Saturday 23rd June, 2018
Hi
Modern roses
What does your taste in roses say about you, well I don't know the answer to that but I do know that most tend to like a style of rose flower... but of course there are those that just love them all. Take a look at what I would call the classic bloom, being the Hybrid tea (HT) or for the want of a better description, are like the romantic single bloom one would buy from a florist. If I can generalise here a little, then HT's are more of a formal bloom, I always think of them at their best when they peak as that perfect bud shaped flower!!!
A traditional HT would typically sport one bloom per stem but I find that some of the more recently bred ones often have more than this. I guess if you were growing these for that perfect bud and flower, perhaps for a show, that you could remove the surplus buds. HT's also tend to have much fuller, high centred, buds that would have a higher petal count than say Floribundas. More petals tend to keep the flower together for longer and hence why HT's are often used for cut flowers.
We often get asked about roses that are found in Florist bouquets and these are not suitable as garden roses. The reason being is cut flower roses need to be grown in crop houses and don't stand the harshness of being outdoors in the garden.
I have to cover Floribundas (Fl) as these are quite similar to HTs but generally are cluster flowered, or have many buds per stem, and could be perhaps less formal than say the HTs.
Fl's usually have a lower petal count per bud and start of in clusters of high centre buds, opening out to mass effect. If you are looking for mass flower effect in the garden then Fls are pretty hard to beat for sheer display of blooms. In terms of floral work then these are for me as I can pick bunches of these blooms and literally shove them in a vase and have an awesome arrangement.
While on about Fls I should mention about
Patios which are really just smaller growing and also smaller size flowers than their cousins and are suitable for those smaller gardens.
Shrub rose
Shrub roses are roses that are more shrub like in form, say like a viburnum or hydrangea, that you would put in the garden. These tend to be modern roses and there are many forms of these like the Austins, Flower Carpets and of course roses that don't tend to fit in other categories or generations.
The old fashioned look of the modern generation of roses are those that have been bred by David Austin and are known as
Austin roses. These are modern shrub roses that have been crossed with true old roses and modern roses to give a free flowering old fashioned style of flower. I would suggest that Austin blooms are more informal in style exhibiting cupped or rosette forms with many petals. Many old fashioned roses have what I describe as drawn and quartered style, with a central button like eye and many of the Austins, because of their old genes, exhibit this style of bloom.
Then there are the shrub roses that have been bred for hardiness, free flowering and just straight out performance in the garden. The
flower carpets are a classic example and over the years there have been many new colours and shades of these very robust more carpeting style of rose.
Old roses
Now the thing with roses is that they have been around for centuries and over this time there are many periods of famous breeders putting together their own crosses and I guess that we could lump these all together in the catagory of Old Roses. I will name drop a few here starting with the
Albas, Chinas, Bourbons, Gallicas,
Damasks,
Hybrid Musks, Noisettes and Portlands and all of this gene pool will be in the modern roses of today. Each of these different generations of rose will exhibit different characteristics.
Albas tend to be large white flowering shrubs that have quite unique blue green foliage, China roses are responsible for the free flowering genes and china roses tend to have few thorns. Bourbon roses are the beginning of crosses with the china roses and some of these will repeat flower. Gallica roses are one of the most ancient species of the rose. Damask roses are summer flowering and are responsible for the fragrance that is added to perfumes. Hybrid Musks are more recent being from around 1913 and commonly small climbers that could be kept as large shrubs. Noisettes obviously french bred by a Mr Noisette and tend to be a group of repeat flowering climbers.
This year we have our biggest ever and most diverse collection of
80cm standard roses. If there is a rose you have always wanted to get in standard form but it hasn't been available then check them out this season as it is possibly the best year so far to find just the rose you want.
The first of the
new season fruit trees are now being potted so we will be sending out emails to those of you who have pre ordered them as fast as we can. Please don't stress if you haven't had an email yet for either your roses or fruit trees as it is early days yet and it does take some time for all the emails to be checked and sent. Be assured, it won t' be lost, it will just be that we have possibly been sitting on it for the last of the roses to be potted so we can send your whole order together, or with the quantity of pre-orders we may just not have gotten to it yet, but we will very soon.
The Waikato Rose Society are coming out to the nursery on the dates listed below to offer advice and knowledge about rose care and maintenance. Question and answer sessions will be held here at the nursery on a selection of morning and afternoon sessions. Whether you want to grow roses for show, just have an amazing display in the garden or want to ask about rose choices, then these are the guys that you want to catch up with.
These dates are in
facebook events, you can register you interest by emailing receiving@wairere.co.nz or show your interest on the event date you are coming to. Don't be shy, register your interest today.
Potting is going well, we have the bulk of the bush roses potted now and standards will finish next week. We are flat out sending emails to people with backorders. If you haven't received yours yet, please have patience, it will be close. If you have seen your rose on our website as in stock then you will know your email will be coming soon.
Shortest day is here - Last Call!
Starwberries Camarosa pretty much need to be planted now so get your
strawberries into the ground to allow you a fresh harvest of delicious fruit come spring. 10 plants per bundle at $9.99 per bundle. We can send you up to 5 bundles for only $8 freight.
Elephant and
Printanor garlic. The longest night is here so if you are one of the ones that like to plant garlic on the shortest day then you may have missed the boat but you do still have time to plant so get your garlic now.
So from here on in the days will get longer as we slide out of the winter solstice towards spring but of course first we have to get through winter. Today has been a gorgeous, clear, blue sky day here in Hamilton so hopefully it continues for the weekend. Hopefully some of the wetter areas will have some nice fine weather to help dry out. Of course clear night skies come with a frost so make sure you move those frost tender plants to cover if you can or throw some frost cloth over them to keep them snug. We have an excellent spray on product called
Vaporgard for added protection of your tender plants should you need it.
Have a great week.
Lloyd, Harry and the Wairere Team
Make it a Wairere weekend where even GNOMES know that gardening's not a drag.
