• A Little Bit About Me

wellywoman

~ A Life in Wellies

wellywoman

Tag Archives: Rosa Gertrude Jekyll

Whizzing by

16 Friday May 2014

Posted by wellywoman in Spring

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

Lemon verbena, planting out, Rosa Gertrude Jekyll, seed sowing, Spring

Alliums in May

Alliums in May

I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that May is whizzing by all too quickly. I’m trying desperately, in amongst the general panic of too much to do-ness, to find time to stop and appreciate what is one of my most favourite times of the year. So I’m taking a quick pit-stop to write a bit about what May means to me.

May means:

– late night, torch-light fleecing at the plot

– an emptying greenhouse

– overflowing cold frames

– a car boot full of plants ready to be planted out

– the joy of the first alliums opening

– despair at discovering the first of many holes in my hostas

– forgetting AGAIN to do the Chelsea chop

– and, thereby resigning myself to a summer of staking and floppy plants

– pickings of stock Matthiola incana, the most intoxicating of scents

– panic that I haven’t sown enough and I’ve missed the boat for another year

– panic that I have sown way too much and where is it all going to go

chive flowers on my allotment

– chive flowers in full bloom lining my fruit beds at the plot

– watering my plot at twilight to the sound of birds

– anticipation after spotting the first swelling fruits on my strawberries

–  too many weeds

– the first rose on ‘Gertrude Jekyll’

– the smell of my warm greenhouse

– the miraculous sprouting into life of the overwintered twigs in a pot otherwise known as lemon verbena

– and finally the exhaustion that accompanies all of this. Everything comes at once and it all feels a bit relentless, but then I see the burgeoning garden and I pick some salad leaves, and I know why I do it. This is what keeps me going – along with tea and chocolate of course. Oh!, and the distant glimmer of hope that I might be able to sit down at some point soon. I’d love to know what May means to you.

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

 

 

 

 

A Thorny Problem

24 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by wellywoman in Roses

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

felco secateurs, Geof Hamilton, green fly, RHS encyclopedia, Rosa, Rosa A Shropshire Lad, Rosa Gertrude Jekyll, Rose pruning

The end of February is the perfect time to prune your roses, whilst they are still dormant but just about to burst into life. On Tuesday, as mine were starting to show signs of growth with a few buds opening I decided it was a job that needed tackling, so armed with some cleaned and sharpened secateurs and some gloves I set about the task.

I do have a bit of a love/hate relationship with roses. They are such a quintessential part of a garden for me and their scent is beautiful but they take a lot of care to look good. They seem to attract every greenfly in the vicinity, along with leafhoppers and are particularly prone to fungal infections such as blackspot and mildew. Trying to look after them organically, without an arsenal of chemical sprays at your disposal can be a real test.

Then there’s the pruning, a thorny problem indeed. A lot of people are flummoxed by pruning in general but roses, like clematis, seem to cause more than their fair share of panics. I think it is mainly due to the many different types of roses available; species roses, ramblers, climbers, old English roses, modern shrub roses, tea roses, musks, I could go on. It can be confusing to say the least as to how to tackle the different varieties. Coupled with this is the fact that roses have evolved to be covered in vicious thorns, natures way of protecting them from being eaten by grazing animals, although there are times when it feels like it was probably more to fend off gardeners wielding secateurs.

Rose 'Gertrude Jekyll'

We have 3 roses; Gertrude Jekyll an old rose hybrid, with a particularly strong ‘rose’ scent which was voted the nations favourite rose by BBC viewers in 2006, Geoff Hamilton, a Leander hybrid, again with a lovely scent and named after one of Britain’s most popular TV gardeners and A Shropshire Lad, an English Alba hybrid which we grow as a climber.

I started with the 2 shrub roses first. Pruning these is fairly straightforward, removing any dead, diseased or damaged stems first and then reducing the other stems to between one and two thirds. It is also good practice to try to create quite an open bush with no congested stems growing in the centre as this allows air to flow through the plant minimising problems with fungal diseases. To maintain this open structure always prune back to an outward facing bud, so any new growth is growing out and away from the plant.

