Nursery news: We’ve had a very busy month on the nursery, having spent a week at the Hampton Court Garden Festival, where our display won a silver medal and we launched a rose variety new to us – Pacific Blue, a rose we consider to be of the very highest order, with exceptional health, good vigour, upright habit, and large powder blue blooms, with strong rich fragrance.
We have also finished the single most important job in any rose grower’s year – budding the rootstocks that we planted in March. For those unsure what budding is it is the process by which we create the rose plants that are subsequently sold and end up in gardens throughout the country.
To do this we take a single bud of the variety we wish to grow and insert it into the base of the rootstock, apply a patch and leave it to grow on in the field for another eighteen months before lifting sell either as a bare root plant, or potting it to grow on in the nursery and sell throughout the following summer.
Budding involves three different processes:
Blowing out, where we remove the soil which was ridged up around the rootstock at planting – this is done by machine using strong fans to blow the soli away – and create a lot of dust!
Watch it happen here:
Budding, the act of putting the bud into the rootstock, this job is done by an extremely skilled person, who can bud up to five hundred plants each hour.
Watch it happen here:
Patching, we apply a bio degradable rubber patch over the bud to ensure a good union between it and the rootstock, held in place by a wire staple.
Watch it happen here:
Garden News: we have had quite a lot of aphids arriving in our plants over the last two or three weeks, keep an eye open for them on new growth and around the flower buds. Luckily we have also seen quite a lot of beneficial insects predating on them, ladybirds, hover flies , and other parasitic wasps. Most gardeners will now be enjoying a second flush of flowers on their plants, but keep up precautionary spraying against fungal infection, remember it's all about protection not cure. If you have recently planted potted roses make sure they are getting enough water, they have a big thirst when growing and flowering, and they are vulnerable until they have been in place for a year or two.
We hope your plants are giving a lot of enjoyment and look forward to some warmer weather to allow us all to get outside and enjoy the sights and smells.