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Canberra Today 13°/16° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Rose’s winning connections

ROSE-planting time will be at full pace over the next few weeks.

There are literally thousands of roses from which to choose, but nothing quite like the new release rose from Knight’s Roses of SA – Rosa “Black Caviar”.

Knight’s Roses in conjunction with the owners of the magnificent mare Black Caviar, the world’s greatest sprinter, say that this rose will be for sale in the next few weeks.

The Heritage Garden Centre in Yarralumla and other garden centres will be stocking it.

This very special cultivar with vanilla and jasmine fragrance has medium-size blooms of outstanding velvet burgundy claret-red flowers. The petals are velvet black on the edges with many blooms on each cane over a long flowering season.

rose-black cavier
Rosa “Black Caviar”… medium-size blooms of outstanding velvet burgundy claret-red flowers with vanilla and jasmine fragrance.
OFTEN those new to rose growing can be easily confused with various rose-growing terms. For example, a rose label stating “repeat flowering” does not mean continuous flowering. Repeat flowering refers to spring/early summer flowering followed by a second flowering in late summer/early autumn. You may get some blooms in between, but not a full display all the time.

Blooms can be encouraged by regularly dead-heading spent flower heads.

 

HERE are the main categories of roses, with examples stocked by local garden centres:

The Old-Fashioned Roses category includes many of the Bourbon and Gallica roses now often grouped under the heading Heritage Roses or those roses grown before 1927. Examples include Rosa “Penelope” and R. “Blanc Double de Coubert”.

Hybrid Tea Roses, today referred to as large-flowered roses, have been the leading class of roses for 100 years. They are the classic rose, mainly with one bloom on a long stem. Excellent as a cut flower with wonderful fragrance. They can grow from 1.2 to 2m tall. Examples include Rosa “Charles De Gaulle” and R. “Ashram”.

Floribunda Roses, now referred to as “cluster roses”, have smaller blooms than Hybrid Tea roses, growing in large clusters and flowering over a long period. They are ideal for low-growing hedges or borders, although equally effective planted in a group of say three to five. Examples include Rosa “Afternoon Delight” and R. “Black Caviar”.

David Austin Roses have come into prominence in recent years. David Austin crossed the Old Fashioned Roses with their exquisite fragrance, but not lasting for too long with Hybrid Tea roses. The result is a rose with the old-fashioned shape of flower and fragrance combined with the long-lasting blooms of large-flowered roses. Examples include Rosa “Abraham Darby” and R. “Brother Cadfael”. The first series of David Austin roses was named after characters in Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales’.

Finally we have the true Miniature Roses with blooms less than 5cm across and growing no more than 40-50cm tall. Ideal for rockeries or pots. Examples include Rosa “Ellie” and R. “Holy Toledo”.

 

HAVING grown roses here for more than 30 years, I have found newly planted roses will generally have the first flowers about Melbourne Cup Day.

I will repeat one item of advice mentioned in an earlier article because of its importance: do not put chemical fertilisers or fresh manures in the planting hole. These can cause irreparable damage to the new, tender roots. At planting time water in your new roses with a liquid seaweed-based plant food such as Maxicrop Seaweed Plant Food. This will specifically encourage new root growth without causing any damage to new roots.

 

IT is important not to prune roses until the end of August or early September.

If roses are pruned too soon it will encourage new growth, particularly if it is a mild winter. This is when the novice gardener can get caught out. A sudden sharp frost and all those delicate young new shoots will almost certainly be burnt off with the cold. This can set the whole flowering process back or even kill the rose.

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Cedric Bryant

Cedric Bryant

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