Happy Mother’s Day!
Having about 70 different types of roses in my garden, the amount of time I spend on them can be pretty enormous and I am a busy mom. So I worked out some tricks to cut down the time and they worked wonders!
Too much time spent on this hobby means less time for other important things - my 9-months old baby, 2 cute kids, devoting husband and demanding career.
As today is Mother’s Day; I would like to share my 10 useful tricks I have discovered myself, with all busy moms out there who love roses or wish to grow roses but don’t find time to do so.
So, how to spend less time caring for your roses?
TEN HOT TIPS!
Hot Tip No 1: Buy roses that are disease resistant and can grow vigorous and tall pretty quick
Less time is needed for you to care when your rose tree gets stronger and bigger in the shortest amount of time. Stronger tree means the better it is to withstand any amount of stress or diseases. You can ask your local nurseryman about roses you’re buying to learn more. Alternatively, you can choose old garden roses ‘ros-ros kampung’ which these require very little care.
Hot Tip No 2: Put your rose collection together / line them up
As most of us grow our roses in containers, it helps to be organized in how you place these roses/containers in your garden. I am sure you mix roses around with other plants to create a well balanced, bushy, good looking garden. But if you have a number of roses in your collection like I have, it’s always a good idea to keep them together instead of scatter them everywhere. Only then you add other plants to beautify the surroundings.
This way you can have a dedicated spot for just roses. It will better showcase your rose collection and you will have an easy and immediate access to all your roses whenever you need to maintain them. Another important reason is because roses require a different treatment. You can't treat roses the same way you treat your other plants.
For me, I like to grow my roses in uniform containers and line them up. The view is still marvelous and it allows me to easily enjoy the blooms whenever I walk pass them.
Hot Tip No 3: Put all your rose care tools in ONE box
Most rose gardeners make this mistake of keeping their rose gardening tools together with other gardening tools. Some don’t even have the habit of keeping the tools together in one tool box. This is because the way you care for your tools says it all about your discipline. If you can’t care for your gardening tools, you can’t care for your rose. I remember that serious chefs do take good care of their knives.
Hot Tip No 4: Make sure you have ALL the tools.
You’ll be wasting time if you don’t have all the tools you need ready at hand. A good rose gardener would have all the tools he/she needs with enough supplies. These include sharp shears, leather gloves, rubber gloves, fork, trowel, a roll of wire, a glass jar for rose cutting, face masks for spraying routine, grafting wax or plant sealant, garbage bags for dead leaves, bleach solution, measuring scoops and a fertilizer bucket. You can’t be efficient if you don’t have all the tools ready, can you?
Hot Tip No 5: Scoops and a fertilizer bucket?
Another trick that I do is by having pre-measured scoops for different amount of fertilizer that I wish to feed my roses for different container/tree size. I have two plastic scoops being one is for medium-sized container and the other is for large-sized container. This way I don’t have to think much about the dosage that I need to apply. The ready scoops help me to do my fertilizing routine speedily.
I also have a dedicated fertilizer bucket for me to carry my fertilizer around. This way I can just scoop out the fertilizer into my roses while I walk pass each tree with ease. I also have enough fertilizer in the bucket to cover all of my roses without me ever have to return to the fertilizer sack for topping up.
4 comments:
Love to see your roses in same kind pots like that :-D Your roses look really beautiful. Good tips! Thank you.
Hi Stephanie, glad you like the tips! And thanks for the compliments and for stopping by.
How do you maintain your garden tools? I was told not to use rusty shears when cutting the roses so I make sure I clean my shear by wiping it with a tissue paper after using. But it still turn black after using for a few times. Any tips on this? Thanks
I don't really mind the blacken blade as I think that's normal. But when it turns golden rusty that's when hard scrapping and washing comes in. To avoid blacken or rust, simply wash after use and let air dry. Then wipe lightly the blade and bolt with oiled cloth. I use cooking/vegetable oil. That will keep rust at bay. Hope that helps.
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