Wow, so much to catch up on. Turned into a lovely afternoon so have been out in the garden. I was going to fertilise roses, I have DA rose food and Vitax but got distracted with a DA delivery. Bareroots look ok but I didn't order Susan Williams-Ellis! Anybody got one to tell me about it please, HMF is pretty thin on members' comments for this rose. That is if DA don't want it back when they send the correct rose, England's Rose.Roses now surprising me with rapid progress, even this sub-aquatic Alexandre Girault is coming good after a week fully submerged and weeks of waterlogging.
..those look fine @Tack .. I'm delighted your A Girault is coming along too.. amazing what they can put up with, these old ramblers... pretty tough cookies... ..sorry about your wrong rose... I only had it a short time because the blooms don't last long.. other members have it and may prefer to comment... I think you need 3 of them to make an impact.. just a personal opinion on that.. ..it had a strong scent though..
@celcius_kkw Adrian... you asked about books... I've been meaning to get this one, which may be available cheaper elsewhere... it was recommended by Michael Marriott senior rosarian at DA.. maybe retired now, not sure... there are over 140 colour photos apparently and it sounds quite good.. do consider..
''This book is jammed packed with gorgeous images of roses, their history, origin..'' ..an Amazon reviewer..
..those books by GS Thomas highlighted by Omori, although a bit dated now, are outstanding too, and should not be overlooked... I have one of them still.. and often refer to it..
@nollie My dogs didn’t care about the alfalfa tea so hopefully you’ll be ok. How is your Mutabilis looking? Mine has green canes at the bottom still, I’m holding out feeble hope it will pull through...
@tack When DA sent me the wrong rose, they let me keep it 👍
@newbie77 I’m way behind as well, gave myself way too much to do, and now I have more roses and perennials on the way 😬
Thanks for that @Marlorena, the scent sounds promising but I most certainly won't get 3. These 3 are the first of 12 bareroots I have ordered this spring, I am struggling with where to put them all as it is. Yes, I've had to order more pots. But I tell myself this is my only vice too! I am really really trying to resist perennials, I must take cuttings and sow annuals this year to fill space.
I made last year's new bed wider which was essential for the roses in it but happily I have more space where the Christmas tree was(top of pic).
Interesting to hear about your rose feeding plans. Thanks for sharing! Last year was the first year I actually fed them properly and I will again. I just used to mulch and prune. It made a difference. I have a couple of roses that I am thinking about shovel pruning, but one more year to decide.
I'm out shopping tomorrow for some rose feed, so it would be great to know what is the ideal NPK ratio I should look out for on the box, I can never remember and even the feeds which are sold specifically for roses vary in their ratios I've found. So I'm always none the wiser.
Many thanks @Marlorena On the strength of your comment, and due the glorious weather here today, I decided to just get on with it, starting with my mystery climber, which turned into a bit bigger job than I expected. Turns out that this 'bed' was composed of a 2" layer of gravel laid on a polythene sheet (presumably for weed suppression) over the topsoil and the rose has put down a network of surface roots within the gravel layer. So I dug out and removed the poly sheet, forked the compacted soil, fed with DA rose feed, backfilled with a 50/30/20 mix of my garden compost/leafmould/manure and finally recovered with the gravel.
Also, very pleased to see what looks like a couple of new basel shoots on this. I'm really looking forward to seeing this rose in full flower later this year...
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.. I'm delighted your A Girault is coming along too.. amazing what they can put up with, these old ramblers... pretty tough cookies...
..sorry about your wrong rose... I only had it a short time because the blooms don't last long.. other members have it and may prefer to comment... I think you need 3 of them to make an impact.. just a personal opinion on that..
..it had a strong scent though..
Adrian... you asked about books... I've been meaning to get this one, which may be available cheaper elsewhere... it was recommended by Michael Marriott senior rosarian at DA.. maybe retired now, not sure... there are over 140 colour photos apparently and it sounds quite good.. do consider..
''This book is jammed packed with gorgeous images of roses, their history, origin..''
..an Amazon reviewer..
https://yalebooks.co.uk/display.asp?k=9780300251111
..those books by GS Thomas highlighted by Omori, although a bit dated now, are outstanding too, and should not be overlooked... I have one of them still.. and often refer to it..
@tack When DA sent me the wrong rose, they let me keep it 👍
@newbie77 I’m way behind as well, gave myself way too much to do, and now I have more roses and perennials on the way 😬
Mutabilis is limping on, not much change yet, we’ll just have to hope!
On the strength of your comment, and due the glorious weather here today, I decided to just get on with it, starting with my mystery climber, which turned into a bit bigger job than I expected.
Turns out that this 'bed' was composed of a 2" layer of gravel laid on a polythene sheet (presumably for weed suppression) over the topsoil and the rose has put down a network of surface roots within the gravel layer.
So I dug out and removed the poly sheet, forked the compacted soil, fed with DA rose feed, backfilled with a 50/30/20 mix of my garden compost/leafmould/manure and finally recovered with the gravel.
Also, very pleased to see what looks like a couple of new basel shoots on this.
I'm really looking forward to seeing this rose in full flower later this year...