Flower power

Late winter is a great time to be adding colour to the garden

If you love the look of a rose bush smothered in showy blooms during the warmer months or can’t resist inhaling their gorgeous fragrance, it’s not too late to plant a brand new rose.

Planting

August is your last chance to plant bare-rooted roses, which you will see in your local garden centre in plastic bags. Immediately remove it from the bag and pop it in a bucket of water for a few hours before planting.

You’ll also find a tempting range of potted roses in garden centres, which can be planted year round.

To get the best from your roses, find a sunny spot in a garden bed that receives at least six hours’ sun a day, or somewhere that you can position a good-sized, well-drained pot (at least 30cm in diameter).

Roses also do best in a location with good air flow, which helps to minimise diseases.

Water the new rose in with Yates Thrive Natural Seaweed Tonic to

encourage healthy new root growth.

Late-winter tips

As roses begin to wake up from their winter slumber, it’s time to start feeding them to support the flurry of new stems and leaves that will develop over the coming weeks.

In late August when you see new buds start to swell, apply some Thrive Roses & Flowers Liquid Plant Food around the root zone. This is a complete plant food that contains the right balance of nutrients to promote healthy leaves as well as encouraging lots of beautiful blooms.

Give your shrub roses a good prune, down to around knee height, and remove any dead stems. Spray with Lime Sulfur before new leaves emerge to break the scale insect pest cycle before spring arrives.

Gerberas

Gerberas have such bright happy flowers, with their blooms sitting high and proud on upright stems and making a very popular and striking cut flower.

Yates Gerbera Colour Mix contains a colourful blend of pink, white, yellow and light to dark orange flower colours.

Growing tips:

Gerberas are perennial plants that can be grown in both pots and garden beds in a sunny position that gets at least six hours’ sun a day.

When grown from seed, gerberas do take a while to flower (30-50 weeks), but they are a very economical way to grow lots of plants.

Start seeds off in trays of Black Magic Seed Raising Mix by just lightly pressing seeds into the surface (the seeds require light to germinate).

Water by misting and cover the tray with some plastic cling film to help retain moisture.

Seedlings will emerge in two to three weeks and can be transplanted when they are large enough to handle. Two weeks later, start feeding with Thrive Flower & Fruit Soluble Fertiliser, which will encourage healthy foliage and lots of gorgeous flowers.

Trim off spent flowers regularly to promote a longer flowering period.