Transcript follows the pictures.

Rose Growing As A Hobby

By J. N. Hart, Potters Bar, Middlesex 

It’s a good thing for a man to have a hobby, be it collecting objects or art, books, silver, breeding cattle, gardening, or a hundred other pastimes that could be mentioned. It gives him something to do, something to be interested in outside his regular occupation, and some ideal to work at. Some hobbies can only be followed by the lucky rich, but a hobby that will suit all pockets and that takes us into the open air, should surely be a popular one. Such a hobby is gardening, and I am certain that one of the most fascinating branches of gardening is The Culture of the Rose.

Rose-growing will keep us busy practically the whole year round, and the result of our labour is delightful.

Then there is the strong bond of brotherhood which gardening produces – I think this is because gardening brings us into closer touch with Nature than any other hobby, and that being so we see and feel things in a bigger way, forgetting the worries and annoyances of everyday life. The bond of brotherhood is certainly much stronger among Rosarians than any other branch of specialists in gardening, and I think this is due to two things – the one, because the Rose is our National Emblem, and subconsciously we feel the the tradition of England behind it : the other, the Rose being the Queen of Flowers keeps us, her courtiers, around her all trying our best to work together to do her commands and further her interests.

Rosarians are always ready to help one another with advice, labour, stocks, plants or buds, but they are especially happy when they have succeeded in interesting somebody who, hitherto, has not been a rose grower, and with their recruit they will take any amount of trouble to try to make him proficient.

Rose-growing may be as expensive, or as cheap a hobby as we care to make it, and in these days, when money is a most illusive commodity, I think the majority of us – I write with some feeling of self pity – want to make it an inexpensive one.

From the commencement we can, with a little advice and help do all the necessary work for the Roses ourselves, and what is a hobby if we only provide the money and let somebody else do all the work? Many of us who are in business, and who are rather tied to our vocation, may require help, especially as we increase the number of our plants, but we can do a large amount of the practical work ourselves, and then when we obtain good results, either in the garden or at the Shows, we can honestly feel we have achieved something.

A word of advice to people who are about to increase their Roses or to fill up gaps in their Rose beds. I notice at all the shows numbers of people who make notes of the names of the Roses which appeal to them both for colour and form, and they seem to specially not the names of blooms which have won medals as “Best Blooms”. Some of these blooms may be extraordinarily fine ones, but they may be blooms from a variety difficult to grow, and one that seldom comes good. To avoid disappointment  and waste of time in the garden, I would advise all those who do not know the variety they have taken a fancy to, to ask the grower they intend purchasing their plants from, or inquire of the Honorary Secretary whether that particular variety is suitable for their purpose.

Spring-time in the Rose garden is, I think, the happiest time of the year. We have gone through the rather uninteresting period of Winter, we have finished our pruning, the beds begin to look tidy, and soon the lovely new rosy or pale green shoots will give us a promise of things to come. We watch these growing day by day, hoping that the late frosts will not damage them. A little later we cut away the in-growing and blind shoots , keeping a sharp look out for pests. The buds will soon begin to appear and later to show colour, and then in the last week in June we have our Roses in all their glory. This is the time to early rise in order to enjoy one’s Roses in the height of their beauty.

Hybrid Teas

Caroline Victoria

Introduced: Harkness 2007

Colour: White

Height: Medium (3-4 ft)

Repeat flowering

Good for cutting

http://www.apuldramroses.co.uk/CAROLINE+VICTORIA-rose.htm.