It wasn’t long though before the roses were putting up a fight. It may have been the warmest February day for years yesterday but on Tuesday it was still quite chilly so I was wearing my winter hat. Whilst bending over my hat was snagged on some thorns, Gertrude Jekyll has some particularly vicious ones. My hands were full with prunings and I couldn’t release my hat. After a couple of tugs the hat came off my head but remained attached to the thorns as if the rose had acquired a triumphal trophy. The other problem was my gloves. They’ve been through the wash so much now that they’ve become really stiff, making it awkward to perform tasks that require a bit of dexterity. It was no good the gloves would have to come off, of course this meant I was scratched to bits. I also came across the first green fly of the year, can you believe it, already congregating on the young rose leaves just as they’re opening. So much for that cold spell killing them off.

I then turned my attentions to A Shropshire Lad. We have this growing up against a fence and I have been training in the stems over the last 2 years to create a nice framework. I still find it a bit daunting pruning this rose though and after a couple of minutes of looking at it wondering where to start I went into the house in search of my trusty RHS Encyclopedia. Because there are more stems and branches it can feel a bit overwhelming tackling a climber but with my book propped open at ‘How to prune and train a climbing rose’ I felt a bit more confident. Initially, the principles are the same as the other roses removing the dead, diseased and damaged stems but then it became more about maintaining a shape that encourages the most flowers.

By training the vertical stems to grow horizontally this changes the hormone balance in the stems and rather than the plant concentrating on producing vegetative growth it focusses on flowering. I removed a couple of large stems from the base and any spindly, twiggy branches and then reduced any sideshoots by about two thirds. Finally, I tied in the stems to wires already on the fence to hold them in place. The flowers on A Shropshire Lad are quite large and especially after rain can become heavy so it’s important to tie in any new growth over the year to prevent any stems snapping.

A Shropshire Lad, pruned and tied in

My back was aching afterwards and I was a little blood-stained from my thorny encounter but it felt very satisfying. Although pruning the climbing rose has exposed that I now need to paint the fence. Another job to add to the list. The question is can I manage to paint the fence without covering the rose in it.

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

My latest book – The Crafted Garden

My latest book - The Crafted Garden

My latest book - The Crafted Garden

My Book – The Cut Flower Patch

My Book - The Cut Flower Patch. Available to buy from the RHS online bookshop.

The Cut Flower Patch – Garden Media Guild Practical Book 2014

The Cut Flower Patch - Garden Media Guild Practical Book 2014
Follow @wellywomanblog
Instagram

Archives

  • August 2016
  • March 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011

Categories

  • autumn
  • Big Biochar Experiment
  • Book Reviews
  • British flowers
  • Bulbs
  • Christmas
  • Cold Frames
  • Countryside
  • crochet
  • Cut Flowers
  • Environment
  • Flowers
  • Food
  • Fruit
  • Garden Course
  • Garden Reviews
  • Herbs
  • House plants
  • In the Garden
  • Interview
  • Miscellaneous
  • On the plot
  • Out and About
  • Pests
  • Plant Nurseries
  • Plant of the Moment
  • Plastic Free Gardening
  • Ponds
  • Product Review
  • propagation
  • Recipes
  • RHS Flower Show
  • Roses
  • Salad
  • Scent
  • Seeds
  • Soil
  • Spring
  • Summer
  • Sustainable gardening
  • Trees
  • Uncategorized
  • Vegetables
  • Weeds
  • Wildflowers
  • wildlife
  • Winter
  • Woodland
  • Writing

Blogs I read

  • An Artists Garden
  • Annie's Little Plot
  • Backlanenotebook
  • Bean Genie
  • Flighty's Plot
  • Green Tapestry
  • Greenforks
  • Gwirrel's blog
  • Hillwards
  • Jo's Good Life
  • Leadupthegardenpath
  • My Hesperides Garden
  • Out of My Shed
  • Oxonian Gardener
  • Plantaliscious
  • The Anxious Gardener
  • Urban Veg Patch

websites I like

  • Chiltern Seeds
  • Hen and Hammock
  • Higgledy Garden
  • Plantlife
  • Sarah Raven
  • The Organic Gardening Catalogue

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • wellywoman
    • Join 4,575 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • wellywoman
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...