A Good Time for the Roses

A GOOD TIME FOR THE ROSES

February is often blessed with drier weather and clear sunny days as the days get longer, and although we nearly always get a covering of snow, it is very refreshing to find a good gardening task to keep you active and enjoying a bit of fresh air. We seem to be back into mild winters so roses will take advantage of this and will want to start growing, so do not delay the essential task of pruning. Once this is completed we can do our soil cultivations, feeding, planting and replacements and tying in climbers to their supports.

If you go by the book you should not prune during frosty weather, but if you don’t have a book don’t worry about a wee bit of frost or a covering of snow. The roses will be fine and clearing out the old wood, removing weak growth and trimming over vigorous shoots will keep the bushes healthy. Rose pruning on a frozen soil was always an easy task as the soil never got muddy or damaged and I’ve never seen any ill effects on my bushes.

Pruning

Floribunda, hybrid tea, patio roses and other types of a similar nature all get the same treatment. Start by removing any dead wood and weak non flowering shoots. Then try to cut back any older shoots if they have a younger shoot growing up from the base which can be retained to replace it.

If the bush is vigorous and has a lot of stems thin some of these out especially in the centre to allow air to circulate freely when it is in full leaf. Finally cut back all remaining shoots to an outward pointing bud taking off about one third of the shoot. This is a generalisation as all varieties have slightly differing growth patterns, but the principles are good for most bush types.

Shrub roses are different and do not need intensive pruning as they are usually planted where they have plenty of room to grow, so just cut off straggly shoots to keep the bush tidy, otherwise let it grow as it wishes.

Ramblers are often trained along fences or up walls. They flower on long shoots produced the previous year. After flowering these shoots are removed right back to the base and the new young non flowering shoots are tied in as they produce the following years flowers.

Climbers are pruned the same way as bush roses, but are allowed to form a semi permanent framework against a wall or fence. This framework continually has older wood removed to allow younger shoots to replace them but over several years.

Replanting

There are always new varieties to try out and nowadays with precious little chemicals available to the amateur to control diseases many of our previous great varieties are not worth trying as they are too prone to blackspot, mildew and rust. I have thrown out many of my favourites such as Golden Showers, L D Braithwaite and Blue Moon as blackspot virtually wiped them out. Rose growers say we should spray every two weeks throughout the growing season, but we do not have access to the same chemicals as commercial growers, then what if we are on holiday, or suffer wet summers where the spray just gets washed off by the next shower before it has a chance to work.

There are many varieties with strong healthy foliage, so grow these and forget the others. Roses with strong colours are back in fashion so let us hope the breeders are giving us healthy new rose varieties.

If you are replacing roses from an existing border you need to remove the old soil and put in fresh soil to prevent rose sickness. Always cultivate deep and add compost or manure to the ground before planting.

Cultivation and Feeding

After pruning give a dressing of fertiliser then add a heavy mulch of compost to conserve moisture and keep down weeds. Worms will slowly incorporate this into the soil where it will break down and improve the soil fertility. Roses have a lot of feeding roots near the surface so I prefer not to cultivate existing beds other than for weeding.

Plant of the week.  Snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis)

By tradition it is the snowdrops that let you know winter is ending and spring is just around the corner. However we can no longer use them as our guide. Last year’s winter was so long and cold that snowdrops didn’t flower till mid February, while this year it has been so mild that they started to flower in December, but it is still really fantastic to see the first garden flowers appear.

A few years ago I wanted to paint them as they stretched above a carpet of snow into the sunshine. I have a large drift of snowdrops planted among my red stemmed cornus. I needed to take a photo looking up into the flowers, so had to lie on a sheet of cardboard over the snow with the camera at ground level to get the perfect picture.

Neighbours thought I had gone loopy, but my photos resulted in some excellent paintings.

Snowdrops enjoy growing in a woodland setting with moist soil rich in humus, but need good drainage. They will grow in sun or shade and are easy to propagate by splitting up overcrowded clumps and replanting into drifts just after flowering.

The best local places to see them are at Cambo Estate, Kingsbarns in Fife, and Gagie House at Duntrune just north of Dundee.

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Cut Flowers

GROW YOUR OWN CUT FLOWERS    

 I love to see an attractive garden with a show of flowers in some part in every month of the year. This is quite possible with a wee bit of knowledge of plants and some careful planning. However the garden is part of the home so many of the flowers end up in a vase, table decoration or grown in a pot for a colourful windowsill.

