Roses

ROSES

My first gardening memory from childhood involved roses. It was one of those unforgettable experiences, even for a four year old. My grannie, bless her soul, sent me, complete with bucket and shovel, up Harestane Road running after the grocer’s cart, knowing that at some stage his horse would do what horses have always done whether in a field or in the street. This was an opportunity not to be missed as she had a border of hybrid tea roses that would soon be the envy of her neighbours after this tousled haired laddie struggled back with his steaming bucket.

My first gardening lesson, roses are gross feeders and a perfect rose may involve a lot of hard work but the rewards can be immense.

My horticultural career took me all over Britain and every new house came with a garden that just had to have roses somewhere. A garden for me would not be complete if there were no roses.

Hybrid Teas and floribundas can go in beds and borders, shrub roses can provide shelter and privacy and ramblers and climbers can go on walls and fences. You can even get varieties suitable for ground cover.

My first roses

I had always been very ambitious and keen to learn my craft and rose growing was at the top of my list, but they were very expensive to buy on an apprentice’s pay. It was easier for me to join the Royal National Rose Society who then gave you a book on rose growing, varieties and propagation. I ordered 100 Rosa canina briers and decided I would bud my own roses. I only had a broken pen knife to perform my budding, but the book was good and I managed to get 82 roses from my 100 rootstocks.

At college in Essex I did a dissertation on rose rootstocks discovering that Rosa canina was out of favour as it produced suckers too readily and now the favoured rootstock was Rosa laxa. Someone down south was also experimenting with Rosa multiflora rootstock which proved to be superior to all the others, but was not commercial on account of having a small neck which was difficult and slow to bud. However I had all the time in the world so I got hold of these and produced my best roses ever.

It is now difficult for the amateur gardener to get hold of rose rootstocks as they are mostly grown in Holland, so we can propagate our roses from hardwood cuttings.  They are fairly easy to root. I covered this topic two weeks ago, but you can still see it on my blog, the Scottish artist and his garden.blogspot.com where I archive all my articles.

Rose varieties

Specialist rose nurseries in Scotland, England and Ireland have been breeding new roses for years so there is no lack of choice. In the early years there was an emphasis on producing floribundas, then trying to get floribundas with hybrid tea type flowers. There has always been a demand for a good red rose with scent, a strong head and several flowers per stem. E. H. Morse is hard to beat,  but other colours proved to be a bigger challenge. Bicolours became popular such as Piccadilly, then the vermillion colour appeared with Super Star many years ago. There are now excellent varieties to be found in just about every colour.

We are now in a different environment with sulphur free clean air better for humans, but also better for all the main rose diseases. Most of the chemicals previously used to control rose diseases have now been withdrawn. Breeders need to concentrate on strength and disease resistance in rose breeding so we can grow good roses without the need for chemicals.

However we are not there yet as I see many varieties still listed as disease free which I have had to grub out due to debilitating attacks of blackspot. Both shrub L D Braithwaite and climber Golden Showers have had the chop due to die back after a blackspot attack. Margaret Merril is a lovely white scented rose that is great early in the season until mildew gets a hold, then it struggles badly.

Every one will have their favourites, so my choice is purely down to what gives my garden the biggest splash of colour.

E H Morse is my best red, Dearest, a floribunda my best pink, Miriam my best white with a pink blush.

I have grown many shrub types and now use some of them on walls and fences as climbers. Dublin Bay is a brilliant red, but has no scent unlike Gertrude Jekyll, a deep pink with the Old English rose scent. If you need a very vigorous climber, the old variety Mme Alfred Carriere, introduced in 1879, is very reliable and puts on a spectacular show of off white scented flowers all summer.

Rose Planting

Roses thrive in well manured clay loams. It is a good practice to double dig any area to be planted with roses to break up the subsoil, aerate it, improve the drainage and incorporate manure or compost. When digging deep do not bring up any clay to the surface.

Climbers planted against a house wall will need removal of any builder’s debris and replaced with some good top soil. Work carefully as there may be services going into your property. Break up any consolidated hardcore below planting depth as the plant will be very happy to grow through this and still thrive.

Planting bare root plants can be done from November to the end of March, though nowadays it is more usual to purchase container grown plants that can be planted at any time. Make sure all bushes are given a good soak before and at planting to get them off to a good start.

Give the bed a dressing of a general fertilizer as roses are gross feeders and will respond to feeding.

Spacing can be as close as 18 inches for dwarf bushes or six to ten feet or more for climbers and ramblers.

Rose pruning

Hybrid tea and floribunda roses are pruned in the dormant season from late November to mid March, though with global warming this period is getting shorter.

