Beautifully rounded cat too, @Victoria Sponge - who clearly thinks she's the subject of the photo.
Waiting here with bated breath for my TCL order to arrive. It departed from the "international sorting centre" on 30th December so hopefully it'll be here soon...
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
Ooh, the anticipation of a rose order is a killer! I find myself obsessively clicking on the courier’s website tracking progress, which usually grinds to a halt in a warehouse somewhere in Spain..
That made me smile Vic. It’s either drought or deluge here, so when it rains OH and I are madly running about draining the overflowing butts - filling buckets, watering cans, plastic containers etc. and getting soaked in the process.
I’ve made a start tying in the climbers too, one of the espaliered canes on Soul had died right back but fortunately there was a long, waving cane - marked in red - conveniently waiting to take it’s place:
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Hi all and HNY from me and best wishes for a great rose season to come!
@HarryWhite that latest advice from DA is nonsensical imo, feeble snipping for the first prune is not the way to encourage stronger, bushy growth. OK for the naturally compact ones like Harlow Carr, maybe, but not for the ones like Lady of Shallot or GJ that can easily shoot up to 4ft in the first year. Do a piddling prune on those and you will end up with tall, weak canes and little flowering lower down. Equally nonsensical is the contradictory advice on the accompanying video which tells us to cut everything down to a uniform 15” from the ground regardless of what size they have attained or what each actually needs to form a pleasing, rounded shrub.
My advice FWIW is always to look at each shrub individually and decide what it needs/you want from it. The old DA advice was to prune back by a third to form a larger shrub or by a half or more for a more compact shrub. No need to treat the first prune any different from subsequent ones.
Also their advice - whichever version you choose - applies to English shrub roses, not floribundas or HTs (which they also sell) that benefit from harder pruning still, so check your varieties!
Thank you @Nollie that's great to hear. Thanks for the advice. I thought i might get criticised for wanting to go against DA advice.
I do have a first year Lady of Shallot that looks like it needs more off than just a few inches off. I'm going to look at each rose individually, as you suggest.
I've just seen Ronnie O'Sullivan at the garden center. I think he was eyeing up a plant.
Beautiful moggy, @Victoria Sponge. I really wish I'd got a kitten when my pup was little. She is too firmly anti-cat now to contemplate such an adoption.
I haven't been in the garden but I can see hellebores, primroses and a camellia in bloom. Roll on spring...
No problem, @HarryWhite, it’s a bit daunting doing it for the first time, especially when there is so much contradictory advice out there, even from the same source! It’s actually really straightforward and you will soon get a feel for it. LoS in my experience definitely benefits from a harder prune otherwise it gets very lanky and flops all over the place.
You prompted me to look back at previous DA advice and how it’s (unnecessarily imo) changed..
2017/18 - the same simple, effective advice that’s stood the test of time I think:
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
My pruned Roses, any comments welcome. They all get to 6ft or over, 12 years old, face west, clay soil, backed by euronymus hedge so not in the best of positions. MM has always struggled. , Margaret Merrill Gertrude Jekyll Winchester Cathedral, I know I need to cut off the dead stump but need a new pruning saw first!
I’ve pruned Lady Waterlow, Pure Poetry and Sweet Honey today. I did say no new roses for me this year, but in the end I couldn’t help it 😳🌹. I’ve decided to move Aloha (it will never cover a large pergola) and plant Ghislaine instead. And of course, I had to have Forever Royal and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. They are just my type of roses. Thank you, @Marlorena!
First post here, so please be gentle to this newbie gardener and rose grower.
I have a question which is two fold. First I am about to move two established rose Gaujards from a shady position to one with full sun. Are there any tips for me to bear in mind? Second, once I have moved them, can anyone suggest what to plant alongside.
To be clear the border they are going into is new (south facing and sheltered) with neutral loam soil that has had well rotted horse manure and garden compost added. It is to be a mixed colour and plant border.
Posts
Waiting here with bated breath for my TCL order to arrive. It departed from the "international sorting centre" on 30th December so hopefully it'll be here soon...
That made me smile Vic. It’s either drought or deluge here, so when it rains OH and I are madly running about draining the overflowing butts - filling buckets, watering cans, plastic containers etc. and getting soaked in the process.
I’ve made a start tying in the climbers too, one of the espaliered canes on Soul had died right back but fortunately there was a long, waving cane - marked in red - conveniently waiting to take it’s place:
I thought i might get criticised for wanting to go against DA advice.
I do have a first year Lady of Shallot that looks like it needs more off than just a few inches off. I'm going to look at each rose individually, as you suggest.
I haven't been in the garden but I can see hellebores, primroses and a camellia in bloom. Roll on spring...
You prompted me to look back at previous DA advice and how it’s (unnecessarily imo) changed..
2017/18 - the same simple, effective advice that’s stood the test of time I think:
,
Margaret Merrill
Gertrude Jekyll
Winchester Cathedral, I know I need to cut off the dead stump but need a new pruning saw first!
.. that's wonderful ! I'm pleased to have been a little influential, hope they do well for you..
I'm expecting my roses from Loubert this week.. 2-1/2 weeks in transit..