Claret

Introduced: Fryer, 2005

Colour: Deep red

Height: Medium (3-4 ft)

Repeat flowering

Good for cutting

http://www.apuldramroses.co.uk/CLARET-rose.htm

Moody Blue

Introduced: Fryer, 2008

Colour: Lilac

Height: Medium (3-4 ft)

Repeat flowering

Good for cutting

http://www.apuldramroses.co.uk/MOODY+BLUE-rose.htm

Rachel Louise Moran

Introduced: Zary, 2009

Colour: Pink/White striped

Height: Medium (3-4 ft)

Repeat flowering

Good for cutting

http://www.apuldramroses.co.uk/RACHEL+LOUISE+MORAN-rose.htm

Climbers & Ramblers

Alibaba

Introduced: Warner, 2009

Colour: Orange

Height: 7 ft

Repeat flowering

Will grow on a north facing wall.

http://www.apuldramroses.co.uk/ALIBABA+chewalibaba-rose.htm

Purple Skyliner

Introduced: Colinshaw, 2002

Colour: Lavender

Height: 10 ft

Repeat flowering

http://www.apuldramroses.co.uk/PURPLE+SKYLINER-rose.htm

Rambling Rosie

Introduced: Warner, 2005

Colour: Red

Height: 6 x 5 ft

Repeat flowering

http://www.apuldramroses.co.uk/RAMBLING+ROSIE+horjasper-rose.htm

The Generous Gardener

Introduced: Austin, 2002

Colour: Pale Pink

Height: 6 ft

Repeat flowering

http://www.apuldramroses.co.uk/THE+GENEROUS+GARDENER+Ausdrawn-rose.htm

Ground Cover

Scented Carpet

Introduced: Warner, 2004

Colour: Pale Pink

Height: Medium (3-4 ft)

Repeat flowering

Good for a container

http://www.apuldramroses.co.uk/SCENTED+CARPET-rose.htm

Patio Roses

Scarlet Patio

Introduced: Kordes

Colour: Red

Height: Small (2 – 3 ft)

Continuous flowering

Great for a container.

http://www.apuldramroses.co.uk/SCARLET+PATIO-rose.htm#

]]> http://apuldramroses.wordpress.com/2012/02/03/new-roses-for-this-season/feed/ 0 Alibaba apuldramroses Caroline Victoria Claret Moody Blue Rachel Louise Moran Alibaba Purple Skyliner Rambling Rosie The Generous Gardener Scented Carpet Scarlet Patio http://apuldramroses.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/winter-care-for-your-roses/ http://apuldramroses.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/winter-care-for-your-roses/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:31:45 +0000 ApuldramRoses http://apuldramroses.wordpress.com/?p=373 Read more]]> Winter Care for Your Roses

Although Roses are completely dormant during the winter months, there are still plenty of things you can be doing, and products you can use which Roses will thank you for in the flowering months of spring and summer.

Removal of Discoloured and Diseased Leaves

Your Roses may well have shed most of leaves by now but because of a particularly mild winter this year, many Roses have barely stopped putting on growth, albeit slowly.

It is important to remove these leaves now before pruning in the spring. Make sure you remove them from the plant and away from the base of the plant also. This will leave the plant with a fresh start come spring time when it begins to put on new shoots after pruning.

Bone meal

Bone Meal provides a perfect slow release winter feed. Simply spread around the base of the plant and lightly fork in with the soil. Bone Meal is available from any good garden centre in various quantities and is reasonably priced.

Sulphur Rose

Sulphur Rose is a specialist Rose treatment aimed at preventing and treating black spot and other common fungi in Roses. It can be applied at all times throughout the year, in the dormant or flowering seasons. Simply mix with water in the prescribed quantities and spray the plant and the ground and put a stop to black spot before it has a chance to occur.

A 250g pack of Sulphur Rose will treat 20 roses for a whole year. It is available from Apuldram Roses at http://www.apuldramroses.co.uk/Gardening-Gifts-And-Accessories.htm

Follow these 3 simple steps to keep your rose happy in the cold and wet winter and they will repay you with flowers and healthy green leaves in the hot (and hopefully dry) summer.

We believe it is not only beautifully written but it still holds some relevance and truth today.

So for you city gardeners out there here is a little treat;

(Transcript follows the images)

Transcript

Rose Growing for the Londoner

By Mrs. Sydney J. Montagu.

