Roses – they’re heavenly scent!

The birth flower for the month of June is the rose and at this time of year in the northern hemisphere it is summer and roses are in glorious full bloom. This is a flower with many colours, forms and meanings.
Roses come as climbers, ramblers, standards and small and large bushes.
The colour range is huge and these days covers almost every hue of the spectrum from white to deep red, yellows and oranges, pinks and blue mauves and even light green. Then we could start on the many bicolours and striped varieties.
The form of the rose also comes in many styles from singles to full doubles to perfect forms and cabbage roses – the choice is endless and available from many outlets and catalogues at present.
So, if your birthday is in June, and you have room for another plant in your garden, enjoy perusing the catalogues and making the decision and perhaps treating yourself to yet another one.
Various colours have different meaning in the language of flowers. Red, as we all know, denotes love and a single red rose given is better than a bouquet as it denotes deep love.
A pink rose is perfect happiness, white is innocence and purity while a yellow one conveys jealousy or a decrease in love.
So gentlemen, be thrifty and only buy a single red bloom, but be careful what colours you put in a mixed bunch as it would be very easy to confuse a lady with mixed messages!
Gardens in temperate climates have included roses from very early times.
Paintings in Egyptian tombs from the 14th century BC have roses depicted. They were considered a sacred flower and given as offerings to the goddess Isis.
The Chinese and Greeks were relative newcomers but were growing them as far back as 500 BC. According to Confucius, the Imperial Chinese Library was filled with books on roses and Hindu legend tells of the gods Vishnu (Protector of the world) and Brahma (Creator of the world) ending an argument by agreeing that the rose was the “supreme flower” when it was presented to them.
Rose breeding really started in Europe in the 1600s with new species being introduced, and when the China rose appeared in the 1800s a real explosion of varieties followed.
Empress Josephine of France is credited with some of the popularity of roses as she supported their breeding in her gardens at Malmaison.
Cupid is given the blame for rose thorns as legend has it he shot an arrow into a rose by mistake when he was stung by a bee. Thorns appeared as the “sting” as a result.
The colour red according to this myth is a result of Venus pricking her foot on a thorn and the droplets of blood coloured the rose.
Even though I live in the Rose City of Queensland and love roses, I am not a rose grower and leave that to people who have the patience to deal with the many complications such as black spot and aphids.
Annette Russell of Killarney, is one such lady and has the most spectacular rose garden with about 400 named varieties growing. Annette will have a photo display of some of these at the Gardening Extravaganza during Jumpers and Jazz and will be happy to talk roses and their care with anyone interested.
Her beautiful garden will be open for visitors every day in October and, after having seen and smelled the glorious perfume of so many roses last year, I would recommend you certainly put it on your “bucket list” for then.
The council has a difficult job under trying conditions with the roses down the main street. It is almost time for the annual pruning so that we will have a good display for Rodeo week in October.
There are approximately 2000 roses in the city so the pruning, fertilising and everyday care is no small undertaking.
Last week some of us attended the Leafmore Garden School in Toowoomba for an interesting and informative day out.
I only attended day one of the two days but enjoyed the presentation on salvias by Barbara Wickes and the many samples of different varieties she had from her garden.
Salvias are certainly versatile and beautiful and easy care plants with few pest and disease problems and with their variety of size and colour are worthy of a place in any garden.
Barbara is one of the many people involved with the Queensland Garden Expo in Nambour and is responsible for the establishment of the Giant Kitchen Garden display there.
Don’t forget to go to Danny Lyons and get your tickets for the Horticultural Societies’ bus trip to the Expo on 8 July.
Anne Gibson spoke passionately about soil health and the corresponding increase in nutritional value of the vegetables produced and also the benefits of the inclusion of “micro greens” in our diet.
Anne also gave the interesting hint for gardeners of using one tablespoon of molasses dissolved in a bucket of water as a garden tonic. Add a small amount of seaweed fertiliser and your plants will love you. This is something I will certainly give a try…. my son brought me up a bottle of molasses from his thousand litre tank as he passed through yesterday so all set to go. I don’t think you could find a less expensive tonic especially at the price I was able to obtain it! Even if you have to go to the local produce store to buy some it would still be very inexpensive.
Well-known local personality Brian Samms was entertaining as he demystified plant propagation.
The day was completed by floral artist Debby Birch-Mayer with the putting together of some interesting arrangements.
A final thought as a follow up to last week’s column … my broad beans are not just blooming now but have set beans!