This is where I am often very unpopular as many people feel that flowers are for picking. They certainly do brighten up the home, but at the expense of my outdoor displays, so I have always set aside a part of my garden or allotment specifically to grow cut flower for the house. This saves the loss to my outdoor flower beds.

The range of plants suitable for cut flowers is immense and can cover every month in the year. Suitable flowers can be tall like gladioli for a bold impressive vase or small like pansies for a table decoration in a small bowl using oasis to keep them moist. The vase or bowl is often enhanced with some greenery using foliage from plants not necessarily linked to the cut flower.

Flowers by the season

Spring belongs to the flowering bulbs of daffodils, narcissus, tulips and iris.

In summer there is plenty to choose from with roses, carnations, gladioli, sweet peas, dahlias, lilies and chrysanthemums.

Autumn cut flowers include the later chrysanthemums that may need some protection, Michaelmas daisies, and again roses that just keep flowering if they can get a bit of warm sunshine.

In winter we might begin to struggle a bit for a wide range, but shrubs such as Viburnum fragrans can help us out for table decorations, and some plants such as perpetual carnations given some greenhouse conditions will fill the gap. A good table decoration for Christmas can be made with a few red carnations in oasis surrounded with yellow jasmine. Freesias are very welcome in winter, but need a glasshouse for protection. Late blooming chrysanthemums can be grown in pots or wire baskets outdoors then brought inside under glass to complete their flowering up till Christmas.

Herbaceous and annuals

Many herbaceous plants are tall and strong and will last well when used for cut flower. Flag iris are my favourite as the flowers are bright, bold and scented. Pyrethrum and Doronicums are for the early season and phlox, Japanese anemone and michaelmas daisies for late summer.

Good annual plants grown from seeds include snapdragons, larkspur, helichrysum, cornflower, sweet William and the scented stocks.

Bulbs and corms

Daffodils, narcissus and tulips can usually be found a spot out of the way under some shrubs or even under a fruiting bramble. Their seasons work well together. I grow my alliums and lilies under the shrubs of my coloured stemmed winter border and my Azalea beds where they all live in a happy association.
Many Daffodil and tulip bulbs start off in pots in late summer to be forced outdoors then brought under glass to complete their flowering. If the pots are small they are fine indoors, but sometimes the flowers are cut if the pots are too big.

Freesias can either be used as pot grown or cut flower started as seed or small bulbs. They will need a glasshouse but the blooms make excellent cut flowers with a heady scent.

Favourites

Roses have a long season with National Trust a deep red with perfectly formed heads, but unfortunately no scent. Ingrid Bergman, another red, is vigorous, produces many flowers and is scented. Margaret Merril is a white with pink blush and scented, as is Pure Bliss a pale pink rose. Golden Celebration is a good yellow strong grower with scent. 
Chrysanthemums have a wide range of colours available and may be grown as sprays or as single blooms on a stem. Sprays are easy to grow and require no disbudding, but decorative, incurves and reflex blooms need summer disbudding to leave the centre bud to develop into a large flower. I grow mine in a two foot wide bed and support the flowers with six inch mesh fencing wire held firm between four posts. As the plants grow the wire is raised up the end posts. You can plant out the bed as one plant in each six inch square mesh and grow the flower on one stem
without stopping the main shoot. This will make it flower earlier than one which is stopped and branched.
Carnations are long lasting and many have a deep clove scent. Grow them in a bed or single row and support the flowers with canes. Border carnations and pinks are grown outdoors for summer flowering, but perpetual flowering carnations can be flowered all year round in a glasshouse.
Dahlias are excellent as a cut flower but take up a lot of space. If you grow them for a garden display there is usually plenty of flowers for a good show and cut flowers. There is a wide range of colours and types though
decoratives and cactus are best for cut flower.
Gladioli are great value and very easy to grow. I add a few new colours every year, but save the corms from year to year. After autumn cleaning of lifted corms I select out all the biggest bulbils and sow them in a broad row to grow into new corms. Many flower in their second year.
Sweet Peas are very versatile. They can be grown up a six foot net, on a tall fence or traditionally in a double row supported with six foot canes. For a garden display they are best grown from seed in autumn or early spring, tipped after two to four leaves then after planting out left to grow unchecked. For larger blooms for cut flower grow then on a single stem tied to a cane and pinch out all tendrils and sideshoots. Sweet peas grow best a well prepared double dug trench, manured in both spits. Give a dressing of fertiliser before planting and more feeding in mid summer.