Start by removing weak shoots, dead snags and any shoots growing up the centre. Providing there is several strong young shoots remove some older branches. Finally prune the young shoots to an outward growing bud about six to twelve inches from the ground.

Roses can be relied on to recover from bad pruning. If you prune them very lightly they will just grow into a larger bush but still flower perfectly well. If you prune them too hard you will keep the bushes smaller, but you could kill a weak variety.

Back in the mists of time I had a three month rose pruning session covering the north west of Dundee open spaces. Roses were at the height of their popularity and all local authorities crammed them into every available space. There was no time for any finesse, forget secateurs, this was a hand shear job cutting every bed to two feet from ground level. Although I was armed with my copy of “How to grow roses” from the Royal National Rose Society my knowledge from the book got me no Brownie points, so I had to do as I was told

That summer I went back to check on all my mutilated rose beds. They were all fantastic, full of flower. We should have won Britain in Bloom. I nearly threw away my book.

Roses are very tough, they can take a lot of ill treatment and still come back with glorious colour.

Shrub roses need very little pruning, only enough to prevent them getting too straggly.

Rambling roses flower on long shoots produced the previous year, so after flowering remove the older shoots right back to the base and tie in the new young shoots. These will flower the next year.

Climbing roses flower the same as bush roses, but produce longer shoots. These are used to form a framework of both young and older branches. However keep the plant rejuvenated by removing some of the older shoots every year. Make sure there is always some young wood around the base so the climber can flower from top to bottom. If the shoots are quite long try arching them horizontally to reduce upwards vigour and encourage flowering.

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Focus on Cuttings

  WINTER PROPAGATION

 This winter season may be severe and prolonged and all outdoor plants are well and truly dormant, but gardening is very seasonal and whilst it may not be possible to do much soil cultivations, there are many tasks that can be started now.

A lot of trees, shrubs, roses, fruit bushes and ground cover plants get pruned during the dormant season and it is these prunings that can make perfect cuttings when you wish to increase your stock of plants.

This is also the time to start sowing onions, and sweet peas if they were not autumn sown. If you have a good selection of geraniums and Impatiens which you wish to retain and have taken cuttings in autumn these will now be rooted and in need of potting up. I have kept the same geraniums going for many years as I have got really good colours for a brilliant summer display.

It is always very satisfying to produce your own healthy strong plants from seed and cuttings, rather than buy the more expensive mature plants. When training to be a gardener in the Parks Department in the early sixties the competitive spirit was always very strong and there was always someone who had bigger plants, more of them or had more flowers than the next. Propagation of all plants was a mark of your skills. Rose budding at the Camperdown  nursery sorted out the men from the boys as a high percentage take, speed of budding and clean grafting were closely monitored.

Although there is not a lot of fruit and vegetables grown in the parks, you were expected to acquire gardening skills in all topics, so training covered vegetables, fruit and greenhouse work as well as planting trees, shrubs, roses and bedding plants, grass cutting and landscaping.

It was at Duntrune Terrace demonstration gardens that I got my propagation skills honed under the watchful eye of a very skilled head gardener. My first home grown fruit bushes started off from cuttings grown from the gardens own stock of the best black currant varieties.

It was all part of the training exercise of course.

Hardwood Cuttings Fruit

Black currants, red and white currants and gooseberries are all propagated similarly as mature one year old shoots about pencil thickness. Cut them to about six to eight inches long with the lower cut under a node and the top cut above a bud. Leave all the buds on unless you wish to grow them as cordons or on a bare stem as with gooseberries. For these remove all the buds except the top two or three. Gooseberries are best on a leg to help picking as the weight of crop often pulls the branches down to the ground where the fruit gets splashed with soil.

Insert the cuttings about four inches apart in open ground in rows, leaving about one third of the cutting above ground. Leave them to grow on for a year before lifting them in the dormant season to go to their permanent spot.

If you are planting a new row of blackcurrants, you will only need to buy half the required number, as it is necessary to prune a new bush down to a few buds to get it established. Each new bush will normally have about four stems which after pruning will give you four good cuttings. Plant all four cuttings together in a square about four inches apart in the place of another bush.

After three years you will not see any difference in size of the bushes.

Hardwood Cuttings Ornamental Shrubs

There is a wide range of ornamental trees, shrubs and roses that can be propagated from cuttings very similar to black currants.

Poplar and willow trees must be the easiest and you should achieve 100% rooting almost every time. Take one year old shoots and cut to about ten inches long and insert into rows four inches apart leaving a third above ground.

