I have a bad case of rose envy. We drove down Queanbeyan's main street last week. I don't envy the main street garden beds - ours meander, instead of march straight down the street. But those roses! Thousands of them, outnumbering the leaves.
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Queanbeyan's main street does have a few rose-growing advantages we lack, the first obviously being water, the second a dutiful pruner - though carpet roses need relatively little compared to hybrid teas - and regular rose tucker. But we can't compete with their location. Roses adore sunlight, as long as they get water and good soil too. Sitting in a brick garden bed in the middle of the road, with concrete and glaring bitumen reflecting back even more sunlight - no wonder the roses are gorgeous.
Ground cover roses are still 'new' varieties for me, though they are now decades old. They were bred for large ornamental plantings, and in the right place will bloom for at least six months of the year, and in some areas even all year. Ground covers roses rarely get powdery mildew, and come in just about every colour, though the pinks, reds, whites and tan to yellow ones are the most common.
There have even been varieties bred for humid areas - ask your nearest nursery or specialist rose supplier for the ones that will do best in your area. Which in our case is 'nil' - we live in a deep valley and get far too much shade. Some roes do well here - the banksias now take up a quarter hectare each - but ground covers need at least six hours of sun a day, almost every day. They'd get it here most days if I hadn't planted quite so many trees. But I have.
Ground cover roses are hardy and incredibly easy care. Ignore them and you'll still get massed blooms. Tend them, and you will have glorious abundance. You can buy smallish varieties growing to 30cm, or larger bushes, about 70-80cm high, all spreading wider than they are tall. Check the label before you plant!
Ground covers have now become classic 'road and municipal park fillers', but they are also superb covering a bank, or planted among other long-legged roses, and the ground covers will probably bloom and keep their leaves far longer. But only 'probably' - some floribundas are excellent in the leaf and bloom department.
They also look fabulous sprawling out of hanging baskets on sunny patios or the edge of a veranda - as long as they get that food and sun. Snip off the dead blooms; trim back by about a third when they've finished blooming for a while, or just cut back the branch by a third when you cut off its browned blooms. A good winter prune, a light summer prune, and you will get even more roses, flush after flush of them.
And will I envy you too.
Native plant sale
The Growing Friends are holding their Autumn Plant Sale on March 30 from 8.30am to 11am in the Banks Building car park. There will be more than 50 varieties of plants including Grevillea Arenaria and Grevillea Olivacea as well as the Banksia Intergrifolia prostrate form. A great range of pre-loved botany, general science, art and gardening books will also be for sale.
This week I am:
- Glorying in ginger lilies and their scent.
- Cheering on the first dahlia of the year in the wallaby-nibbled dahlia bed.
- Baking fresh capsicum, thick fleshed and sweet.
- Reminding Bryan not to prune the bottlebrush till after it's bloomed in spring, even if it does need a haircut.
- Eating the second flush of Jonathon apples, and the first of the figs.
- Tolerating shaggy grass instead of mowing it - the wallabies and wombats will need it if we don't get decent rain before winter.