Always cut off all seed pods as they sap the strength of the plant at the expense of flowers.

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A bed of Roses

 A BED OF ROSES    

If your garden was very small and you could only grow a few plants, there is a good chance that a rose would be selected. They have perfect flowers, scent, are easy to grow with a wee bit of knowledge and can last for years.

Last February I covered some basic thoughts on roses as a pleasant way to brighten up the long cold winter.

Previous articles can be seen on my gardening blog at scottishartistandhisgarden.blogspot.com

We are now in mid summer, according to the calendar I believe, and the roses are back in full flower again for the second flush. The first flush had a lot of promise and was quite brilliant for a week or so, but it is hard to put on a fantastic show in a Scottish monsoon.

It certainly sorts out the favourites, and tests their ability to survive blackspot.

I have been fairly ruthless in grubbing out anything that is prone to disease, though it is hard to lose some of your favourites. Margaret Merril is a gorgeous white with terrific scent, but does get a bit of blackspot. She is too good to lose so I resort to some chemical spraying, (Systhane containing Myclobutanil) whenever there is a couple of dry days in between showers.

Types of roses

Demand for roses has kept the breeders busy for years. We now have every colour we need and a rose for every situation. They can be planted in beds as bushes, borders as taller shrubs grown with minimal pruning, as climbers and ramblers along fences, pergolas or trained up walls, and for the very small garden there is a wide choice of patio roses. These may be small, but they are perfectly formed.

Breeders must now turn there attention to bringing back more scent in new roses. Scent was a low priority in the rush to extend a new range of colours, but now people have patios and spend time relaxing around the garden, scent is a must have. The other breeders priority must now be to create a plant with health and vigour. If the changing climate is to be milder and wetter, this will favour the build up and spread of diseases, and as most effective chemicals have been withdrawn, the gardener has no means of combating disease. The only answer left is to dig out any plants prone to disease and only grow resistant types. This does mean the loss of many past favourites such as Golden Showers, Blue Moon and the old English shrub rose L D Braithwaite which had lovely deep red flowers.

Favourite bush and shrub roses

This is always a personal thing as everyone has their own favourites and as roses last for years it is not always feasible to keep trying new varieties.

National Trust is my best red rose with perfectly shaped flowers held upright on strong healthy shoots. However it has no scent, but E H Morse has great scent and excellent deep red flowers. Another great red rose is the very vigorous and highly scented Ingrid Bergman.

Julie Goodyear is my best yellow with Arthur Bell nearly just as good, but Julie has the vigour and more flowers. Graham Thomas, a tall shrub, has taken over from Golden Showers as my yellow climber, as it is not defoliated with blackspot. I am very sorry to lose Golden Showers, as it had brilliant deep golden flowers, and was very prolific but with climate change and withdrawal of chemicals it could not survive blackspot attacks.

Great pink roses are numerous from Silver Lining to Perfecta (a very old but reliable variety), then for scent the deep carmine Wendy Cussons is hard to beat. For the perfect bloom choose Myriam if you can find it. Dearest is a great pink floribunda. Pink shrub rose favourites include Lavender Lassie, Ispahan and Wisley.

Iceberg was always my favourite white floribunda and Margaret Merril a brilliant scented white hybrid tea.

Picadilly is hard to beat as a bicolour and has healthy disease free foliage and Rose Gaujard a lovely pink/white bicolour

New roses are prolific, so todays favourites will quickly be replaced by another, but it is always good to try out something new.

Favourite Climbers

My best red climbing rose at present is Dublin Bay, but it has no scent. Climbing Ena Harkness is a terrific red with well formed and scented hybrid tea shaped flowers. As a bush rose its failing was always a weak head which hung down. This trait is a distinct advantage in a climbing rose as you can look up into the full blooms.

Gertrude Jekyll has to be my best pink with very scented flowers with the Old English rose shape.

Climbing Iceberg is a great white, but suffers mildew too much, so it will never compete with the very old favourite Mme Alfred Carrier. This is very vigorous and needs a lot of space to grow. This noisette rose was bred in France and introduced in 1879 and is still in great demand.

Summer cultivation

Dead heading once flowers have finished is essential for appearance as well as preventing the bushes from spending their energy producing seeds at the expense of flowers.

Keep the soil weed free and give a mulch of compost in spring to conserve moisture.

Use a good pesticide and fungicide to prevent any build up of greenfly or diseases. All of these chemicals available at garden centres are now very safe and environmentally friendly.

