November is the month of the roses…by the middle of the month, ie now, nearly all the roses are opening their first buds, if not in full flush, if not already finished!
Because I had so many new cut back bare root roses this season, most of the excitement was early in these areas. Cutting a big rose back hard always makes it produce its flowers bigger and earlier. This suits growers of Hybrid Teas who think Big is Best, but for the average Heritage rose grower subtlety comes into the equation more and we snobs prefer the picture of a big plant covered in smaller flowers! That’s the Royal We I’m talking.
So….in the last couple of weeks I’ve been introduced to many new roses, some of which I found a little over powering to say the least… The Hybrid Perpetuals in particular, which often have big blooms anyway, are causing me a bit of grief! But I know once they get growing and onto their next flush, their flower size should be more subdued. Not so sure about the colour though…Ulrich Brunner Fils probably gets the prize for the most sunglasses inducing flowers! They are BRIGHT.
All the Summer perennials are going for it too and making a nice cottagey look in the big borders. Despite lots of nices drenches and drizzles of rain the top is starting to dry up quick with punishing sun and wind between the rain, so whilst everything in the ground is quick steam ahead, the opportunity to plant anywhere away from easy hose reach is over. I spent last weekend getting soaking and very muddy attempting to plant everything that was waiting. These plants got a great start, but will still need back up watering if we don’t keep getting frequent rain.
A sudden change of Alert Level in West Waikato this week, caused a momentary bout of madness and we decided to have an Open day this Sunday, with less than a week to prepare and still no help from Auckland slaves.
I’m afraid my garden is not going to be as tidy as I would like it to be…but by gum there’s some roses to look at!
Rock on up on Sunday after 10am if you are able.
For reasons that are a mystery to me, this thingamejig is refusing to load photos from my folder. Therefore this blog is officially a text only one till someone with an iota of computer savvy visits me.
I’ll leave it at that and write again to report on the Open Day next week…