Take time to smell the roses
JUNE is the traditional time to plant new roses. Over winter, roses are dormant, readily available as bare-rooted plants and on sale at garden centres and hardware stores, so it’s a great time to get planting.
Their roots are bare of soil, which is why they are called “bare-rooted” roses, but the root system is protected with sawdust or sphagnum moss and wrapping.
Roses are also sold yearround in containers like other plants, but there’s a huge selection available during winter, meaning lots of choice.
For those who’ve spent the last few months with time to smell the roses, planting a fragrant rose this winter could be a way of marking this strange year.
Appealing selection
At this time of the year you have to buy roses on the promise of the label or the description in rose catalogues and on rose nursery websites.
Red roses tend to have a strong fragrance, but if red roses aren’t for your garden then there are many others with a good scent.
Scented roses that have stood the test of time, and quite literally come up smelling of roses, include Avon (red), Mr Lincoln (deep red), Double Delight (cream and red bi-colour), Just Joey and Apricot Nectar (both apricot) — and the unusually coloured Blue Moon (one of the first mauve to blue coloured roses).
Another key to a good perfume is choosing a rose that’s won an award for its with JENNIFER STACKHOUSE fragrance at the Australian National Rose Trials or at one of the international rose trials.
Awards are also made for health, vigour and overall performance.
One award winner available this year is a coral red rose called Fruity Parfuma, which has won international awards for both performance and perfume.
It has a strong fragrance described by its grower, Treloar Roses in Victoria, as having a scent of raspberries, rhubarb and a hint of patchouli.
It is part of a number of roses bred by German rose breeder Kordes and included in the Parfuma Collection.
All roses in this collection have been selected for their outstanding perfume and health.
New to the Parfuma Collection this year is a fragrant pinky mauve rose called Adorable, which also has a strong perfume. This mauve rose is so appealing that it won the People’s Choice award in the Australian National Rose Trials last year.
The right spot
Roses are long-term garden plants, so select the best spot for them to grow. Give plants a rich, neutral to slightly alkaline soil in a full sun position. Ensure that the position you choose won’t get overshadowed as the plants around them mature.
Remove all the packaging material before planting your new rose into its prepared hole.
Surround roses with organic mulch, such as lucerne or pea straw, to encourage healthy growth by reducing weed competition, retaining soil moisture and adding nutrients as the mulch breaks down.
If weeds do pop up, hand weed around them — don’t use herbicides as these can be very damaging to roses.
When new growth erupts in spring, your new rose will thrive with regular additions of rose fertiliser or well-rotted manures from spring into late summer.
While established roses are drought-tolerant, roses need regular deep watering as they come back into leaf and while they are flowering, particularly when the weather is hot and rain is scarce. Roses respond well to drip watering as this avoids wetting foliage, which can encourage disease.
Lightly prune roses in summer to encourage a flush of autumn blooms and give them a hard prune in late winter to encourage new growth and spring flowers.
Healthy choices
While selecting diseaseresistant rose varieties and providing good nutrients are both important for growing healthy roses, extra care is still needed and often necessary.
The good news is that there is a range of organic fungicides now available to control fungus diseases in roses.
These new-generation fungicides are based on potassium bicarbonate. EcoRose is a potassium bicarbonate fungicide registered for the control of black spot and powdery mildew in roses.
Rose pests such as scale and aphids can be controlled with oil-based products such as Eco-Oil. Copper or lime sulfur sprays applied after winter pruning, while plants are dormant, can also reduce pest and disease problems that occur later in the year.
Other controls include soap sprays that are registered for mites. Roses that fail to respond to organic treatments and improved care and growing conditions should be removed or relocated in winter to a spot where they’ll get better growing conditions to reduce pest and disease problems.