Nursery News : June is one of our busiest months on the nursery. It’s been an early Spring with roses flowering about two weeks earlier than normal. Once flowering is over, we have to remove the old flowers from the plants, this stops them from making seed (rose hips) which takes a lot of energy from the plant and in turn reduces plant vigour. We use this opportunity to give a light pruning at the same time – reshaping the plant if required and removing unwanted stems.
Whilst we prefer to sell plants in bud or flower there are times, such as after flowering that this isn’t possible so customers will receive plants that may just have been pruned or plants coming back into growth after pruning, showing strong young shoots. Rest assured these plants will still flower this summer, probably from early to mid July.
Garden News: June is rose month, established plants will be flowering or be finishing their first flowering, we’ve seen lots of colour in local gardens, we hope you have enjoyed the spectacle in your own garden.
Tips
Keep an eye out for aphids, we have noticed a few turning up in the nursey over the last week or so – they target flower buds and the youngest leaves, especially on the underside of new leaves.
Remove dead flowers from the plants so they don’t try to make hips, try a light prune at the same time, this will encourage the plant to make new growth and more flowers.
Give potted plants a liquid feed at the end of the first flowering – they will appreciate the goodness and go on to produce more flowers.
If you are buying potted plants at the moment it’s critical to make sure that the plant is planted well, water the pot thoroughly before planting, make sure there is good contact with the surrounding soil and firm around the root ball, then water generously, and keep an eye on it to make sure it remains moist at all times.
Our most important operation of the year starts in a few weeks – budding – when we “make” the rose plants that we will be selling in two year’s time , we’ll post a video to show everyone how it’s done.
Let’s hope the sun wakes up soon and we get a few weeks of precious summer.