A New Year in the Rose Garden

Starting a New Year in the heritage rose gardens is always a slow time for me. In Australia, the New Year is in the midst of the heat of Summer when the main priority for the gardens is keeping up the watering to all the precious roses.

This is especially important in our new garden here in the Hunter Valley, as all of the roses have only been planted in the past 12 months. There were no roses, other than the rambler, Dorothy Perkins, in this garden when we first moved here. A long- established rambler like Dorothy Perkins does not need extra watering to survive, so I have not included her in my assessment of the watering needs of the garden here.

However, even with tough survivors, such as the old heritage roses, regular watering and feeding is a vital factor in their long-term ability to cope with periods of drought and harsh heat. And, as all of the roses in our Hunter Valley garden have only been here since last Winter, with some additions as recently as a few weeks, consistent watering is required to build up their resilience for the future. In future years, where drought is inevitable, if the roses have been well watered in their first few years, their ability to survive periods of dry, hot weather is much greater than if they had struggled through the first few years.

Having, said this, planting out potted roses in the heat of summer is not the best gardening practice. It's certainly not one I would advise, but I can't resist a chance find of a rose or two that I didn't know I had to have! It just requires extra diligence to ensure they don't suffer water stress during these hot Summer months.

As the beginning of this year starts to tick over into the middle of January, in addition to managing the welfare of the roses, I am looking forward to when the roses have enough blooms so that we can supply our scented fresh roses and petals locally, especially during wedding season in Spring. And our scented dried roses should become more available as the year progresses and the repeat flowering old roses continue to bloom through Summer into Autumn.

Plans for the garden this year include planting more heritage roses in the garden. There are always treasures that I covet, all for the purpose of having as many fragrant, old heritage roses as I can fit into our gardens. With a variety of old heritage roses, I can be sure to have an abundant supply of fresh scented rose bunches and petals for local supply along with dried scented petals available to post more broadly.

(Sadly, I have realised after a little research, this means there are some states in Australia that I cannot supply with botanical products, these being Western Australia and Tasmania. However, as both of these states do have areas where roses are well grown, accessing quality, scented rose petals shouldn't be too difficult for locals.)

My granddaughter and I had a lovely session this morning of "market research" where we walked around the gardens gathering fresh blooms from the roses and stripping the scented petals into baskets. We even made our own confetti cones, filling them with fresh, colourful petals and practiced throwing them to see how beautifully they floated down to the ground! It was a lot of fun and the fragrance as we worked was amazing.

So for now, while we're still in the middle of a hot Summer January, watering and constant monitoring of the roses for heat stress continues. But I am looking forward to having more product available this year, with my focus still firmly on supplying gorgeously scented fresh and dried roses and rose petals for both locals and others via post.

It's all a matter of lining all my ducks up in a row .. streamlining the website and sales processes and ensuring the roses are producing their very best so that I can share their gorgeous scent near and wide.

I trust you have a happy first few weeks of the New Year, wherever you are. And may your plans be ones that excite you to look forward to a year of new beginnings and possibilities; one bloom at a time!

xx Lillian