Ian Rogan-Millthorpe Garden Nursery
Roses are a feature in many of our gardens and have been so across the world for many hundreds of years. The Romans apparently were rose enthusiasts and Europeans began to widely cultivate roses from the eighteenth century when new cultivars were developed from species imported from China.
Here in Australia we have a massive choice of rose colours and growth forms to choose from-some of which were developed overseas and others which have been developed by Australian rose enthusiasts. Each year I receive catalogues from prominent rose families such as Treloar (Victoria), Swane (NSW) and Ross (SA) and each of these have 400-600 roses to choose from!
Some of the rose cultivars that catch my eye are listed below, but there are obviously many others that gardeners love.
White flowers: Iceberg, Mothers Love, Glamis Castle
Red: Mister Lincoln, Red Riding Hood, Papa Meiland
Scarlet/Purple: The Dark Lady, Princess Anne, Young Lycidas
Yellow/Orange: St Patrick, Splice, Gold Bunny, French Lace, Lady of Shalott
Pink: Perfume Passion, Addictive Lure, Heritage, Queen Elizabeth
Multicoloured: Eyes for You(pink/white), Garden Delight (red/yellow), Ballerina (pink/white)
Climbers: PierredeRonsard (pink),Veilchenblau(violet/white), Zepherine Drouhin(pink),Altissimo(red)
Groundcovers: Purple Rain (violet), Heidesommer(white), Mainau Feuer(red)
After selecting the roses that are the colour or form that you want, a few tips for getting the best out of your rose bushes are:
• Fertilize roses in spring and then mulch around them with hay or sugar cane mulch
• Lightly prune back stems with spent flowers during the growing/flowering season.
• Heavily prune bush roses (to about a third of their full height) towards the end of winter
• Don’t prune climbing roses for the first 3 or 4 years of growth
• Minimise black spot (a fungal infection on leaves) by avoiding over leaf watering and remove infected leaves. Use fungicide spray every 10 to 14 days if the black spots are increasing during wet,warm weather.
• Keep an eye out for aphid insects accumulating on fresh shoots of rose bushes-rub them off with your fingers. Spray with a low toxicity insecticide if they continue to build up.