The pesticides previously available to control all the garden problems are now all off the shelf.

Climbing roses usually benefit from some summer pruning to cut back flowered shoots to a strong bud that will grow and give some late flowers. There is usually a lot of weak and blind shoots that can be removed to allow more light and air into the centre to ripen up remaining shoots.

Tie in any straggling shoots so they do not get broken.

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Summer Flowering Shrubs

 SUMMER FLOWERING SHRUBS

There is a flowering shrub for every month of the year, and in every size from ground cover like the Rock Roses, Helianthemum to those  reaching small tree size, like the Eucryphia. Many are scented like the Philadelphus and others invaluable for climbing up trellis, fences, walls and old tree trunks such as climbing roses and honeysuckle.

The garden is enjoyed all year round and as spring flowers are usually plentiful, it is a good idea to make sure there is still room for those summer flowering shrubs.

The larger ones can provide screening and shelter around perimeters and patios. Some, such as Philadelphus, make excellent lawn specimens with the added advantage of a rich exotic perfume.

The Dundee Parks were always a brilliant place to learn all about shrubs as there wasn’t many that we didn’t grow. The nursery at Camperdown park was where we learnt how to propagate and grow them, and then in numerous other parks and outdoor landscapes we were taught how to prepare the ground, planting, spacing and after care.

However, forty odd years ago, shrub beds may have covered vast areas of park and open space land, but their function was more for weed control and easy maintenance, and to provide the gardeners with a job in winter when work was scarce. All shrubs, no matter what type, got a winter haircut at chest height. You soon became very competent at cutting cubes and balls, but pruning to induce flowering was a no go area. We have now moved on.

The design of planted areas and the selection of plants is now in the hands of our landscape architects who endeavour to select the most suitable plants for each situation and allow them to grow to their natural size. The planted areas must be functional but also attractive.

In our own gardens we must check on the ultimate size of a shrub at the selection stage so it does not outgrow its allotted space. That is a lot easier to say than practise since there are so many “must have” plants, but our garden size is limited.

Large shrubs

Eucryphia is probably a small columnar tree, but can be a shrub size for many years.

It is very reliable with a mass of white flowers in mid summer.

Buddleia is another large shrub, but is pruned to six inches from the ground every winter. It can easily grow six to eight feet in one summer depending on weather and produces a large flower spike in a range of colours, though my favourite was always the dark purple Black Knight.

For wild life lovers, it really does earn its common name of the Butterfly Bush.

Philadelphus has single or double white scented flowers in mid summer and will grow quite large. Give it plenty of room, and very little pruning and enjoy its perfume.

Escallonia, weigela and deutzia are all medium sized shrubs with white or pink to deep purple flowers. Escallonias are evergreen.

Shrub roses come in all sizes, and colours and very many are highly scented. They like deep fertile clay soils.

Low and ground cover shrubs

Hypericum, Spiraea, Choisya, Senecio and Potentilla are all very hardy and easy to grow. Hypericum Hidcote will grow up to four foot, but Hypericum calycinum, the Rose of Sharon at one foot in height is a very useful ground cover plant. However keep a look out for leaf rust.

Cistus has beautiful white to deep pink very delicate looking flowers, but needs a poor dry soil. It did not like our hard winter. Many of my Cistus were severely cut back by the cold last winter.

Fuchsia Mrs Popple is normally quite tough, but did get cut back by our winter weather.

It normally grows up to five feet tall, but at this moment in time, mine are rapidly recovering to two feet and will just keep growing hopefully. The first flowers are now out.

Lavender is almost a must for every garden, whether grown as a culinary herb, or just to enjoy its blue flowers in mid summer. The blue gray foliage has a gorgeous scent and the plant is perfect for edging borders or for a dry spot with poor soil. Senecio is also perfect for a sandy seaside garden.

Helianthemums and summer flowering heathers are more ground cover plants for the front of borders and both will smother weeds once they get established. My favourite heather is Calluna H.E.Beale with bright pink flower spikes in late summer.

Climbers

There is always room for a few climbers in every garden, but which ones do you choose.

Solanum crispum has potato like flowers and can be very vigorous. It is very attractive in flower, but it produces berries that are highly poisonous.

Eccremocarpus scaber is an evergreen with orange tubular flowers. It can be difficult to get established, but then quite reliable.

Clematis and Honeysuckle need something to clamber through, both coming in many colours, but the honeysuckle has an outstanding perfume.

