Amateur Gardening 12-Jan-2019

YOUR roses may look as barren as the majority of the garden, but these dormant weeks are your cue to prepare them for spring growth and summer flowering. There are two main jobs to do now: pruning and planting. You may have trimmed your roses in autumn, but late winter is the time to cut them right back. Remove old, damaged and weak stems and get rid of diseased stems, cutting them back to healthy wood. Cutting them back hard now also helps prevent excessive strain on the plants’ roots when winter storms blow through. Also, remove any faded late blooms or balled flowers that will spread fungal disease if left. Leave any hips, though, for extra winter colour. We have a very old, inherited red floribunda that has been allowed to get…

1 While your rose is standing in water, place crocks in its new container and add John Innes No3 and well-rotted manure or compost. 2 Slide the rose from its pot and check that its roots are healthy and undamaged. Carefully spread them out before planting. 3 Add the rest of the compost so the plant’s knobbly graft sits just above the top of the soil. Firm the compost to help anchor the plant. 4 Water your rose well and don’t let it dry out while it gets established. Keep the compost free of weeds, too.…

1 Floribunda roses: Remove dead wood and cut back main stems to within 10-12in (25-30cm), reducing the oldest shoots of established plants to within a few inches of the base. 2 Hybrid teas: Shorten robust stems to within 4-6in (10-15cm) from the base. Less vigorous shoots should be cut back to 2-4 buds 2-4in (5-10cm) from the soil. 3 Climbers: Remove dead, diseased and weak shoots and cut some old woody growth right back, leaving six young stems that can be trained and will flourish. Shorten side stems by a third or a half to encourage new shoots. 4 Ramblers: Once established, remove one-third of the oldest stems and, if space is tight, prune out flowered stems and tie in new ones. If the plant is overgrown, remove all but six stems and…

1 Check that the roots are healthy and immerse them in water. If you can’t plant immediately, keep them wrapped and damp somewhere cool. 3 Fork over the sides of the hole so roots can spread and water escape, and add a generous amount of well-rotted manure. 2 The hole should take all the roots and be deep enough so that the graft union (where the cultivar joins the rootstock) is at soil level. 4 Plant the rose, spreading the roots and infilling around them with a mix of soil and compost or manure. Firm the soil and water generously. 5 Finally, mulch around the plant with a generous layer of well-rotted manure or compost. This insulates and nourishes the roots and suppresses weeds.…

Roses are susceptible to several pests and diseases, and you should be alert to problems as soon as plants start to bud again in spring. Black spot is a fungal disease that causes foliage blotches that start yellow and turn purple and black. In worst attacks the leaves fall and the plant is weakened. Protect plants by collecting and destroying affected leaves in autumn and prune out stem lesions. There are also several fungicides available, plus some ‘double-dose’ ones that contain pesticides. Pests include a variety of sawflies that affect the leaves and stems, and aphids. Tackle pest infestations before they get so large that you need to resort to chemicals.…

AG wildlife columnist Val Bourne has been honoured by the UK’s top garden media organisation. At a glittering ceremony at the Savoy Hotel in London, Val was presented with the Dr David Hessayon Garden Columnist of the Year Award for her weekly page by the Garden Media Guild. Val said: “I was delighted to win for Amateur Gardening. I love writing my wildlife pieces about my garden for such a worthy band of readers.” The panel of judges praised Val as: “An old-school horticultural expert with real authority, she writes with clarity and simplicity, packing masses of interesting information and technical detail into her weekly column on garden wildlife. “It’s easy to read and always thought-provoking (even if you don’t always agree with her stance) getting deep under the skin of her subject.” Val was…