The lucky grower whose garden lies away in the country, where the fresh air and light purify his soil and give strong shoots to his plants, will say that there is no such thing as Rose growing for the Londoner, in the true meaning of the word “growing,” that all he does is to force some begrimed bushes to bear a few inferior blooms, and that he might employ his time more profitably to himself, and save the plants from a lingering death by not attempting their cultivation. There is a certain amount of truth to this, for the London Rose, like the human cockney, is seldom on the “top of his form.” It is rather paler and decidedly smaller than the country rose, but once well established will be worth the trouble it costs if its owner is not an ambitious man. For the exhibitor, even in the N.R.S. eight miles radius class, stands a poor chance should he live, as I do, in the N.W district between Regent’s Park and Hampstead. Once only, in my eleven years’ experience, has the season been so favourable that I hoped to find half a dozen blooms that would be fairly fit for a show box. They were in bud, and promised well, when the peculiar thick fog or blight that often comes to us about July, and the glue-like rain which followed, turned my pretty young flowers into something that I can only compare to cold poultice.

But there are many garden lovers to whom showing is no attraction, and who are quite contented if they can grow sufficiently good blooms for a vase or a button-hole; and that they can do, as I know from experience, who live within ten minutes of the “Zoo,” if they have sufficient space and a little time to give their hobby.

How valuable open space alone is can be proved by two Rose beds in Regent’s Park at the North Gate. I think it is four years since they were planted, or it may be rather more, and all the attention they receive is some straw litter when the cold is intense and a mulch of manure in spring. They flourish remarkably well. As far as my observation goes not one plant has dies; all bloom freely and make new growth. They are pruned in the spring rather closely. Some belts of shrubs keep off the worst of the winds from them, and beyond are the playing fields of the park, some acres in extent, to which wind-swept space I attribute their robustness. The natural soil there is London clay.

I am, therefore, unable to understand why more owners of gardens close to Regent’s Park do not grow Roses, or grow them more successfully than they do.

In my own case I have a piece of ground about 120 feet long that gets the sun from its rise in the morning until well into the afternoon, and if it were not for two enormous poplar trees I should consider the garden almost ideal of its kind. These trees unfortunately give our garden a certain air of dignity, and so we suffer their depredations on the smaller plants, and try to manage the Roses accordingly. A few standards are in single beds on the lawn. The other Roses, some standard and some bush, are grown wherever a bed or border receives sufficient sun. They are arranged either in groups or singly, and, given a favourable summer, the results are sufficiently good to be very pleasant. They are planted in a mixture of yellow loam and old manure, with some grit for the roots, on a clay subsoil, and mulched in the autumn with short manure. About every four years I find a top-dressing of lime to purify the soil most beneficial, and during the growing season I treat them to occasional doses of Clay’s or other similar fertiliser. They are pruned hard back, and before growth starts I give them a thorough spring cleaning with soap and water applied with a painter’s brush, and then washed it off with plain water, so that the bark may be clean and fresh for the influence of the summer sun and rain. Disbudding is most essential as no amount of care will produce sufficiently thick shoots to hold themselves erect under any burden of blooms. Few shoots, but as good as possible, should be the aim of the cultivator, as this will give the foliage a chance as well as the flowers. It is very difficult to produce a really large healthy green leaf here, as orange rust and mildew are most troublesome in bad years. The latter has already appeared (June 14th 1909), but this is the worst season I can remember, both for chilling winds and insects. I am, however, not always so unfortunate in early summer. Mildew I treat with sulphur and sometimes soot, but as I am generally away from home during the whole of August and half of September, my Roses are left to the mercy of a gardener, who waters them daily if dry, but only attends to them otherwise twice a week, I do not consider my case a fair one. If I were more at home no doubt the evil would be less troublesome.

