What's going on?

Does not appear to be too much happening in the rose gardens around the Country. Or it appears nothing worth talking about.

We have been busy cutting our perennials back so they can grow back for a couple of garden club visits in June and September. Going to tackle some f the roses in a few weeks so we can have them looking good in June.

One thing I have found is the amount of off cuts we have had. We have burnt off three huge heaps of the stuff. Mainly larger salvias and branches from trees.

I dug out some of our rose cuttings as it had been wet and cooler so I thought it was safe. Next day it was 36 degrees and so we lost a few of the plants. The rest appear to ok with new shoots coming out. The rest of the plants are staying in the ground now until easter or so.

Not much else has happened. What's new with everyone else.

It's hot. (It's MARCH, it's supposed to be COOLER!) Nearly 2 weeks of 36-38C makes me grumpy. And I don't tend to do much except feed sheep and water the garden...

Would love some rain too!

Working on finding a new way to fertilize the gardens without going from rose bush to rose bush......I'm running into difficulties with pumps and injection systems trying to take fertilizers like go go juice, sea sol etc....they clog up the system.....

Next week start to prepare the bushes and grounds for the autumn State Championship on Mother's Day weekend........

Put in an order for bare root roses from Thomas For Roses - maybe 20 or so. I have some Zepherine Drouhin struck from cuttings - I'm waiting for cooler weather to move them out of my vegie garden. I have cuttings of Cousin Essie, Carabella, Maman Cochet, Rosette Delizy, Marie van Houtte, Safrano, Mutabilis Chinensis, General Gallieni and a few other teas that I can't remember unless I go out and look, and they all look good so far. I'm waiting for cooler weather to move them all. I made a mistake and planted the teas amongst my hybrid teas and floribundas and they simply get too big. I'm going to move them all to my boundary plantings.

Gary, your advice to plant cuttings of teas out in the open garden instead of in pots has really worked. Thank you. I forgot to say that I have maybe a dozen good sized seedlings that have just sprung up in the rose gardens too. I whacked them in pots while they were tiny and they're coming on well.

Nothing, by the look of the people logging on, there has only been 12 "looked or posted in the month" preceding Gary's post.
Maybe people don't grow roses anymore
Maybe we are a boring lot
Maybe people know enough about roses
Maybe this forum has run it's life

Maybe time for a Facebook page?

This has been done before Barbara. If they do not come here, why would they go to FB. In general people are not posting.

I've watched a lot of forums die because they didn't go to Facebook. The trouble with forums is that need to deliberately go into them. Everybody goes on Facebook and it's presented to you - you don't need to go look for anything. I've watched it with dog forums too. They die because people are lazy.

Maybe it is just the time of year. I am waiting for it to cool down to do a summer prune.  Maybe a bit of a contradiction in terms but there is a bit if a lull right now. Once the trim and tidy up is done then it is show time in April and May.

These are some of the multitude of Facebook Rose groups.
Australian Rose News, Views and Cultivation
Victoria State Rose Garden
Celebration Of Old Roses
Heritage Roses New Zealand
Rose Society Of South Australia
New Zealand Rose Society
Roses Of Oceania & South Africa
The Heritage Roses Group
Roses Anciennes - Vintage Roses
My Friends Who Like Roses Anciennes - Vintage Roses
The Rose Society Of New South Wales

Well I certainly haven't had much luck in getting any information needed. It's very disappointing that people are turning away from forums.

crlyn wrote:Well I certainly haven't had much luck in getting any information needed. It's very disappointing that people are turning away from forums.

We will do our best to appease you.....

Oh, sorry neptune I wasn't having a go at anyone in this forum. I just think such a beautiful flower like the rose, you want so much to be able to grow them successfully, but you just can't get the help to do that. I've only just found this forum, but as some of you have already said there's not much action, but good on all you have stuck by it.

Forums were so good getting to know people talking about the things your interested in, learning so much in so many different subjects.

Ok...summer prune over.....now to baby the roses for the next 40 odd days...... oh wait!....I forgot.....two weeks overseas....get back three days before autumn show....didn't plan that too well...

You do that every time before the shows John, bad timing.

The Lazy Rosarian wrote:You do that every time before the shows John, bad timing.

you would think I have learned by now.......but then again its those cheap flights....other commitments etc.... jeez...

Which way are you going this time John ?

For us it is tidy the garden(weed beds) up.
Finnish the rose order.
Work the new bed over again.
Prepare for our next cruise in May.

Going back to Bangkok, to visit the places we missed before, then down to Phuket to visit friends and then KL for wifeys shopping ....... oh ok....maybe I will do some toooooooo.....

Well if we are talking holidays, we are going to Tenterfield and then to Byron Bay for the annual golf game with all the blokes I grew up with in Caloundra.

Our 3-6 month trip through NSW, Victoria and Tassie is still a couple of years away.

There's a lot happening here, I'm getting out of all those unhealthy time wasting, labour intensive roses. The garbage bin goes out full weekly. Everything that sticks up in the ground is out so I can sit on my Greenfield 17HP and take what feels like a Sunday drive. Having had around 300 for several years I feel my stint at saving a lot of roses that should never have been saved in the first place has expired. Now I have the bad or is it good news out of my system there is one small wonderful piece of good news which never ceases to amaze me. It's 'STEROIDS' or could possibly call it 'One in 300', renamed by yours truly because I don't think they got it's true identity right to begin with.
It came to me from Gary as Mrs. BR Cant Climbing but is definitely not a climber. It's more vigorous than MBRC, deeper pink and grows thicker. It doesn't strike well from cuttings but at the moment I'm trialing it in water. No roots yet but what appears to be a fine line of callus on the rind at the cut. It's been in water for about 6 weeks and all top buds have grown to around 4" or 100mm shoots. This I feel is the best all round rose I have ever seen or likely to see.
My wife has fallen for it as it is growing near the back door and despite writings regarding never prune Tea's as they sulk it has put out a lot of fast growing new growth despite removing 50% from one side.

Hello Bruce, good to see you are still around, hope the health is good.

Thanks for your reply David, I am nearly out of energy and very selective with what I do on the property. I haven't showed the chooks for years and never had the urge to show roses because of all the spraying. The 125 stone fruit orchard spraying here put me off all sprays.
I still retain the cranky old bugger tag so I'm not done yet.
Good luck to you and family together with all at Rosetalk.

Hi Bruce.

Not sure about riding around happy on the greenfield. Watch out for when the clutch plates get a bit sticky on the shaft. I am about to get ours fixed as I nearly went down some stairs on it when the plate would not release and the mower kept wanting to go forward even though I was jumping on the pedal to make it go backwards.

With regards to the Mrs BR Cant. I always thought it may have been just a very large rose as it does not put out the long stems that a lot of climbers do. But in saying that a 5 -6 metre tall shrub is a big scrub so I do wonder wear the definition of climber begins and that of a scrub ends. It certainly climbs (grows) over pergolas etc quite easily.

With regards to propagation we usually have a 10-20% strike rate with it from cuttings but we are now just jamming bits into the ground or into a pot full of potting mix so we don't take a lot of care with it.

Good to hear from you again.

Gary