Hello dear rose friends … here’s a pinch and a punch for the LAST day of the month – another one gone and yep, our roses are blooming. They’re so healthy and robust – inviting you to come and take a look at how beautiful they are and the outstanding queen this week is
FIONA’S WISH with her heavenly fragrance and stunning HUGE blooms demanding attention from the moment you step out of your car … gawd, what a rose …
Following on from last week’s Rose Rambler, the sharing continues and we are all benefiting from the input of readers – Noeline has this great contribution which will please those of you who are plagued by rosellas and other birds who strip your roses …
“Hello Diana, I am sending you the following email to let you know about the success I’m having with keeping the rosellas away from my roses. I’ve had it on each rose bush (a strip of about half a metre) for 3 weeks now and believe it to be the best protection ever. Believe me I’ve tried every other conceivable device. The tape is strong enough to withstand further use. Very effective especially when the sun is out and a slight breeze is blowing. The bright colours are amazing. I can send you a sample strip if you would like. I did forget to put the tape on one standard bush and the birds only just found it a couple of days ago. Threw my shoe at it and put a piece of the tape on it and they haven’t been back since. Regards … Noeline”
Ok, so what is the product Noeline is successful with? Here’s the information you need …
Holographic Tape
When exposed to sunlight the tape reflects multi-coloured light in a random chaotic manner and is available from:
Bird Gard Pty Ltd, PO Box 737, Cotton Tree QLD 4558
Tel: 07 5443 6344
darren@birdgard.com.au
It would be most interesting to know if this tape, when attached to roses where there is possibly some night light may deter possums … might be worth a try for those gardeners who despair at the destruction of the rose garden due to possums – let’s keep this conversation alive.
Here’s another tip: Yvonne has the snails stumped … “Even the snails (of which there were many) are few and far between as we now use coffee grounds around the plants, and snails and slugs do not like coffee grounds. The lemon tree was being attacked by snails and the fruit skins were snail marked. So, out came the coffee grounds. We sprinkled it around the tree and have not been bothered with snails on the lemon tree since that time.”
GRA’S GARBLE …
We’ve been collecting coffee grinds from a local Café since we left our own Café at Kilmore … we KNOW the coffee grinds are an amazing addition to the organic garden because worms absolutely LOVE them!!!
Q. Where do ants go for their holidays? A. Fr-ants of course!… laugh till you cry.
So that you get great, CORRECT information to assist you in your quest for caring for our environment by employing organic management principles in all aspects of your garden adventures, please keep these addresses handy and sign up for their very useful, extremely informative newsletters: www.sgaonline.org.au
www.ecoorganicgarden.com.au
SGA is Sustainable Gardening Australia with whom our business is registered as a Sustainable Garden Centre while OCP are the creators of our eco-friendly rose management products.
RECYCLING …
Don’t throw away any old shoes or boots. Get the kids to drill holes in the soles, paint them all the colours of the rainbow, then fill them with quality potting mix and plant flower seedlings or herbs for a beautiful display. Ask this joke while you’re busy helping them:
Q. Why did the picture go to jail? A. Because it was framed.
GET LOTS MORE ROSES – TRIM THE SPENT FLOWERS …
To get more blooms as soon as the flowers finish, continually trim 30cm of stem and I guarantee you will have new roses within 50 days. Some people call this ‘summer pruning’ but if you do it at least once a week throughout the flowering season, you’ll have a continuous display of beautiful flowers and keep the rose bushes neat. Remove any dead-wood when you see it as this will make the winter pruning a whole lot easier.
APHIDS …
We highly recommend that you NOT squish them with your fingers because you will very likely squish all the beneficial insects that are there trying to eat them!!!
Take a look at these pics … plump ladybird and
Lacewings (very fine-winged insects) voraciously ingesting aphids
If you have a severe outbreak of aphids, apply ECO-OIL (suffocates mainly the larval stage) with ECO-NEEM (starves both adults and young) at 3-5 day intervals until the blighters are under control but WILL NOT HARM all the beneficial insects!!!
Enjoy these last magnificent weeks of spring and do come and visit on this beautiful Victorian holiday weekend for the ‘race that stops the Nation’ … Melbourne Cup, for us, is all about the glorious roses but if you back a horse, may you back the winner …
~ Cheers from Diana, Graham and Mooi