This is the worst side of the matter, and I have treated it first so as to dispose of the arguments against Rose growing here. Now for its bright aspect. It is possible, as I have proved for some years, to have blooms of the following Roses quite good enough to ornament the garden and the room in a normal season. For instance, Moss Roses (especially the old-fashioned pink and white), “Maiden’s Blush” (for those who care for the flowers of our ancestresses), “Gloire De Dijon” of course, “Reve d’Or,” ”Clio,” “Captain Hayward,” (one of my most reliable), “Madame Bernard,” “Shandon,” “Killarney,” “Frau Karl Druschki” and “Margaret Dickson.” I do not this anyone who understands and loves flowers will say that these are to be despised, even when grown under my conditions here. The Ramblers, too, do very well, especially “Dorothy Perkins.” and the Penzance Sweet Briars are only too rampant. All are inexpensive to buy and to grow, I do not advise the Londoner to try experiments with new and costly varieties. It is wiser for him to wait until their qualities are proved, and they can be bought at a price that will not cause regret is they are unsuited to our smoke. Some of my plants have been in the ground here for many years and look likely to last on yet, and the proportion of those that die off even after a very bad winter , and those that refuse to thrive from the beginning are not very great.

I cannot help thinking that there is a large class of garden lovers like myself, who would grow roses if they only thought they could in this neighbourhood, and who would be keen supporters of the N.R.S if it could contrive to reach them and make them believe in the possibilities of their gardens. I know that I am much indebted to its “Annual” and other publications, even if I do return somewhat down-hearted from its shows to the contents of my own poor little plot.

We pack bare root roses very tightly together, usually in one parcel. Because of this, it can often seem as though there are only one or two roses when there are in fact more.

If you have ordered more than one rose, please ensure you remove the packaging and the string to be sure that all of your roses are there.

Do I need to plant my roses strait away?

Here at Apuldram Roses, we recommend planting as soon as possible, particularly with bare root roses. Sadly however, we all know that the weather does not always permit this.

Should frozen or waterlogged ground prevent you from planting strait away, bare root roses will survive happily in a cool place for around 3 weeks, providing their roots are kept damp in their packaging.

To keep the roots damp during storage, open the packaging, water the roots and re-seal the packaging.

I am going away and I cannot plant my roses before I go, will they be okay?

If you cannot plant your roses before you go, and will be unable to keep the roots damp, we suggest heeling them into a trench with some soil around the roots until you return (see pictures below).

You should receive instructions for planting and pruning with your order but for more information on rose care and maintenance, visit http://www.apuldramroses.co.uk/Rose-Care_Planting-Pruning.htm

Have you ever wondered exactly how new season bare root roses make it from the field to your garden. Here is a step by step guide to how our roses get from us to you:

Step One - Grading and Labelling

Once the plants have been lifted from the ground, the best plants are selected and labelled according to variety.

Step Two - Covering in Straw Beds

Once the roses have been graded and labelled, they are taken to our trenches, where the roots are covered with straw and watered. This helps to keep them warm through the winter months until they are ordered by customers, or potted in the spring.

Step Three - Picking Orders

When your order is placed, we pick the relevant varieties from the straw trenches.

Step Four - Bundling and Tying up the orders

After picking your orders from the straw trenches, we bundle them together and tie them up tightly together using the clamps in the picture below.

Gift Wrapping and Packing

Once the orders are tied up, they are ready to be packed for dispatch in the bags or boxes below. We also offer a gift wrap service for both bare root and potted roses.

November/December is the perfect time of year to plant these new roses in your garden. To order yours today visit www.apuldramroses.co.uk or call the office on 01243785769

Here are some pictures of some of the best.

Remembrance

Remembrance is a small bushy repeat flowering floribunda. These bright red flowers come in clusters and continue to bloom until this time of year. Sometimes even into December!

Arthur Bell (Standard)

Arthur Bell is a very versatile plant which comes as a floribunda, climber and a standard (pictured here). Its golden yellow flowers repeatedly bloom right through the summer and into autumn/winter and carry a fantastic fragrance.

Fore more information on both of these varieties visit out website at www.apuldramroses.co.uk 

Welcome to the all new blog by Apuldram Roses.

It’s November which means that the bare root season is upon us, so it is time to get up to our ankles in mud and start planting those new season roses.

November is the perfect time to be planting new roses. Please visit our website for more information about bare root plants and see all of our latest offers. http://www.apuldramroses.co.uk/Bare-Root_and_Potted_Roses.htm

Watch this space for advice on all areas of rose growing as well as the latest news from Apuldram Roses.