Spring is in the air –  it’s time to get out into the garden. Your tasks are detailed in our ‘Rose growing notes’. Whether your garden is new or old, we all know there are still jobs to do.

Let’s celebrate spring – the season of renewal!

Buy roses online from Knight’s Roses – we now have potted roses for sale from our extensive collection with delivery Australia-wide.

Some varieties available to order include:

A Best Impression, Bees’ Paradise Pink, Aussie Magic, Winx, Dolly’s Rose, Fairy Godmother

To order roses either contact our office by phone (08) 8523 1311, email retailsales@knightsroses.com.au or visit our website https://knightsroses.com.au

and order them online.

Compost is an easy way to recycle organic waste from your kitchen and garden and add nutrient rich humus to your garden beds. It promotes plant growth, helps depleted soil, reduces landfill and is simple to make.

Compost has 4 ingredients: nitrogen, carbon, oxygen and water.  The secret to a healthy rich compost pile is to maintain a balance between carbon and nitrogen matter.

Carbon rich material includes dried leaves, peels, clean sawdust, coffee grounds and straw. Nitrogen, or protein rich materials, include green leaves, fruit and veggie scraps, crushed eggshells, green lawn clippings (used in thin layers) and kitchen waste.

Use about 1/3green material to 2/3 brown materials. Its best to avoid using citrus and onions in the compost as worms don’t like these! Avoid fish, meat, dairy, bone scraps or bread as these will attract rodents and pests. Also avoid composting perennial weeds (due to seeds).

Keep the composts lightly moist. It is important to have earthworms and microbes in your compost. A great way to increase the number of microbes is to apply Neutrog’s GOGO Juice or Seamungus Liquid, mixed in a watering can, and poured over the compost.

Set up your compost container on bare ground. It will allow worms and organisms to aerate the material. There are many compost container designs from a no-turn standard digester to a tumbler which rotates speeding up the process.

After about 4 to 6 months your compost will be ready.

Time to Mulch

It is recommended that you top up your mulch now, rather than wait for the hot weather to set in. Currently most soils are still moist and mulching will keep that moisture in the soil.

A generous layer of mulch will help conserve water and prevent the soil and plants drying out rapidly, it cools the surface, breaks down to feed the root zone, enables good microbial activity in the soil and also helps to smother weeds.

Neutrog’s ‘Whoflungdung’ is an excellent mulch recommended by the Rose Society. It’s a certified organic mulch which is biologically activated, nutrient rich and weed free. It comes in 20kg compressed bales and can be easily spread. Spread a layer about 5cm in depth and water in to reduce odour and settle it down.

Removing Spent Flowers

To encourage repeat flowering, remove dead blooms. Generally, remove the old bloom and a portion of stem down to the second five-leaflet leaf. Occasionally, some ‘blind’ spring shoots stop growing and don’t produce flowers. These can be trimmed to encourage a new flowering shoot.  A non-performing rose bush is assign that it is lacking fertiliser or may be diseased.

Pests and Diseases

Unfortunately, pests and diseases can frustrate rose growers who want clean, healthy bushes. There are now many natural remedies for pests. These include the presence of predatory wasps to control aphids and bacterial laden sprays such as ‘Success’ or ‘Dipel’ to control both bad insects and grubs. Some initial outbreaks of aphids can be severe and these should be washed off or sprayed with a natural product, such as Yates ‘Nature’s Way Natrasoap Pest Spray’. Pest Oils can also be used to control insects and will also assist in fungal treatment.

Fungal issues, if left untreated, can severely impede the performance of rose plants. Prevention is better than a cure and applications of preventative fungal sprays a fortnight apart in early spring will certainly stop major outbreaks of Mildew and Black Spot. Natural oil sprays, such as Eco Oil, and milk spray (1-part full cream milk to10 parts water) are good “gentle on the environment”, preventative sprays. Mancozeb or Triforine sprays offer chemical treatments which have proven very effective. If a major outbreak occurs, regular fungal spray treatments will be necessary to get these diseases under control.

For more information on rose growing, visit sarose.org.au