Huge Autumn Sale, for this month only!

This is the last quiet - or nearly quiet - month for us, before starting our digging season.

We are busy in some maintenance jobs in the field and getting organised for winter: stock our supplies of boxes and packaging materials, cut rootstock for next year plants, contact casual employees for the next few months, empty and reorganise the big packaging shed...

Our Potted Roses are giving us their last beautiful flowers before the cold season, and because we know how much you love roses, we've decided to offer you a 50% discount on all of them, for this month only.

And it's not all.

Sunday 11th April we'll be open to public, being the 2nd Sunday of the month.

It'll be our last Open Sunday for a while, as we we'll be busy digging and posting bare root roses from May to September, so... Here is our second surprise for you: 15% discount on all bare root orders received online or at the nursery (not on the phone) on 11th April, for 24 hours only. If orders are placed online, use the promo code APRIL11SALE at the check out.

- 50% off Potted Roses from the 1st to 30th April (online and at the nursery)

- 15% off bare root orders on Sunday 11th April, for 1 day only, using promo code APRIL11SALE at the checkout.

- We'll be open on Sunday 11th April, from 10am to 3pm: last opportunity to see all the rose varieties we grow in flower.

Those little bugs on your roses...

In this period, you may notice an influx of Aphids on your rose plants.

Put in place control methods straight away as they exude honeydew which develops into sooty mould.

Beneficial insects such as ladybirds will snack on these insects, but if the aphid population becomes too great you may have to use another method:

Using a hose, spray off the aphids on the affected areas – be careful of the new growth
Use hand removal by squishing them
Spray warm soapy water with garlic on the spots where the aphids are gathering
Neam oil is an organic spray that helps repel aphids

April jobs in your garden

- Continue to dead head your roses, but if your roses produce hips, leave them on and remove the petals to encourage the hips to mature. More on rose hips further down…

- Pick off any of the foliage that shows blackspot, mildew or rust and dispose in your green waste bin. Do Not add to your compost as you do not want the spores contaminating your soil or compost.

- In cooler regions, reduce watering to twice a week (unless you receive good rainfall) and reduce fertilising as the roses will naturally start to go dormant.

- In warmer regions such as Queensland, maintain watering even if you have good rainfall and keep fertilising for another month.

Prepare the soil for new roses

Have you ordered new bare root roses for this winter? If you have, you should be preparing the soil for their arrival in July/August.

1) Firstly, decide which kind of soil you have.

- Clay soil has poor drainage and a very high PH. This means that you will need to improve the drainage by adding Gypsum and reduce the alkaline by adding organic material or elemental sulphur.

Well-aged compost, manures and Seamungus from Neutrog are also essential.

- Sandy soil will drain too quickly and will not retain enough water and nutrients for your plants. Here you will need to introduce more organic material such as well-aged compost, manures and Seamungus.

- If the organic content of the soil is too high, the acidity could also be too high, this can be remedied by adding agricultural lime or dolomite.

Roses prefer a soil with a PH of 6.5.I little higher or lower is OK.

2) Till over the soil very well making sure to aerate and loosen roots, but do not damage the roots of existing rose plants.

3) Check if you have sufficient drainage by digging a 30cm hole and filling it with water. The water should take approximately 15min to drain away, not faster and not slower.

4) Adding bone meal, blood meal or NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium) is also beneficial to your rose plants.

Remember: do not replace a rose with another rose.

If you need to do this in your garden, while digging out the old rose you must take ½ wheel-borrow of soil with it.

You can then replace the soil from another part of your garden that has not had a rose involved. This will ensure the new rose will settle in the spot comfortably.

Now you just have to sit back and relax until your rose order arrives.

Beautiful Autumn Rose Hips

We often don't see rose hips on our plants as we prefer pruning our roses to encourage more blooms, but in Autumn, if you leave the spent bloom and remove only the old petal, you will see the base turning into a plump red ball.

This is in essence the fruit of the rose.

Rose hips can range in colours, from a bright orange to red and sometimes purple.

Most times they will be round, but they could also be oblong or even bottled shape.

Hips attract bird life to your garden, they are beautiful in an autumn themed flower arrangement, as Cindy Cross shows in this video using Rugosa Alba hips and Honey Dijon Roses.

Hips are also edible and are full of vitamin C and antioxidants. Rugosa’s ones are particularly delicious (but do not harvest hips that have been sprayed with chemicals).

They can be used to make herbal teas, jams, jellies, syrups and soups.

If you live in a cold area, wait until after the first frosts to harvest, to intensify their flavours.

Roses producing good hips are Rugosa Alba, Cupid Clg, Jens Munk, Rugspin and Scabrosa, only to name a few.

(In the picture: Rugspin's hips)

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 and the Team at Wagner's