Roses in my Garden this Winter & Spring
It's been a while since I did an update on how the Heirloom Roses are growing in our garden, here in the Hunter Valley. In fact, I have been off the page completely for several months with knee replacement surgery as well as other commitments that have taken me away from the rose gardens.
But roses are very forgiving, and while they were in their winter hiatus, I managed to do a little bit of light pruning. I would have done more but recovery time from the surgery meant I was behind in lots of gardening jobs, so I only did a light prune which will keep the roses in reasonable shape. And I don't ever do a hard prune on the old roses. (I've talked about this before on the Journal so have a look at the topic list if you want to read more.)
As well as pruning, Winter is the time to plant bare-root roses. Because I knew I would be recovering from surgery, I only ordered a few bare-root roses this year. I've grown some of these old roses in my previous garden and missed them, so it's nice to be able to plant them in this garden. They are the Noisette roses, Reve d'Or and its seedling, William Allen Richardson. I have also planted for the first time the Hybrid Musks, Ghislaine de Feligonde and Lavender Lassie. I know that Lavender Lassie could hardly be called an old heritage rose, but as a member of the Hybrid Musk class of roses, I'm happy to include her in my garden. They're just getting going now but I hope to be able to share photos of them next season.
Along with the old Teas, Chinas, Bourbons and Ramblers, to name a few of the classes of old roses we grow, one of the stalwarts of the heirloom rose gardens is Cornelia, another of the Hybrid Musks. I've found that most of the Hybrid Musks do well in our warm temperate climate, just as they did in our other garden which was a sub-tropical climate.
Buff Beauty, a well-known Hybrid Musk, also does well for me. In fact, this was one of the first old heritage roses that I grew over thirty years ago. Buff Beauty has been in each of my three gardens with varying climates, and has never let me down. And as Buff Beauty is relatively easy to propagate from cuttings, I'll be taking cuttings to give away and also to plant more in this garden.
That's the beauty of gardening with old roses. Many of them are not easily available now, so its important that gardeners who do grow them, propagate them so others can enjoy them too. Otherwise more of these tough, resilient old roses will be lost forever, which would be such a shame given how adaptable they are, particularly with climate change having such an impact now on our gardens. And as well as their beauty and generous blooms, they also bring fragrance to the garden.
I hope you get to experience growing at least one of the Hybrid Musks, or old Tea roses in your garden. Which one would you choose?
Enjoy!!!!
Lillian
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