Cornus, philadelphus, forsythia, buddleia and most roses can be propagated as above, but other ornamentals may need a wee bit more care.

Often the best time to take these hardwood cuttings is either two weeks before or after leaf fall or in March just before dormancy breaks.

Cuttings are taken about six to eight inches long, and some, e.g. pyracantha are better with a heel. Prepare a bed in a cold frame or other sunny sheltered spot mixing a lot of grit and some old compost into the soil to open it up, improve drainage but still retain moisture. Cuttings are lined out about four inches apart in rows six inches apart.

Commercially cuttings are often bundled up in batches of about twenty then plunged into an open frame full of sand or grit with soil warming cables underneath in late autumn. This gives cool tops so nothing breaks into growth, but the bottom heat encourages the base of the cutting to form a callus. The bundles are checked regularly, and then as soon as roots are seen to break out of the callus, they are lined out in another frame in ordinary propagation medium.

Allow all the rooted cuttings to grow on for a year before lifting, keeping them watered, and in summer protect them from strong sunshine.

For those with less sophistication it is possible to use deep boxes filled with a mixture of sand and old potting compost to take the cuttings in smaller bundles and sink it onto the top of a fresh compost heap where there is still some heat. Leave them there till mid March then line them out, when they will have callused over and some may show root initials.

The yellow flowered Jasmine is very easy to grow as long stems often fall onto the ground where they will root very readily. Hydrangea petiolaris also roots itself into soil and moist walls at every opportunity.

Stratification

Many shrubs, e.g. cotoneaster, pyracantha, rowans, and saskatoons grown for their ornamental or edible berries can be propagated from seeds extracted from these berries.

Once the berries are mature remove them and squeeze out the seeds. Wash any remaining pulp off the seeds as it contains germination inhibiting hormones, then either store them for a few weeks in a fridge, or sow them in trays and keep them outdoors. Keep them watered and protected from birds and mice. Over winter them outdoors, then in spring you should get a good germination of young plants. Grow them on for another year in soil or pot them up individually.

Greenhouse plants

Grape vines are very easy to root. I take pruned shoots about twelve inches long in January and over winter them in bundles in my compost heap. In March I cut all the plump healthy stems into one bud cuttings. Cut each one above a bud and leave two or three inches of stem below that bud. These can be inserted individually in pots, or spaced out in a cellular tray and kept in the greenhouse. By mid summer they will be rooted and ready to pot into a bigger pot. Once well rooted they can grow very strongly and as they are quite hardy grow them outdoors all summer and autumn.

Geraniums that were started off as cuttings last October are now rooted. They were inserted in wide shallow pots at five to a pot, but they soon filled the pot. I take out the tops to make them branch and let light into the middle otherwise at this time of year they would get very leggy.

They are now branching very nicely so potting them up into an individual pot and giving them more space will keep them short jointed.

I try to keep my greenhouse unheated as it is better for my overwintering grape vines, but it is too cold for geraniums. They can take a few degrees of frost, but not over a long period, so I keep mine on the windowsills in the house until March when I feel it will be ok to give them cold greenhouse conditions.

If a late frost threatens I do have a heater I can use for a short period.

Sweet peas can now be sown any time in January or February if they were not autumn sown. Last year they were autumn sown then overwintered in my cold greenhouse. That allowed me to plant them out early, but unfortunately this was followed by a cold wet spring and an even wetter summer so the display was miserable. This year I am not sowing too early. The seeds are soaked over night in a glass of water, then sown the following day at three seeds to a pot and germinated in my studio. Soon after they emerge they will be hardened off before going into the cold greenhouse. They should be ready for planting in early April on a good day.

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Garden Climbers

CLIMBERS FOR EVERY OCCASION

I first became aware of the possibilities of climbing plants at the beginning of my gardening career when my small council house garden was just not big enough to grow all these plants I was learning about. By utilising all walls and fences I could extend the range.

It soon became clear that there were plants that would enjoy a north facing wall, whereas the more exotic climbers would thrive on a south facing wall.

A new world emerged for the young very keen apprentice gardener who lost no time in covering every available wall and fence space. The house soon blended into the landscape.

Fences erected along property boundaries, or separating garden areas, or creating privacy and shelter around patios would all be enhanced with scented flowers and autumn berries.

Being a fruit lover these walls and fences would provide the correct conditions to grow many fruit trees and bushes where space was at a premium.

As life moves on the garden is now a lot bigger, but so is my knowledge of plants that I want to grow or experiment with. So I am back to the original problem of not having enough room. I need to be quite selective on what plants I choose to grow..

