Gardener's World with Paraic Horkan NDH

Plant summer flowering roses now.

March is an ideal time to plan ahead for summer colour, soil conditions are beginning to warm up and young newly planted roses will be off to a flying start.
Soil preparation is important as young roses are hungry feeders but will reward you with an abundance of summer colour from early June.

Horkys tip: Add organic composted Westland farmyard manure to the base of newly planted roses.

Roses - some of the best!

For long-lasting summer colour roses are up there with the best.
March is the ideal month to plant a new rose border or to replace old or damaged varieties.
Soil preparation is important and selecting a sunny well-drained site makes for a good show later on.
The selection available at present has never been as good with new introductions bred for disease resistance and long flowering ability.

Horkys tip: Look out this year for one of the best new introductions called! Irish eyes! A low growing variety with excellent disease resistance, so important in the west, and beautiful free flowering habit with double blooms of vibrant yellow and red from June to November.
Irish eyes is a very free flowering floribunda ideal for mass planting or for containers.

Many varieties will flower from June to early winter and some until Christmas day.

Trumpeter.

A McGready rose bred in Ireland by the famous rose grower in 1978.
Trumpeter is a low growing bush rose with dark green foliage with a lovely red colour to the younger growth. The flower buds form in June in abundance up to fifteen per stem and open gradually.
The flowers are deep blood red and stand out from a long distance creating a real splash of colour from late June onwards.
The foliage is glossy and keeps many of the rose diseases at bay.
Plant trumpeter in groups to create a uniform stunning display, space your plants two feet apart.
Dead head the flowers throughout the summer to encourage the production of new flowering wood.

Horkys tip: Prepare the soil for all roses with composted farmyard manure, as roses are hungry feeders and appreciate well-prepared soil.

Top marks.

As the name suggests this is a superb low growing patio rose with all the best features excellent bright colour, double blooms, and low bushy habit and very free flowering. This particular rose was voted rose of the year in 1992 and still out shines many newer varieties.
A popular patio rose with a super show of colour throughout the summer.
Top marks has a deep scarlet colour starting in June and flowering to late autumn. The bush is very compact with nice dark green foliage.
Ideal for patio containers mixed with summer bedding or for bedding out in rose borders and as a dot plant through mixed shrub borders.
Top marks is trouble free and settles in even to the smallest flower border.

Horkys tip: Plant patio top marks and sun hit together to give a splash of colour throughout the summer. Rosa sun hit has brilliant bright yellow flowers and acts as a good contrast to top marks.

Space the plants eighteen inches apart and plant in groups and add composted organic matter to the planting hole.

Horkys tip: Feed your roses with top rose once a month, and remember to dead head throughout the summer.

Dawn chorus.

Dawn chorus is one of the outstanding orange hybrid tea roses you could grow, voted rose of the year in 1993 this variety displays well-formed blooms of vivid orange on strong up right growth.
A very neat hybrid tea rose ideal for the front of a mixed raised border or used on mass in a larger bed.
The flowers are produced in profusion and perfectly shaped.
A very good choice for the smaller garden where quality and shape is important.
The free flowering bushes are well clothed with healthy foliage, which is coppery red when young.

Horkys tip: After pruning in spring spray your roses with armillitix and repeat the spray in early march to give your roses the best start to the new year.

Lili Marlene.

Scarlet red blooms with a super scent make Lili Marlene one of the most popular red floribunda roses.
The overall shape is compact with dark green foliage and an abundance of red flowers from June to early winter.
This is an excellent variety for mass planting to create a strong splash of colour.

Weed control in roses.

To create excellent weed control cover the soil with plantex material and place a layer of bark mulch over this material.
Plantex can be used on shrub borders, rose beds, rockeries and fruit borders for superb weed control with out the use of chemicals.

Remember Horkans Garden Centres in Sligo and Castlebar are open seven days Sunday 2 to 6pm. horky@iol.ie

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