A rose by any other name would smell as sweet
THE MONTH TO TAKE A BREAK FROM CARE AND ENJOY FLOWERS Choose your trees to attract endangered bees to your rose garden.
In the northern hemisphere, the first day of May is the beginning of spring and, since ancient times, it has been celebrated with festivals, featuring mayflowers and dog roses (Rosa canina), the common hedge rose in Europe that is the first rose to flower.
The five petals of the dog rose are its outstanding feature, the botanic fingerprint of the Rosacea family that includes apples, peaches and strawberries to name but a few. There are now many five petalled varieties which have their very own charm.
The dainty blooms dance in the wind, attract bees and butterflies and add an ethereal beauty to any garden. The best known single rose is “Dainty Bess”, which produces clusters of blooms with a strong pink on the reverse and a lighter pink on the inside with contrasting deep purple stamens and pistils. It was introduced in 1925, so is not far away from its centenary, yet is still a wonderful garden performer. Mayday has another meaning. It is an internationally recognised distress call, and in this context, can be applied to the plight of the bees.
Gardeners wanting to plant bee-friendly gardens should consider single roses. Bees are attracted to roses for their pollen but by the time a full-petalled rose opens, the pollen is old and the bees ignore it. With single roses, which have exposed stamens and pistils, the pollen is fresh and the bees love it. This long weekend, Ludwig’s Rose farm, north of Pretoria, will be featuring a special display of these roses. Most categories of roses include single roses and this is our pick: Of the climbing roses, “Cocktail” is a favourite, flowering throughout the season with bright orange-red blooms and a yellow eye. As a security barrier-hedge, “Rosa bracteata Macartney” (white petals with prominent golden stamens) covers up to 10 square metres, enveloping fences and walls.
It flowers from November into May and is superbly disease resistant. There are many single floribundas, the best known is Johannesburg Garden Club’, a neat shrub, growing about 1.1m high, covered with delicate soft coral coloured blooms. A gardener’s favourite, it produces an abundance of blooms. Use in pots, or in landscapes. A mutation (sport) of that rose is “Duncan’s Rose” with deep pink single blooms. “Yellow Butterfly” is another favourite because the blooms look like a flock of butterflies on the bush, is a neat little shrub, producing wave upon wave of blooms into winter. Excels in a container, as a specimen, a hedge or massed in huge landscape projects. Grows about 0.8m high. “Fortuna” is ideal for containers, being a compact floribunda with unmatched flower power.
The dense clusters of brilliant pink, five-petalled blooms weigh down the bush. The growth is slightly spreading but very neat and below knee height. “Simply Charming” is a stately chest high shrub that is never without its charming five petalled blooms of a very interesting dappled pink with prominent stamens in the centre.
This is the month to enjoy the roses without feeling bad if you decide to take a break from rose care. Blooms and buds on the rose bushes take much longer to open and fade and there is no need to dead head or groom. Watering can be reduced to once every two weeks, although it is not a problem to water more regularly if annual bedding plants have been planted in the rose bed for winter colour. The same applies to automatic irrigation systems.
For colour in-between the roses I recommend Iceland poppies. The low-growing leaves and tall, thin stems do not take away space and light when the roses are sprouting after pruning. For borders or edgings use winter flowering pansies, violas, compact snapdragons
For more information contact 012-544-0144 or email info@ ludwigs.roses.co.za or visit www. ludwigsroses.co.za or calendulas and alyssum in the warmer regions. Roses in the Lowveld that are still growing and flowering, do require more regular water and it will help to keep on spraying to maintain the show a bit longer.