SUMMER NEWSLETTER
DECEMBER 2021
SEASONS GREETINGS
The need to reconnect with nature, during the Pandemic, has been paramount in many people’s lives borne out by record-breaking, unprecedented sales in Garden Centres and across the entire rose industry with many selling out quickly.
I sincerely thank all our customers, both wholesale and retail, for their continued support.
On behalf of the team at Knight’s Roses, our best wishes for the Christmas season and a Happy New Year.
2022 NEW RELEASE ROSES
To start off here are three of our 2022 new rose introductions. More exciting news on 2022 releases a little later.
These new release roses can be ordered now for winter delivery. All bagged rose orders will be dispatched from June 2022 and through the winter season.
A BEST IMPRESSION
Stripped roses make an excellent feature plant in the garden with their splashes of colour, streaks and stripes, no two blooms are exactly alike. Plant at least 3 to create a great, bold massed display.
Beautiful and mildly fragrant, this eye-catching hybrid Tea rose has large, classic, spiraled blooms of cherry red and white. As the bloom ages, some of the stripes evolve into pale cream with the vibrant stripes turning a deeper pink. the flowers are produced in clusters and will repeat all season until late autumn, the compact bush grows to 80 cm in height and 120cm wide with healthy. matte green foliage and good disease resistant.
CROWN JEWELS
Crown Jewels is a beautiful, very fragrant Hybrid Tea reflecting the shape and style of a bygone era. The full, large blooms have a nostalgic old-world charm, borne singly and also in clusters of up to five flowers per stem. The creamy yellow colour is at its best from early summer and into autumn. The free branching bush has frequent new shoots and great growth. A hardy, vigorous plant with glossy healthy foliage growing to 1.5m tall x 1.2m wide. Crown Jewels is a sport of ‘August Luise’® and creates a great display when planted and paired with ‘August Luise’®.
CLIMBING MISÉRABLE LES
This highly fragrant, award-winning climbing Hybrid Tea rose produces a large number of classic high pointed blooms (17-25 petals) in a soft pink colour, repeating well throughout the season. It was awarded “Most Fragrant Rose of the Trial’ in the 2018 National Rose Trial Garden of Australia Awards. A climbing sport of the ever popular ‘Avon’, this rose grows over 2 metres tall and is ideal to train onto a trellis or pillar.
SUMMER HAS ARRIVED
MAINTAINING ROSES THROUGH THE SUMMER SEASON
Like humans, roses need to be well hydrated prior to a heatwave. If not, once the damage in the form of leaf and stem burn has occurred, it is very hard to recover.
The critical ingredient to keep roses performing in summer is WATER. A good soak once per week is essential (twice per week in a heatwave). Give each plant 20 to 30 litres, assuming you have used a good mulch. If not, double the amount of water.
If hot weather is forecast, ensure the rose is well hydrated prior to the heat arriving. It is much harder to revive a collapsed plant after it has deteriorated due to heat stress.
As mentioned, a top-quality MULCH is important. The Rose Society of South Australia recommends Neutrog’s ‘Whoflungdung’ – a biologically activated, nutrient rich, weed free, absorbent, certified organic, super mulch made here in South Australia. We do have other good mulches (produced by local suppliers such as Garden Grove, Jefferies and Peats) which are also organic and derived from composted green waste – again produced in our State.
Providing your plants are well mulched, well-watered and have been fertilised in spring, roses will continue to give you flowers throughout summer.
Roses in their first year may require supplementary water in addition to that described above as their roots are not fully established and can dry out more quickly.
Roses in pots should be watered ‘on demand’ as their potting soil dries out. This may necessitate watering every second day. Avoid black-coloured pots as these absorb more heat if exposed to sunlight. Clay and cement pots in light colours or wooden tubs are better for roses.
Apart from watering and mulching, the rose requires little other maintenance in summer as the air is too dry for fungal problems to occur and generally too hot for major insect issues. If these do occur, use organic solutions such as rather than heavier in-organic sprays.
To maintain healthy plants, one fertiliser application of Neutrog Sudden Impact for Roses after the first flush of flowers is recommended in late December.
Finally, roses need regular light summer trimming to remove spend (old) blooms. To guarantee rapid, repeat flowering it is recommended the spent bloom and part of the stem is cut back to the second five-leaflet leaf. It is sometimes wrongly referred to as summer pruning and the inexperienced grower must resist the temptation to cut back too heavily.
Q & A - YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
There can be many reasons why roses stop or don’t bloom. This is generally caused by a lack of care or attention. Basically, roses need two ingredients to flourish and bloom. These are regular watering and fertilising. A good soak (irrigation) at least once per week with around 25 litres of water per application and assuming the plants are well mulched to continue growing. They also need a good feed in Spring and Autumn and the Rose Society recommends the use of Neutrog’s ‘Sudden Impact for Roses’, designed to ensure the rose receives the nutrients it needs to grown and bloom well.
Whilst other causes like insect attack or an infestation of fungal disease may also restrict blooming, regular watering and fertilising should ensure a good flush of flowers from spring through to autumn for repeat flowering rose cultivars.
HOW CAN I FIX ' BLACK SPOT'?
Generally, in South Australia, we don’t get as much ‘Black Spot’ on our roses compared to rose growers interstate. However, occasionally we do get it and if left untreated, it can defoliate the rose bush. Once a leaf is infected, it’s too late – that leaf will die and drop off. The best way to deal with ‘Black Spot’ is to avoid getting it. A couple of sprays with an organic oil such as Eco Oil or Rose Fungicide spray, early in spring, will give the plant added resistance to Black Spot. If the plant is infected, you will need to apply Mancozeb Plus, followed by Rose Fungicide Spray (Triforene) 10 days later to kill and stop the Black Spot breeding cycle.
Conact Knight’s Roses for more information – phone +61 8 85231311 or visit our website www.knightsroses.com.au