Glad to see the sun has made an appearance again.  I know it’s always there, it doesn’t go on a holiday or take a catnap, it’s either in the southern hemisphere or the northern every day.  The relentless grey clouds have made it vanish for a while.  Here’s some pictures with bright yellow sunny colours to extend the sunshine a bit. 

Just to let you know, the winds will pick up again this evening and another cold front will be here.  Smile!

Hi there,

Here we are nearly in the middle of July, theoretically past halfway through winter, plenty of frosts and cold mornings, some rain now and then and the occasional sunny day.  At this time of year there’s always talk in our family of moving north away from the cold.  It’s not that cold really, you can always turn up the ducted heating or throw another log on the fire, maybe put another layer on.  Mind you this year is the first time I’ve worn a vest and jumper to work, I think it has something to do with one’s age.  So considering all the cold and gloom its nice to look outside and see a splash of colour amongst all the grey.  Okay! I know the suns shining, I made sure I picked a sunny day to take these photo’s.

Prunus mume ‘Pendula’ is a tree closely related to the domestic apricot.  It is native to China and flowers incredibly early, from mid winter in fact, so it is an important plant for this time of year when not much else is flowering.  There are  quite a few different forms of P. mume available, ‘Albo-plena’ with white double flowers, ‘Pendula’ that is weeping, ‘Splendens’ with very double deep pink flowers,’Rosebud’ that has single and double flowers .  There are many more.

The light pink flowers are slightly scented, but when standing close to the tree at evening, they are quite intense.  Blooming can be over several weeks and normally starts from the top and works its way down, this gives it a cascading effect.  Mature trees will weep to the ground giving an incredible show.  Mine did last year but I pruned them hard after flowering to thicken their heads, so it may take a year or two to weep back to the ground.  Leaves are bright green and quite pointed and turn a nice yellow-orange colour in autumn before they fall.  When you stand under the canopy you will hear a loud buzzing as bees will be having a wonderful time in the cool sunlight.  As the flowers age they start to fall and you get a nice carpet of pink petals on the ground.

These are magical tree’s that I would recommend to anyone, they are stunningly beautiful.

It’s that time of year people!  Get out there and prune those roses, if you have any that is.  It’s not that hard although I’m sure there’s plenty of books to confuse you or people as well.  Someone always has the perfect way to prune a rose or an opinion about it. You know don’t do it today because the moon hasn’t reached its apex in the third quarter of the sky behind the constellation Scorpius, or something like that.  Hmmm! The only guide I will give you is, prune them sometime in June/July when there dormant.  You should be able to get a couple done in that timeframe.

Rose Pruning Rules

Rules you say!  what?

I have three golden rules that I work by when pruning and no it’s not the perfect way to prune roses, it just works for me.

Rule 1: Always prune to an outward facing bud.  This gives  the plant the classic vase shape(centre of the plant will be open[not congested]) which= more air circulation through the plant which=less disease and fungal problems.

Rule 2: Always cut out any dead wood in the plant.  This speaks for itself.  Deadwood doesn’t contribute anything.

Rule 3: Always prune hard!!  Don’t be shy, they will reward you in spring if you prune hard now.  As an example, if a rose is 1.5m tall-I will prune it to about 30-50cm tall.  If its 2m tall I will still prune it down to 30-50cm( I’m talking about shrubs here, not climbers.

Rule 4: Rule 4 you say, you said you had three rules.  Yes I know, just bear with me please. Never prune roses that only flower in spring ever in winter.  Why?  Because you have just pruned off all the wood that will provide the flowers for springtime.  Major major disappointment, you will have to wait a whole year for it to flower.  These roses can be pruned straight after they flower in springtime before they put on any new growth.

Rule 5:  Just get out there and enjoy yourself.  Have a go, don’t worry you will find it very difficult to kill a rose, and they are very forgiving even if you do make a hash of it.  Enjoy the sunshine if its out, don’t worry about the cold, get cracking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, here we have a willing subject.  Left photo is before its haircut, and the right photo is after of course.  Thanks Eglantyne.

Now here is a standard, before and after.  Thanks Mother’s Love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tips

Remember to keep the base of the plant always clear of mulch, leaves and whatever else there may be.  particularly in winter when wet conditions can cause rotting on the trunks

For groundcover roses I just use a pair of hedge shears and hack away at it.  My rules just go out the window!

Once flowering roses may need a tidy up in winter, ie removal of dead wood only or a branch here and there if they are scraping your car.

Climbers may need to be tied back against structures not so much heavy pruning for them either, just a clean up may do or not!

Remember, ENJOY!  Its fun, well I think it is….

Here’s some more willing subjects

Partly done on the left.  Finished on the right.  Thanks Felicia

 

 

 

 

Here are some bases that have been hacked and cleaned

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve gone to my good friend ‘The Knight’ just to finish this post off, before and after shots of course.  There wasn’t much complaining either, not sure why?

Happy pruning

Greetings and salutations,

Late Autumn and early Winter is a great time for roses, huh! I hear you say, what no flowers?  Well, flowers are what causes an interest for roses in the depths of Winter, hips!  Hips are the seed capsules, fruiting bodies, fruit or something like that.  Open one up and you will see rose seed, sometimes one or two or three or many.  Hips are very high in vitamin c, so they must be good for you!  Hip jam is also very tasty, you will find it in supermarkets.  Who would make it?  Imagine trying to separate the flesh from the seed and other bits in the hip.  What a job!  Here’s a tip, buy it off the supermarket shelf instead.

Anyway, hips come in a multitude of sizes and colours and shapes.  The heritage and specie roses usually have the most attractive ones and depending on the time of Autumn and Winter, differing rates of ripening and decay.  Check out these hips I found in my garden.

Well!  Here we go, as the heading may suggest, several people have said that I should blog.  What’s a blog I ask?  Not sure, I had to research it(google it that is). Ah! I get it, it’s just someone with plenty of spare time on their hands typing gibberish at a keyboard.  Anyway, I will give this thing a whirl and see where we end up.  Hopefully you will see blogs pertaining to our garden, plants and other green related things.  You might even see plane related blogs, or trains or political leadership battles.  Now you know I’m really scraping the barrel.

Please do check out the website that this blog is attached to, and yes its only the start, so things are being updated and added daily if I can with all the spare time I have.  Do leave comments and feedback, I do have broad shoulders .Do ask questions if you have any, I will answer them if I can(even the silly one’s) and by the way, the question not asked is the silly one.

Here’s a question, what’s this?(see photo below).

Here’s a tip.  It’s from a group of plants that I like(see website. www.huonperennials.com)

Good luck.  What’s the prize you say?  There is none, maybe just some bragging rights or something like that!

Cheers.

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