A Rosy Christmas

GET THE LOOK

Sunny patios are the ideal place for showing off roses, especially those with fragrance. This built-in plant box that defines the outer edge of the living area is filled to capacity with roses: ‘Amarula Profusion’ cascading outwards and downwards, ‘Garden and Home’ growing upwards, and ‘Garden Queen’ adding a splash of contrasting colour.

- Ludwig Taschner

Other roses that will work equally well are the fragrant ‘Adele Searll’, the ‘Granny’ roses, ‘Deloitte & Touche’, ‘Thank You’, ‘Duncan’s Rose’ and ‘Perfume Passion’.

MAKE IT a rosy Christmas

It’s time for the second rose flush, but with a little manipulation you can make sure there are roses for Christmas Day, or even delay their flowering until your return from the Christmas holidays.

For Christmas Day roses, pinch off a third of the flowering tips or identify new shoots with three or four shoots and cut back to them. Either way, the flowering will be staggered and there will still be flowers to decorate the home.

Away for Christmas? Just before leaving, pinch out the tips of all new shoots, leave old blooms on the bush, and spray well with Chronos and Ludwig’s Insect Spray to protect the roses from black spot and pests. The pinching delays flowering and the plants require less water if it doesn’t rain. It’s then easy to get your roses into ‘flowering mode’ on your return.