling over it.

Entrance to the gardens which is a 1km walk from Castlemaine train station.

Fagus Sylvatica 'atropunicea' or common name Copper Beech.

Lake Joanna had seen better days the green algae was clearly visible.

Three huge Phoenix canariensis trees or common name Canary Island Date Palm.

This monster is an Aleppo Pine (botanical name Pinus halepensis).

Pinus pinea aka Stone Pine. These were national trust trees of significance.

The bark of the Stone Pines is amazing.

Another national trust tree. This time its an English Oak tree Quercus robur. The size of the canopy is incredible.

This tree wasn't labelled but I'm pretty sure its a Catalpa bignonioides or Indian Bean Tree. I've heard people describe this tree as the ultimate shade tree and this one certainly gave credence to that reputation. Look at the solid shadow underneath it. Its a bit hard to tell from the picture but the leaves on these trees are massive.

The leaves were just starting to colour up for Autumn. I'll have to return in a month or so to see these gardens in Autumn glory.

Elms and Oaks lining the main walking path.

Same path different oaks.

These national trust trees are right at the front entrance. They are Ulmus glabra 'camperdownii' or Camperdown Elms.