Excitement in the Rose Garden
October is well under way, surely the most exciting month in the rose garden. The weather has been less than kind for the last 6 weeks, but then you gotta expect wind and rain if you live in glorious NZ, just this spring we seem to be having more than our share!
To be honest, the roses don’t seem to mind too much, they’re leafing and budding up wonderfully. The David Austin collection is sorted into (hopefully) their forever homes (haha who you kidding!) although there’s still a lot of edging and mulching to be completed.
The Old Fashioneds are also moving into action, of course the teas , chinas and Bourbons which didn’t get moved are just carrying on, having flowered on and off all winter.
Finding the right time to spray has been tricky, with very few calm days, but I’ve managed to get around the most disease prone of the older Austins.
As we grow them pretty close together with no filler they are a lot more prone to disease than they would be in a less intensive situation.
The species garden
Down in the Species garden we have a bit of early action in the Pimpanellifolias, with Glory of Edzell in full cry, also Laevigata and the banksias flowering. A lot of the roses in here were just small suckers or cuttings when planted, so it will be a year or 2 till they’re all really going for it.
Between the roses in this garden I have planted all those lovely but invasive perennials that you swear never to plant again. The salvia uliginosa, Michaelmas daisies, big shastas, Japanese anemones, violets etc etc. They’re going to fight it out together with the tough species roses and hopefully it will be magnificent!!!
