Watering. Are you watering effectively?

October is normally a calm month for us at Wagner's, mainly dedicated to planning the many things that will keep us busy in the new months.

We need to plan the Potted Roses Collection, that will be back for sale on 15th October - both online and at the nursery.

We need to plan the Catalogue and the New Releases for 2021: which varieties will be deleted because they're less popular, and which ones will be introduced.

We need to plan the budding season, which means how many plants for each variety we estimate to grow for next year sales.

For this reason, and to avoid disappointments, we'd like to know earlier what you're going to order for next year and we'll open the pre-orders for bare-rooted roses in November instead of January. This will give us a much more accurate idea of what our customers want, in time to act on it.

I personally need to plan my photography work and the new campaign images for the next 12 months - I actually love this creative part of my job.

And we also need to plan a display rose garden at the nursery because we'd like you to visit us in the next few months and to show you all our varieties in flower (Stay tuned - we'll have something new to announce very soon).

So many things to do and new projects to work on!

Maybe we should stop saying that October is our quietest month... What do you think?

Potted roses back online

We've been working hard potting some popular varieties and increasing our Collection, in order to offer you more roses ready to be planted from now until Autumn.

We could start selling our pots online today, but the delays Australia Post is still experiencing in these weeks made us decide to wait for another couple of weeks.

We know bare root roses travel very well and survive in their boxes for weeks, but potted roses are obviously different; they're not dormant plants and after two weeks they start suffering.

So, we'll officially open our sale of potted roses online on the 15th October.

If you're local, you can order them now for collection from the nursery. - just contact us and we'll organise it for you.

And if you really need a potted rose now and you're happy to pay for some extra postage, we can use Express Post, as we are positive it'll be given priority and it'll be delivered faster.

Since last year, we've been using plastic-free packaging and we'll continue to do so.

This year, we are also very excited to announce that our gift-wrapped roses will be plastic-free: a beautiful present for the receiver of the rose and for our environment (we'll soon share more details on our new gift-wrapping).

In your garden this month...

Brian is never tired to repeat it: Watering must be your priority if you want to grow healthy and strong roses.

Fungal diseases are often stress-related, and one of the main reason for stress is lack of water.

Always check the soil around your plant, or in the pot, and make sure it never dries out.

Here are Brian's tips to water your roses correctly.

Water less often but longer

Roses can develop a very big root system- at least 2 metres long- and spread widely and deeply under the base of the plant.

So, when you water your roses, you need to make sure all the area around the plant gets wet, up to at least 1 metre away from the base.

-Water less often - even only 1-2 times a week - but longer and deeper.

- Check the soil the day after you watered: dig a spade-depth hole 30 cm away from the rose: the soil at the bottom of the hole needs to be moist; if it's dry, water again and longer.

- In the event of extreme heat, water deeply 1 or 2 days before.

- If you are watering overhead, do it preferably early morning to give the foliage plenty of time to dry out.

To know more about the correct watering, watch this video.

- If you're using drip irrigation, make sure you check and clean the system quite regularly.

Space the drip lines around 60cm and run them parallel.

To hear the pros and cons of drip irrigation, watch this video.

The white rose in the picture is Desdemona® (Auskindling)

Did You Know...?

Did you know that nutrient uptake is greater through the foliage than the root system?

So, fish and kelp base foliage spray is very beneficial for your plants, preferably given every 2-3 weeks.

A combination of foliage and soil applications of fertilizer is ideal.

In the picture: Olivia Rose Austin® (Ausmixture)

If you enjoyed reading this Newsletter, suggest it to your friends and rose lovers around you.

We send out our News every 1st day of the month.

If you have a question or a particular subject you want us to write about, please let us know.

Send an email to [email protected] and we'll do our best to help you.

Grazie e a presto!

Benedetta