Hoping for a rosy outlook? Do the groundwork now
Rose nurseries and garden centres are taking orders for rose plants. Be in to ensure you get the varieties you want.
Prepare for successful blooms by investigating your conditions, site and aspirations. Then research and find a rose to match.
Get your planting site ready now by digging in well-rotted compost or animal manure into the soil.
The most popular roses for the 2016/17 season, as compiled by the NZ Rose Society
were as follows: ‘‘Paddy Stephens’’, ‘‘Hamilton Gardens’’ and ‘‘Solitaire’’. ‘‘Raspberry Ice’’, ‘‘My Mum’’, ‘‘Absolutely Fabulous’’. ‘‘Sally Holmes’’, ‘‘Graham Thomas’’, ‘‘LD Braithwaite’’. ‘‘Compassion’’, ‘‘Dublin Bay’’, ‘‘Red Flame’’. ‘‘Dusky Dancer’’, ‘‘Sugar Plum’’, ‘‘Leanne Lajoie’’. ‘‘Mutabilis’’, ‘‘Jean Ducher’’, ‘‘Cecile Brunner’’.
‘‘Margaret Merril’’, ‘‘Double Delight’’, ‘‘Aotearoa’’.
Roses aren’t only about flowers – choosing some for their hips brings colour right into winter. Good hip varieties include the moyesii and rugosa roses and their hybrids, such as ‘‘Roseraie de l’Hay’’, ‘‘Nymphenburg’’, and ‘‘Penelope’’.
Sow cold-weather lettuces, such as ‘‘Merveille des Quatre Saisons’’ and ‘‘Red Oak’’. This time of year they are best planted in full sun – they need at least four hours of sun a day.
Sow broad beans, aka fava beans. (Did you know that the ancient Greeks and Romans believed this oldest of cultivated beans clouded their vision? Perhaps they were on to something for favism is now recognised as a hereditary disease most prevalent in males of Mediterranean descent brought on by eating the beans.) Harvest Jerusalem artichokes. Also known as these North American members of the daisy family are best harvested just before they are to be eaten.
To stop diseases lingering, remove diseased and mummified fruit from fruit trees and throw out with your rubbish or green waste bins. Do not compost. Plant strawberries in fertile soil with a good dose of compost and fertiliser added. Water in well.
A spray of lime sulphur on deciduous ornamental and fruit trees will help control overwintering diseases and insects.
As chrysanthemums and dahlias finish flowering, cut back the plant by two-thirds.
Divide and replant hostas, if need be. They prefer damp yet well-drained soil.
Give roses a clean-up spray before leaf fall to control rust and black spot next season.
Continue to remove fallen leaves off paths, lawn and ponds. Don’t throw out, rather add to compost, turned into leaf mould, dug into bare ground, or used to mulch around hydrangeas, rhododendrons, azalea, citrus and other shallow-rooted plants.