The Council Gardener - all about roses

27 July 2018

In this vlog, The Council Gardener Danny Shand is all about the roses!

Below are the actions for growing beautiful roses, and a list of the plants mentioned.

Remember, gardening is all about growing, so let's grow together!

Roses

Hybrid tea roses - 3 to 4 four strong stems. Not as bushy as a floribunda. Thicker stems that support large single buds.

Floribunda rose - Latin for many flowers. Lots of little stems that produce many smaller buds. Looks a lot for bushy like than hybrid tea.

Fertilising - always use a general-purpose fertilizer up until the bud has formed. This is to make both roots and stems strong enough to produce a beautiful larger flower.

Mulching - always use an organic material to mulch roses, such as composted garden waste or leaf mould. Using bark will starve the rose as nitrogen will rise to break down the bark before feeding the rose.

Pests

Aphids greenfly/whitefly/blackfly - small sap sucking insects. They colonize/clump together on the underside of leaves and buds. Sucking the energy and distorting the leaves and buds weaking the plant. Also capable of making the plant more prone to deceases.

Treatment - chemical sprays from garden centre. Natural sprays such as pyretheum. Biological is ladybirds, ladybirds larvae (young), eat all aphids. Also you can wash aphids away and use a washing up liquid solution to prevent them from sticking to plants.

Thrips - similar to aphids but a lot smaller and near impossible to see. Only time you know you have them when damage is done. You will first notice that your leaves are curling almost folding over. They then suck energy out buds causing them to distort.

Treatment - some chemical sprays in the garden centre. Natural sprays such as pyrethuem but not as effective as on aphids. No real biological method if outdoors. Using a garlic spray and fairy solution in a two-form attack will work but you will have to forgo scent for it to work.

Diseases

Dieback - when a stem or stems has not grown after pruning and has died so far down the stem. This is causes by bad pruning, frost or nutrient issues. Treatment - remove dead wood back to living growth or remove stem all together. If left, diseases such as coral spot nectaria will set it and eventually attack the living growth.

Mildrew - powdery substance on rose bud. Talcum-like in appearance. Can cause bud not to open. Treatment= best solution is to remove bud. Make sure plant is well ventilated.

Blackspot - black spot forms on leaves. Eventually all leaves will yellow and fall off, leaving bare plant with just buds. Treatment - remove all infected leaves and dispose of them carefully as you can spread spores. Make sure plant is weed free and well ventilated as this can stop spores spreading.

Soft wood cuttings

Make sure plant is soft wood, This is done by checking new growth to be flexible and fleshy. Cuttings are to be taken early mornings as plant has most water/nutrients in it. Only take soft new growth. Try to take stems that are not away to flower as they will root more easily this is difficult but don't worry if you can only get flowering stems.

Take at least 10cm of cuttings or two to three nodules down, place cuttings in a plastic resealable bag this is to keep them moist until you propagate them. From tip cut underneath the second nodule with a clean sharp blade. Remove leaves from nodules apart from tip.

If it has a flower, remove this and half the tip leaves to stop photosystheis and make plant focus on rooting. Dip bottom nodule in rooting gel as hormones will promote roots to grow plus most rooting gels have a fungicide to help root from rotting. Now either place cuttings in propagator or in a pot with a plastic bag over it. Remember to air cuttings at least 3 times a week for 15minutes. In 10 months, you should have your very own plants.