Special needs

My first success was finding plants that would grow on a north facing wall where good sunshine was a problem. To convert a dull dark north wall to one with flowers was a great achievement. Climbing rose Mme Alfred Carrier, or Ena Harkness and  Jasmine are all  good.

Then what about the east wall where early sun would affect any late spring flowers if there was a late frost. Choose something that flowers in summer.

I placed a great value on walls next to main front doors. These needed scented flowers to enhance the feel good factor for anyone going into the house.  Climbing rose Zephirine Drouhin and Gertrude Jekyll are both perfect pinks for this spot.

Property security can be improved by planting Pyracantha around any vulnerable windows. They can also thrive on north facing walls and although very vigorous, they adapt very well to spur pruning to keep them close to the wall while retaining their thorny framework and bright autumn berries. Blackbirds just love to nest in them.

Walls and fences are becoming very popular places to plant fruit trees and bushes on as people now want an apple, pear, cherry or peach but normally they would grow quite large, so nurseries now cater for this use. Espalier trained trees, smaller growing stepover trees, and dwarf cherries are all now available. Now cherries grown on the new Gisela 5 rootstock will only grow to six to eight feet tall, so can easily be netted against birds so you get the fruit and not the birds.

Supports

Some plants support themselves and climb using their twining tendrils e.g. vines. Others will twine around any support, e.g. honeysuckle and clematis, some attach themselves with adventitious roots appearing in the shoots, e.g. ivies, but many others require an artificial support to be trained against. Most climbing roses will need support as will Pyracantha, and fruit trees. Wooden fences may give support by way of their construction, but can be enhanced with strong wires stapled firmly along its length. Trellis is very useful as well as six inch weldmesh. Walls can be drilled and vine eyes inserted to hold strong horizontal wires for training. Every situation will be different and each plant will have its own particular needs.

An overgrown leyland cypress hedge can be cut back to ten feet or so and most of the branches removed, just retaining enough to keep them alive and give support to a few climbers. Allow some regrowth, but not too much to create a nuisance. Clematis will thrive here and some climbing roses can be added. In time the clematis will hold onto the climbing rose  and keep it upright.

Soil

Very often there will be a perfect house wall space but totally paved with no soil near it. Most plants only need enough soil to get them started. I have frequently removed a two by two slab against the house wall then excavate ten inches of builders rubble before loosing up a further six inches. Backfill with some decent top soil adding a bit of compost and some fertiliser to the pit. Keep any new plant well watered till it gets established. It will soon find spaces to grow in the builders rubble and be perfectly happy. My climbing rose Dublin Bay will reach seven feet in height according to the catalogue. However once the roots found the rubble it just grew and grew and now I have had to severely prune it to keep in down to twelve feet.

Seasons

Climbing plants can add interest all year round by using the benefits of each different wall. South facing walls catch the most sunshine so will bring plants on earlier and retain colour longer at the end of the season while north facing walls extend the plant range to those that would otherwise suffer too much sun.

North facing walls are perfect for the yellow winter flowering Jasminum nudiflorum which starts to flower at the beginning of winter and continues for a few months. Camelias on a north wall can follow on into the early spring, and being a woodland fringe plant they do not mind shade as long as they get some sun in summer to ripen up the wood to allow flower buds to develop.

Clematis in its numerous varieties and hybrids will give a display from spring till late summer. Clematis montana rubens may be very common, but it is one of the best for a mass display of pink flowers. It is very reliable, quite vigorous and loves to scramble into old trees, over sheds, tall fences, conifers, etc.

Where scent and flowers are both important go for a honeysuckle. That will take you into summer. Now there are numerous climbers and ramblers to choose from. Roses are very adaptable, but choose a variety that has disease free foliage able to resist black spot, mildew and rust. Chemicals available at garden centres have to be very safe for public use so are usually quite dilute and do not always work effectively unless you spray at fortnightly intervals and each spray does not get washed off with rain soon after application.

My favourite autumn climber for any wall is the Firethorn, Pyracantha Orange Glow, though there are several yellow and orange berried forms.

Fruit bushes

Redcurrants and gooseberries can be trained as cordons on an east or west wall, but keep your south facing walls and fences for those fruit that can benefit from more sunshine.

Apples and pears trained as fans or espaliers thrive on a south wall, but so also do figs, cherries, peaches and the vine Vitis vinifera Brant. The vine needs support for its tendrils to hold onto. It has small but very edible fruit and brilliant autumn colour.

All of the fruit trained against walls require pruning specific to their individual needs to control growth, expose fruit to the sun and ripen up shoots to fruit the following year.

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