Three pruning methods for roses

Pruning roses will not reward you with more flowers nextyear. However, it will control shape and maintain health. Wild (species) roses and hybrid shrub roses need no pruning — just the removal of dead wood.

• Bush types Large-flowered (hybrid tea) and cluster-flowered (floribunda) roses are pruned annually in early spring. Remove all weak growth and reduce remaining strong stems to 15-20cm/6-8in above ground level. Cut to outward-facing buds. Make sure centre of each bush is free from growth: shape bush like a vase.
• ClimbersAllow a framework of permanent stems which are trained to their supports. From these stems side shoots grow, which produce the flowers. To prune, cut back old side shoots to within one or two buds of their base in early spring. Tips of main stems can also be cut back, if becoming too tall. Read the rest of this entry »

A shroud of confusion which few gardening books and journals succeed in penetrating. As a result, many gardeners prune incorrectly or indiscriminately. It is wrong to think that all shrubs need a “good haircut” every year. The truth is, most shrubs do not need any pruning; all you need to do is look over them occasionally and if necessary cut out any dead or dying shoots or branches. Conifers need pruning only when grown as ornamental hedges; ornamental trees do not need pruning at all; most climbers are happier if left alone, and so are most roses — although some, such as bush roses, need severe pruning every year. Read the rest of this entry »

Among the hybrids are the well loved types which produce large, well rounded flowers of a heavy texture, with spotted dorsal petals and highly glossed petals and pouches. These come in a variety of colours from lime green and clear yellow to rich dark reds and bronzes with any number of shades in between and various spots and stripes. These are the types which, although many times removed from the species, can be traced back through their pedigree to Paphiopedilum insigne and its many varieties (including the yellow form P. insigne var. sanderae), and also P. bellatulum. It was the combination of these two completely different Paphiopedilums which formed the base for the modern breeding lines. Read the rest of this entry »

Collegiate 110

Named in commemoration of the 110th birthday of the Collegiate Girls’ School in Pietermaritzburg. The clear-yellow, semi-double Floribunda blooms appear in great abundance on a neat, medium-high, rounded bush. They are ideal for borders, edgings, to fill open spaces in front of shrubs and even in tubs and large pots.

courvoisier

Pointed, shapely buds and very fragrant blooms come in clusters or individually on a stem. An abundance of pleasing, buff, straw- yellow flowers often covers the glossy foliage of the vigorous, healthy, well-branched bush.

durban july

The name evokes a pageant of horse racing, fun, colour and fashion, and gives a good idea of the spirit of this new beauty. Clusters of medium-sized, deep- golden buds continuously bedeck the entire bush. As they burst into maturity, they display new apparel of vibrant orange, and eventually scarlet-red. To accelerate the natural repeating ability, old, spent blooms should be removed regularly to make space for new shoots, which start developing below the colourful petal Umbrellas. Read the rest of this entry »

These roses are of the long-limbed, spreading variety — and can either be left to organize themselves, or can be pruned and trained to fit in with almost any garden plan. Their security value should notbe underestimated: here is the answer to truly decorative spikes.

Climbers produce longclimbing shoots and must besupported and tied to a fence or pergola. For the best display, annual shoots should not be pruned or shortened, but tied horizontally.

Ramblers have a prostrate growth habit, and if left alone, crawl along the ground. Alternatively, they can be trained over a support many metres high, to hang gracefully down again.

Spire roses grow upright to 2 to 3 m and do not produce willowy canes. Their Hybrid Tea-shaped flowers make good cut roses. They are suited to tall background displays, in corners or as hedges, planted 1,5 m apart. If necessary, top the basal-stems at a height of 1,2 m to encourage branching and flowering. Read the rest of this entry »

picaninni

Des Wright, past president of the Federation of Rose Societies of S A, and an amateur rose breeder, created this new Miniature rose. The blend was shrewdly composed, and ‘Picaninni’ inherited the super- healthy, glossy foliage and sweet fragrance of ‘Bella Rosa’ with the bright orange-yellow tones of ‘Little Jackie’. The truly miniaturised blooms are of superb exhibition shape. The plant grows vigorously into a fairly substantial bush and is covered with pickable stems

pierine

A perfect Miniature companion for the Hybrid Tea, ‘Esther Geldenhuys’. Urn- shaped, pointed buds open into deep, coral-pink blooms of classic rose shape. These are carried on long stems and make superb little cut flowers for table arrangements. The bushes are very vigorous and dense, growing to about 60 cm high and wide, and always decorated with masses of pickable blooms. Read the rest of this entry »

St John nonacentenary

The bush is hardy, vigorous and healthy, and flowers profusely, in dense clusters at the tip of each firm stem. White, pointed buds unfold slowly into shapely, open blooms, revealing a soft apricot-cream in the centre. At the point where other roses would shed their petals, the blooms of this novelty expand further to the next stage of a quartered centre, and finally the firm petals reflex down-wards, creating the effect of an old-fashioned, immaculate white bustle. This excellent, multipurpose garden rose of medium height will supply an abundance of long-lasting ’spray roses‘ (cluster-flowering roses)

Isidingo

In our search for new climbers that produce Hybrid Tea-shaped, pick- able blooms and that flower more or less continuously from springinto winter, we were most impressed by a novel rose in our trials, bred by Messrs Orard of Lyon in France. The name suggested itself. The tight, full bud is green-yellow with an attractive rosy pink on the edge of each petal. As the bud expands and unfolds into a large bloom of extraordinary exhibition shape, the pink^-intensifies into a luminous coral, contrasting and intermingling with deep gold rising from the centre. Read the rest of this entry »