Classic beauties
Enjoyed and planted in Victorian gardens, garden balsam and rose remain firm favourites with gardeners today, writes Stephanie Choo
THEY’RE classic beauties that have stood the test of time. With their richly-coloured blooms in many resplendent shades, they definitely bring plenty of warmth, vibrancy and texture wherever they’re planted.
GARDEN BALSAM
Known by vernacular names ― garden balsam, lady’s slipper and rose balsam ― Impatiens balsamina is an annual native to India and south-eastern Asia.
This member of the Balsaminaceae plant family features trumpet-shaped flowers that are borne in clusters close to the stems. They attract and feed visiting birds and butterflies.
The old varieties bloom in single flowers in rose-red. Introductions from the 19th-century are fully double flowers. The camellia-flowered varieties bear flowers resembling a rose.
Today, garden balsams of many colours are available. You can find them in violet, red, orange, white, yellow and bi-coloured in mottled form.
Their height can vary from 30 to 90cm, depending on the variety. They develop into bushy mounds of succulent stems and serrate lance-shaped medium-green leaves. Due to its upright growing habit, garden balsam is perfect for filling centres of flower beds.
The colours that the flowers come in make the garden balsam ideal for a cosy cottage-style garden. The plant’s ripened
seed pods fascinate curious children when they explode with the slightest touch, hence the name “touch-me-not”.
The seeds will sprout a few days after falling onto the ground. Once seedlings have developed their first set of leaves, you can feed with any diluted liquid fertiliser that’s high in phosphorus to help the plant grow healthy roots. You will need to water the young plants regularly.
GARDEN ROSE
With its beautiful colours, the Rosa spp is certainly wonderful to look at and it’s a great candidate for a traditional cottage garden. The genus Rosa consists of over 100 species of the Rosaceae family, with most being natives to Asia.
Cultivated roses were brought to Europe from China around the late 18th century. They are ancestors to thousands of prolific modern-day cultivars. Their blooms appear in shades of white, yellow, orange, pink, red and in a combination of colours.
Sprawling types can be used as ground covers while upright shrubs are ideal as hedges. Miniature and smaller ones are good for planting beds, borders and pots. Almost all of these woody perennial vines or shrubs have sharp prickles. Those thorns are said to protect the blooms of various sizes and shape from being eaten by foraging animals.
Fragrant whorls of ruffled rose petals can be used to make perfumes. Bees get pollens from blooms that are more open like the semi-double types.
Too much rain can cause black spots on their toothed or smooth-edged leaves. The fungus thrives in wet conditions so keep foliage dry by moving the plant to a spot that’s airy and receives plenty of sunlight.
Remove and discard all infected leaves before applying a fungicide that controls black spots to keep the fungus from spreading. In fact, you can apply the same kind of fungicide regularly to help deter future attacks.
Deadhead and cut back as often as possible to maintain plant health, promote vigorous stem growth and control the height and spread of the shrub. Roses are heavy feeders so you’ll need to apply a rose fertiliser regularly.