Hi Again from Sunshine Coast

Hi folks. I have spoken to many of you before on other forums but I managed to bump into this one thie other night when I had nothing to do.

For those who don't know me, my wife and I live on the Sunshine Coast in SE Queensland in a place called Mooloolah Valley. Its about 20k from the beach at Caloundra.

We grow mainly Tea & Noisette roses with the odd China and early HT thrown on. We have found these to be the best suited for our climate and they grow quite well here.

We have a gallery (which I have negected to update in the past 12 months but will do so when i work out what my password was) at

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Some of the roses shwn have been consigned to the fire heap as despite having the odd flower they are just not worth the effort. These were mostly DA's.

Anyway I am sure I will have some input on the forum

regards

Gary

G'Day Gary.. I've seen your photos all over HMF too and read your posts there. It's nice to see you here

Hi Gary...great photos!

You have reminded me that I want to give "Squatters Dream" another try...

Damo

We have about a dozen Squatters Dream growing throughout the garden. All were grown from cuttings from one rose.

The humidity and bugs knock them around in summer but in spring and autumn they are great. We have a bit of a hedge of them in on spot and we have to keep cutting them back as they can tend to grow quite tall in our climate. Black spot not too bad considering it has yellow flowers.

Typical of singles the flowers don't last long but certainly worth a try.

Hi Garry, can you suggest any DA's that will grow well in your climate.

I have a few here that I have kept, Gertrude Jekyll., Brother Cadfael both very lanky and not the bush roses I want to propagate. Also have Belle Story, Grace, Heritage, Jude the Obscure. Recently budded three that grow very well for a friend so am trying to find one or two amoungst them that will stand up to our coastal humidity. I like you have discarded about 20, actually some died despite good maintainence. They are so nice it's a shame they are so unhealthy.

I have a good assortment of Tea's, Noisettes, Chinas and Alister Clark's that I propagate for sale at wholesale prices.

Ozeboy

Don't really know of any that I could recommend.

We still have Heritage (the cutting grown ones that I did are not too bad), Mary Rose (living on borrowed time as I love the flower but the bush is always a mess of blackspot or no leaves, Teasing Georga will probably stay as it is a resonable shaped shrub and I am a sook for yellow roses (it still gets black spot though but not as bad as some of the others), The Pigram is still there only cause I am too lazy to remove it and it is also yellow, Graham Thomas once again casue is is yellow but my wife is threatening to pull it out, Emanuelle is grwing is the dogs' yard and keeps the dogs away from the fence (once again love the flower but hate the bush) and Kathleen Morley is still making a show (I did about 50 cuttings of one a few years back and I am still removeing them from the garden I think I have two left).

I'm pretty sure the rest have been removed and burn't apart from a couple that were sent to the sister in law at Toowoomba.

To be fair, most of the DAs came from Kmart so the root stock may not have been the best. Some refused to do anything at all and looked a mess most of the time. Others took off and looked more like climbers but then refused to flower or at the hint of humidity got covered with black spot.

I have several Heritage grown from cuttings and whilst they are no match for the ones I saw in Tasmania they are not too bad. Similar for Teasing Georgia. I did a couple of cuttings that I gave away and these plants seem a lot more healthy than the original.

Hi again Gary!

From what I remember my "Squatter's Dream" suffered badly from BS here. I didn't get to look at it much before it got whipper-snipped to death! It was pretty though...

I love single rose blooms & paticularly those from the older roses!

Damo

It does have a bit of black spot but it is not too bad. Actually for a yellow rose its's pretty good. I did spray them at the start of summer but it was mainly to try to control the mildew (a dismal failure as the conditions were excellent for mildew)

We have more problem with leaf rollers and other bugs that seem to like the humidity.

I have had a bit of mildew here this year (hot days/ cold nights).

I sprayed all of my potted roses with epsom salt & potash diluted in water a few weeks back & the results are astounding. All the mildew vanished & very strong healthy growth happened!

I sprayed my rose seedlings with it too (they were not doing very well) & now they have buds & beautiful foliage!

The damaging bugs have been awful here this year. I have never noticed them so bad; lots of buds with grubs in them, chewed petals, leaf damage...

Hi Balinbear, great to see you here ! Are you going to the Heritage rose Conference being held in your state latter in the year ?

Rosemeadow

Not sure about the conference as I have a business to run. I am hoping to be there but if you are coming up please feel free to contact me and maybe we can arrange a visit.

The bus will be going almost past my front door to Montville.

Damo

The weather has changed a bit up here. We had rain about 4 weeks ago and then a lot of hot days and nights so we had a lot of new growth which does not appear to have been affected by mildew.

We actually had about 4 inches of rain a couple of nights ago and the tree which I have a Not Parks Yellow growing up decided that the rose was too heavy and a couple of branches broke off bring down quite a bit of the rose. There is still plenty in the tree (goes up about 8 metres) so it should be ok.

There is nothing like a bit of rain to bring things on (and down it seems). We need some moisture desperately here & it looks like we might get a bit over the next few days. I just ran around like a nutjob covering all my recent crosses with plastic bags & tiny pegs by torchlight! *rolls eyes & laughs*

I haven't attempted to grow roses up trees yet but I always enjoy looking at them. I saw a "Wedding Day" rose overpowering a huge tree at Bundanoon NSW & think I might swamp 3 big pine trees I have here with it oneday!

I sometimes envy those who can grow the more tender roses in a frost-free area & have them blooming for such a long time like I am assuming you do Gary?! But then I think my roses are better off for their sleep during winter (even when damage occurs) so it's all a trade off in the end!

cheers Bernhard