Pittwater Life June 2023 Issue

Garden Life
with Gabrielle Bryant
Garden Life
Now’s the time to plant beds
of colourful, fragrant roses
It’s rose-planting time – roses need a
bright sunny well drained position in
the garden. There are roses for every
situation; carpet roses will spill down
slopes or cover the ground, tiny miniature
roses are ideal for pots and window boxes,
standard roses are perfect for structural
balance in tubs or lining pathways, climbing
roses cover arbours, fences and climb the
walls – but the most popular are the bush
roses. Perfect for picking and easy to grow.
Bush roses are either single-stemmed
for cutting, or multi-headed floribunda
roses for massed colour in the garden.
The selection in the garden centres and
online from the rose growers is quite
overwhelming.
Some roses are fragrant while others are
not. Colours from pure white to the deepest
velvet, through every shade of pink, orange,
As the cold weather sets
in, it is the best time to
plant new rhubarb crowns,
either in the veggie patch
or in large pots or tubs.
Rhubarb is an old-fashioned,
perennial favourite that is
coming back into modern
cooking. Nothing can
beat hot rhubarb crumble
or rhubarb pie on a cold
winter’s night.
Rhubarb is a cut-and-comeagain
vegetable – just like
the ‘Magic Pudding’. Planted
in compost-rich soil, it needs
to be well-fed and watered
regularly but must not have
yellow, purple and lavender. There is a rose
for everyone.
Before you plant your new rose, dig the
proposed spot thoroughly and add some
slow-release fertiliser and plenty of compost
to the soil. Remove the rose from its bag and
‘tease’ the roots. Next, mound the soil in the
bottom of the hole and sit the rose onto the
mound, spreading the roots downwards into
the hole. Fill the hole with water and allow
it to drain, then backfill to bury the roots,
making sure that the graft remains above
the soil level. The graft can be identified by
a scar on the stem that is just above the soil
line, then water well once again.
It is very important that the roots should
not be allowed to dry. If the rose has
started to make new growth while in the
bag, cut it back now. It will soon shoot
again.
Rhubarb… rhubarb… rhubarb!
wet feet or the crown will rot.
It is very easy to grow.
Rhubarb will jump into
life as soon as the weather
warms up, growing huge,
scarlet-stemmed leaves. Once
the plant matures, harvest by
braking back from ground
level and pulling up. Make
sure to discard the outer
leaves – only the stems are
edible. (The green leaves
are full of oxalic acid that is
poisonous.)
Put the discarded leaves
to one side. Boil them up
in water, about 1 part to
10, add some soapy water,
after you have strained it,
and you will have your own
organic insecticide.
Legacy of
Dolly’s Dream
If you have kids or grandkids,
this is the rose for you. Dolly
took her life after cyber bullying
and being badly bullied at school;
it led her family to start the
charity ‘Dolly’s Dream’ with the
aim to reduce bullying in schools
through education and support.
Together with Knight’s Roses
in SA, they have released a
floribunda red rose called ‘Dolly’s
Dream’ that has three or four
buds on every stem.
This is a very fragrant, dark red
rose that can change in colour in
different temperatures, from dark
burgundy to deep purple. It can
be bought now as a bush rose
or as a 2ft or 3ft standard rose.
It is available online and every
rose sold will pay royalties to this
charity and help to focus on antibullying
programs in schools.
62 JUNE 2023
The Local Voice Since 1991