Climbing roses also come in numerous colours, heights and scents, but will need a support to be tied into.

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Pottering Around

 POTTERING AROUND

Writing a gardening article ten days in advance of publication has its disadvantages. After surviving a really bad winter which killed out many plants, the garden readjusted itself as good growing weather prevailed for a couple of months. Seed sowing, planting, soil preparations and weeding were all back on schedule and I even had time to test the sun lounger. Everything was going so well that it was well worthy of a good gardening article, “Perfect Weather for Gardening”

Fate had other ideas and I now know how Michael Fish felt. The day before my article appeared the gales arrived and blew half the garden away. Good job this is Dundee, as no-one took me to task on my perfect gardening weather. Trees were blown down, my hanging baskets blew off the walls, plum trees lost half their branches, and the end of my greenhouse exploded as the winds bent the structure. Courgettes and pumpkins outside to harden off got blown out of their pots, delphiniums were flattened and any plant with soft spring leaves got shredded including climbing roses, young saskatoon plants, vegetable plants in boxes, shrubs and my new cherry tree and mature peach tree.

However, our unpredictable weather then gave us two days of heatwaves followed by a massive temperature drop turning my greenhouse tomatoes blue as they now have a well ventilated end with no glass. Strawberries are all ripening but lack of warmth reduces the sweetness and softness.

I hope that when you are reading this weeks garden adventure I will be back up to date with tasks and start my pottering around with numerous pleasant wee jobs, interspersed with coffee breaks and wee seats in the baking hot sun.

The Garden

As one display ends another begins. It is now the herbaceous border that is providing the colour with a combination of bright scarlet oriental poppies and blue flag iris. The gales had no effect on them but my new cherry tree, already suffering from an attack of black fly got its leaves shriveled, as did my plum and peach trees.

Poppy seed sown in many bare areas is germinating strongly and promises to give a good display.

My climbing roses, Dublin Bay and Gertrude Jekyll lost half their leaves in the gale, but are still putting on a decent display of flowers.

Cornus (dogwood), and Salix (willow) in the coloured stemmed winter border have both put on strong growth even after I cut them back right to ground level in March.

The Allotment

Strawberry picking is now a major task with a huge crop on all varieties. Gooseberries are also hanging heavily despite a thousand sawfly caterpillars mounting an attack when they thought I wasn’t looking. Black and red currants are also laden heavily with berries, already turning colour far earlier than normal. Nets will be needed for the red currants, but not the blacks.

Thinning turnips, swedes, chard and lettuce is at the two inches apart stage, but my thinly sown beetroot won’t be thinned till I can get thinnings as a baby beetroot crop. I do not thin leeks, spring onions or radish as they are sown thinly. Parsnips have germinated perfectly this year.

Chrysanthemums, sweet peas and gladioli planted out for cut flower and display have all established well as we have had good growing weather apart from the gales.

One area intended for a June planting of pumpkins, courgettes and cape gooseberries had been sown down with a mustard green manure crop to improve the soil fertility. This is now three feet tall and beginning to flower so it will be trampled down and dug in. It is best to dig with a trench so you can bury the green stems easily. They do not regrow once buried. It is an extra task, but has a really beneficial effect on the next crop. It is very worthwhile at the beginning of the growing period for late planting crops and also at the end after harvesting an early maturing crop such as broad beans, early potatoes, peas, salads and sweet corn.

The Greenhouse

Young vegetable plants left the greenhouse to get hardened off, then promptly returned as the gales blew in. Unfortunately it was too late for my courgettes and pumpkins which got shredded and blown out of their pots. I may be able to salvage some of them with a bit of luck.

Tomatoes were growing strongly, and flowering profusely before the gales blew out the glass. Now they are a bit cold but in time they should be ok.

Grapes now need constant pruning as every young shoot gets cut back to one leaf, as I can now see the bunches on the laterals growing from each rod.

Gardening Scotland

 

I have always attended this June event at Ingliston in Edinburgh as well as the Dundee Flower Show at Camperdown Park in September. However I now take a stand at these events to promote and sell my Saskatoon plants. They are becoming very popular as I was nearly totally sold out, only bringing back one plant. We also get the chance to look around other stands. Anna could not resist a gorgeous Peonia Doreen so it will now find a favoured spot in the garden. I really liked this Arisaema sikokianum, but was told it was a bit evil looking and a wee bit too much like a triffid, so I had to settle for a new rose for my garden hose. Life can be hard at times.

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