Hi From S E Queensland

Hi Everyone,

I have just joined and have been snooping around to see what's what!  We have only been in QLD for 2 yrs and was told by a gardener that roses don't grow very well up here, coming from southern Victoria where just about all roses I planted grew, I was horrified! The house we bought had a small bed of 8 roses and some looked quite old , so I am pressing on. Our soil seems to be horrendous, rock hard in most places with a sandy clay base. Our daughter has 2 horses so am spreading out manure and hay like mad.
I must admit to buying about 1/2dozen roses this year from Bunnings until I was told that their plants are bred down south and will only survive a couple of years up here. They are all in big tubs on the veranda.
I have just ordered 10 roses from a grower in Victoria. I did ring them first to make sure that roses and there's in particular, would grow here. Can't wait for them to arrive. My husband built a hard wood surround around where they are to go. I broke up the top soil and then filled the surround with bought soil into which we mixed old horse manure which my husband had ran the lawn mower over until it was finally powdered and some rose food. I hope for once I have done the right thing! I tend to be a little slap dash with my plantings.  See a space for a rose, buy a rose and plant or see a rose I fall in love with then find a place for it and plant!!! I tend to disregard looking to see if the rose will actually grow in that spot!
I particularly love the Old World Roses and David Austin Roses.
Well that's me and my roses, for the moment.
Cheers Judy

Hi Judy

We live on the Sunshine Coast and were told roses would not grow up here as well. We were also told similar regarding camellias. The HIRIA (Queensland) have had meetings at our place and next year the National Camellia Conference is in Brisbane and they are coming up to our place as part of the conference garden tours so don't believe everything that Nurseries tell you. I bet they told you that you needed to buy palm trees for your Bali Inspired garden that seems to be a compulsory thing up here these days.

Roses grow well up here you just have to choose the right ones for the area and for your soil etc. The bad news is most of the roses you buy up here (or order for down south) are grown on rootstock that is generally unsuitable for Queensland. Roses that do best up here are own root ones or those grafted onto multiflora rootstock.

We have found that the older roses are the easiest to grow up here. Hybrid Teas and David Austin roses will grow fine and I have been astounded by some I have seen but it comes down to just depends on how much work you are prepared to put in and how you feel about chemical sprays.

We grow Teas, Chinas, Noisettes and Hybrid Musks mostly with old polyanthas and floribundas thrown in (about 250 varieties all up). We do not spray chemicals on the roses at all. We don't need to. A couple of the teas get powdery mildew at this time of year but were are slowly reducing the number of roses affected by building up the potassium levels in the soil and the leaves.
We are also trialling a few of the newer "disease resistant" roses and do not spray these as well and some are going okay but we are finding with the warmer weather most are doing a “David Austin” and showing that somewhere in their heritage is a climbing rose as they are sending out long stems. Maybe more pruning is required on these.

Gary

A couple of previous posts that have photos of our garden:

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I agree with Gary's comments. As a Queenslander myself I cannot count the number of times people down south have told me "You won't grow that in Queensland, because it's too hot, humid, wet, dry etc. etc." Yet I've gone against their advice and planted it and find it flourishes.

I have received similar poor advice from people who live in coastal Queensland who say "You won't grow that in inland parts because of the frosts". Yet I plant it and guess what? It grows and the frosts do not effect it, or I can grow it with some protection.

My advice is, take no notice of the naysayers of this world and just plant it. If it is going to grow, it will.

Hi Gary and Ian,
Thank you both for your comments. Well I have taken the plunge and have ordered 16 roses in total, so we shall see I can't wait for them to arrive. I do have a couple of questions: I have about half a dozen roses in large terracotta pots on our veranda and I am starting to think that this is not going to be a good spot as they get little direct sun??? I got the impression from a (commercial) rose grower up here that black spot damaged leaves really didn't matter providing I am feeding the rose plants, is this right?
Thanks guys for your help and comments. Gary your garden is lovely, how many acres do you have? Your photos are very inspiring. May I ask what is HIRIA i am not very good with initials sorry.

cheers Judy

Judy

Actually I made a blue there. It is HRIA which is Heritage Roses in Australia (See [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Sorry about that.

We have 7 and a bit acres. The garden/house etc takes about 2 acres with 2 and half acres of rainforest and the rest is devoted to manure manufacture (guess who spent the morning picking up after the horse) . I guess I should not complain as it is free.

I am no expert on growing roses in pots but it makes sense if you make sure the plants are watered and fed they should be fine. I would try to get a potting mix that has a PH of 6-7 and feed it potash every six months. The potash helps produce flowers and also thickens the leaves so the blackspot/mildew spores struggle to take hold.

Hi Judy,
Welcome to Queensland! And yes you can grow most things here even roses. Just thought I'd suggest You might look as getting Paul Hains' book Growing Roses in Subtropical Climates. It gives a good understanding of growing roses in our climate. You should be able to obtain a copy through the Queensland Rose Society.
Hope that helps.
Cheers,
Louise.

Hi Louise,
Thanks for your welcome. We have been up here 3 yrs next May. Unfortunately both my husband and I spend much of last year chasing doctors and medical appointments, I was diagnosed with a heart problem and Derek with rheumatoid arthritis and a few other things.So the garden got put on hold for many things. But we are getting back to it now. I have just ordered Paul's book last week and am looking forward to arriving. I guess what frightened me off the garden up here was the fact that I bought up dozens of azaleas and several camellias that I had in pots in Victoria, some of them were quite old, and I decided to plant them out in a suitable area of our garden, it was an already established garden under some large trees, but they soon started to die and I lost quite a few. So Derek and I decided that we had better put them back into pots and he bought me about a dozen of plastic 44 gal drums which he cut in half for me, some length wise and the rest across the vertical axis. I have since lost one camellia and two more azaleas, but the rest are looking much better. I should have checked the ph. I have now bought a kit and hope to get the testing done later this week.

Cheers Judy

You've definitely had some challenges, Judy and I'm happy that a few small hiccups haven't deterred you. The roses will do well but you may find them to be a bit bigger in this climate. I have modern roses in my garden and yes I do get a bit of disease (and it does get pretty damp here) but with a bit of care they do shrug it off pretty quickly.
We are all here to help.
Cheers,
Louise.