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Sunday 14th June, 2015

Roses Roses Roses .....!!

Hi

The Rose story

We were all taking a break from potting roses the other morn and I was telling the team what it takes to grow a rose and its quite an interesting story. I know that I have told it  before buts its still quite fascinating and a huge amount of work goes into producing a rose which I imagine many realize.

All quality roses take  a minimum of 2 years to produce and the first step is to actually grow the rootstock which is a crop in itself.  Rose rootstock is called Rosa multiflora and I imagine that all growers have their own particular strain of this briar or wild rose. They will have large stock beds where the rose can grow and produce many canes. The rose canes are harvested and tied in bundles  where they are band sawn into lengths. 20 - 30 cm lengths to grow a normal bush,  80 to 90 cm for a normal standard and for tall weeping standard 180cm. They have to keep all the nice straight lengths to grow the standards.  

      

Now for the tricky bit, all these rootstock canes have to be blinded, this is the removal of all the buds along the stem length except for the top one. Blinding is done with a sharp knife and you have to slice the buds off all the way up along the stem, not too deep as that will cause unnecessary scarring  and not too shallow as the bud will continue to grow. What most don't realise is that at each leaf  there is a bud that we all can see but there are also two more either side of the main bud that are quite difficult to see.  I admire the effort that it takes to do this part of the job... do you do it while watching Coro in the evenings? LOL

Once all the stocks are blinded, some growers will set them in sand and put them on bottom heat  (special heated bed) for the rootstock to callus which is plant tissue that is more likely to grow roots.

 

Once callused the rootstocks are set out in the field, usually through plastic mulch, and that one bud that is left is allowed to grow. 

In the summer the rootstocks are T budded sometimes by the growers and more often by travellers who go from country to country budding fields of roses.  I really admire these agile guys as its no mean feat to spend an entire day with your head nearly between your ankles shuffling you way along a row of rose stocks slicing off buds and inserting them.

T budding is where they use a sharp budding knife and cut a T shape in the rootstock, they then slice a bud very thinly but still getting the eye from the scion wood or the rose they want to grow. Using the back of the budding knife they lift the flaps of the T cut and slip that tiny bud in and patch tie it in making sure that the cambium layers meet.

When the buds have taken, usually later in the summer, the remaining rootstock bud that had been growing is removed and the following spring the new rose that we have just made springs into life.

But wait there is still more, once these buds have grown they need to be headed back to make our new rose bush out and become the plants that we have just spent the past four weeks potting. It will still take approximately three more years for you newly purchased rose bush to reach its mature status. 

On the rose front we have now potted the majority of all the roses and are now looking at sorting all the orders and sending out emails to say that our stocks are now in. If you haven't heard from us by next week then please email us. 

Just arrived in and are looking good

 

            

Strawberries have arrived and are all topped and tailed, waiting to be planted

 

We all love strawberries  and believe it or not but now is the time to plant these babies. Planting now ensures that their roots grow nice and deep and can source lots of water for the spring flush and to produce heaps of fruit as we ease out of spring into early summer.

They should go in to good rich garden soil that has been mounded and planted approx 30 to 40 cm apart. Mulch the side of the mound with pea straw or something suitable that  keeps the fruit nice and clean

If you don't have the space in the garden they make awesome pot or hanging container subjects looking pretty cool with all that luscious fruit hanging waiting to be picked.

          

Peonies  Queen of the flowers I'd say and just awesome for picking and having in a vase 

These are a bit of a new plant for us to have and really they just love those cold climates like the south island. Of course there are some pretty cold inland north island places that they will grow happily.  We have a a friend Jan that lives in Rotorua and in her  or should I say their garden, they have the most gorgeous peony growing, but by contrast they have almost subtropical plants growing. Its all about micro climates. I have another client that was determined to flower one of these beauties in the Waikato  and succeeded with the addition of ice cubes through the winter. We have some of these coming closer to when they start to emerge from the pots but if you are keen to give them a go, you can pre order them.

      

Primulets, well I think that they are a fancy Polyantha

These are quite fancy though with the cutest frilly double like flowers and great winter colour.  These are great in containers, you can mix them up or have as solid colour as a bright spot in the grey of winter.

