Feb 20, 2014

A rose is a rose...

There are flowers, there are exotic flowers, there are giant flowers, there are bunch-blooming flowers... but then a rose is a rose J


Look at my beauties this year... 

Classical Stem Roses...

Giant bunch roses                                Pink Stem beauty

more....

and more...

and some more... :)

Feb 19, 2014

Vasant Ritu... Time to prune your rose plants

Well, we are past the days of extreme cold, icy fog, and the long awaited Vasant Ritu is finally here...! This is one of the best times of the year for a Delhi gardener... The sun is nice & bright and temperatures pleasant – that is what most of the flowering plants need, don’t they! No wonder the famed Mughal Gardens (at Rashtrapati Bhawan) are open to public at this time of the year. I have been there once (two years back I think) and was disappointed, but I think now Mr. Mukherjee being the resident, I must make another trip.

January/ February is also one of the best season for roses. The onset of spring is also the time when you would need to prune your rose plants. And how would you know that the ‘spring’ has really set in? While you can rely on the Hindu calendar month and ‘Basant Panchmi’ – your roses are the best tellers themselves!

It is that time when you would see new shoots developing from the stems as well as new leaves at the top of existing shoots. If the sun has been (and is expected to, check weather forecast) be a daily visitor for the next couple of days , then, YES, this is the time...! 

The idea behind pruning is to encourage new growth and better blooms. So, here we start.

Take a hard look at your rose plants:
  1. Remove any dead (black/ brown) wood.
  2. The stronger stems should be trimmed back a bit (2/3rd is a good thumb rule)
  3.  The weak stems should be removed.
  4. Dead flowers should be removed (you should not wait for spring for this. This should be a regular maintenance part)
  5. Remove sucker growth:

o   This is very important in the home gardening context, as most of the roses that we buy are grafted ones.
o   The word ‘sucker’ is actually incorrect, because the ‘target’ plant is grafted on an inferior plant. So, in a way we are calling the ‘original’ plant the ‘sucker’ :p
o   The ‘inferior’ plant will not produce any blooms. Poor baby L, however, it doesn’t know this very well and will try to produce its own shoots, especially during the spring time!
o   For clearing the suckers, it is important to carefully look for the ‘grafted joint’.... any growth below this (whether from the root or on the stem) is a ‘sucker’. refer the picture below.
o   You need to remove these ‘sucker’ stems because this will stunt the growth of the rose plant (‘target’).
o   If it is a sucker growing on the stem, carefully cut it from as close to the stem as possible...
o   If it is a sucker growing from the root, try to extract it from the roots, as shown below.



o   Again, you should not wait for spring for this. Removal of suckers should be a regular maintenance part, however, you would notice a considerable jump in sucker growths during spring and monsoons.


Once you are done pruning... Don't forget to put in some extra rose food to assist blooming... This should preferably be done 1-2 days after pruning. If you are a weekend gardener, just put it at the same time, lest your forget it altogether!

Time to say happy pruning gardeners!