          

Silk tassel Bush, well I have really always known it as Garrya Elliptica, ( one of those cases where one knows the proper name over the common name), anyways it you are a bit of a plant nut, well! you don't often seen these and they are way cool. WE managed to get a few the other day and as a bonus they are actually in flower. how neat is that !!! Grows to a shrub approx 2.5 metres

Warotah or Telopea. Its not often that we get these aussie natives that have the most gorgeous red pin cushion like flowers. Grow in well drained spot  with full sun and prune after flowering to keep them bushy and shrubby. The flowers last just ages cut in a vase and everyone asks what they are so if you have a hankering to grow these, be in quick. 

Grevillea Lady O  Aussie natives and grevilleas have never been a strong fav of mine but if you are after a plant for a hot sunny position and a splash of bright winter colour then these are a pretty good choice. Lady O is a new cultivar to me and its really very pretty with quite attractive foliage and a pretty red flower. Lady O is classic shrubby form but wait we have standards and its the first time ever that we have had a standard grevillea.
          

Mandarin Cake

 

Its Mandarin time again and Dad found, somewhere in his house, a recipe that I gave him last year. It was a recipe that a special client, thank you Maree, gave us and I put it on our website 'What's Cooking' section last year.  He had forgotten that he had made it for us last year, but seeing that its Mandarin time, he made it for us the other night.  Its delicious and easy to make, so much so that he made us another, just so that we could take a pic. :-) we also had it for pudding a couple of nights in a row.... It is so nice having someone around that is retired and cooks ... LOL

     

OMG another wet weekend may be on the cards, at this rate Harry will never get our lawns done and we have given up trying to get the washing dry on the line.... it goes straight into the dryer LOL. 

Don't forget to try and get some copper and oil on your roses and fruit trees prior to pruning. I know it is pretty tricky to do at the moment but a good thing to get done before pruning later this month or in July.

We will be getting ready for the next big pot of fruit trees and ornamental trees due to arrive next month.

I always tell my team that they wont melt and one who works here says that she is not made of sugar so come on out regardless of the weather, but if its a really wet one and the brollies aren't enough then browse around on-line in the warm and dry and you can make us run around in the wet.

Have fun 

Cheers 

Lloyd, Harry and the Wairere Team

Make it a Wairere weekend where even GNOMES know that gardening's not a drag 

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2015 Newsletters...

We're back (8th January, 2015)

Settling In (29th January, 2015)

Summer colour (30th January, 2015)

Fabulous Feb (6th February, 2015)

Roses on sale (16th February, 2015)

stevia (20th February, 2015)

Cheeky Climbers (6th March, 2015)

Michelias and Camellias (11th March, 2015)

Living fences (20th March, 2015)

Easter is nearly here (25th March, 2015)

Mourning the end of summer? (2nd April, 2015)

SALE NOW ON!!! (8th April, 2015)

Autumn Harvest (17th April, 2015)

What to do with all those leaves. (22nd April, 2015)

Autumn Flowers (1st May, 2015)

Sunday Mothers Day (8th May, 2015)

Colours of Autumn (15th May, 2015)

Always a project (22nd May, 2015)

Rose potting (23rd May, 2015)

Clip n Snip (4th June, 2015)

..... Roses Galore

Rose Climbers (19th June, 2015)

Its Time to prune (3rd July, 2015)

Like a candy shop (11th July, 2015)

The pruning session (16th July, 2015)

Red and white stems (24th July, 2015)

Rose pruning Thur and Fri (24th July, 2015)

Winter Colour (31st July, 2015)

Time to feed (9th August, 2015)

Magnolias (20th August, 2015)

Gardeners work is never done (25th August, 2015)

Till the cows come home, or get shoooood away! (28th August, 2015)

Topiary Art (11th September, 2015)

Tosca in spring (19th September, 2015)

An extra hour (25th September, 2015)

The first Friday in October (2nd October, 2015)

Pretties Galore (9th October, 2015)

Frantic Fridays (16th October, 2015)

geraniums are in (20th October, 2015)

November events (31st October, 2015)

Movember (9th November, 2015)

Christmas is coming (20th November, 2015)

Harry was blowing in the wind (26th November, 2015)

December (3rd December, 2015)

Chilli out for Christmas (18th December, 2015)

HL Nurseries Limited t/a Wairere Nursery
826 Gordonton Road, R D 1, Hamilton 3281 Ph: (07) 824 3430 Email: