Gardens of Remembrance In this time of unprecedented loss, very few have not been touched by the death of someone they love, admired or respected.  The grief has even extended to people we did not know personally but who affected our communal lives through their leadership. It all feels so personal. Throughout the ages, people and communities have created gardens of memory, to honour those they lost and to keep their memories alive. It appears to be an instinctive need, to set apart a sacred space of memory that is also a living space, part of the eternal cycle of nature.  Creat ..read more

FERTILISING ROSES IN NOVEMBER The roses have just completed their October marathon and it is time to power them up for the next show in December. Monthly fertilising, from September to April helps the roses to flower for 10 months of the year and grow strongly, which makes them more heat and drought tolerant. It is easy to spot hungry roses; the leaves are light green, the bushes don’t grow or flower well and are easily affected by black spot, even after spraying. The simplest way to give roses what they need is to follow the recommended dose, worked out by the fertiliser manufacturers who h ..read more

Learning and exploring through petal play in the Garden. Gardening and growing Roses with children provides them with skills to help your child’s development.  You and your children will enjoy every stage of the existing process of gardening together. Gardening offers so many fun and interesting opportunities for children, gardening can teach them invaluable lessons. They can learn to be familiar with the environment and learn about the different species of plants and Roses and what those plants will need to help them grow well. Gardening with children provides the perfect combination ..read more

Did you know that 70% of the food we eat depends on being pollinated by bees? Summer squash like zucchini and gem squash, as well as cucumbers, particularly rely on bees to pollinate their flowers, as do tomatoes, peppers and brinjals. Scientists have now found out that buzzing over a bloom, flapping their wings, makes a slight positive electrical charge and they sense the slight negative electrical charge of the bloom that needs pollinating. Once a bloom is pollinated it emits a no vacancy signal with a positive charge. How do they find flowers and remain faithful to a specific plant specie ..read more

Pruning is always seen as a necessary chore, but what if we saw it as the way to coax more and better blooms from our roses? Isn’t that what we all want? Climbers intensely beautify this building. There is an ancient pruning method, still used for fruit trees, that can be applied to climbing roses, Midinettes, Panarosa and even Spire roses with spectacular effect. ‘Isidingo’ espaliered onto a fence. Espaliering is a method of pruning and training fruit trees, mainly apples and pears, to improve yields in a small space. Whoever saw the possibility for roses is a genius because the basic princip ..read more

There is a special breed of landscapers who love to use roses. They are always willing to try out new roses, especially if a client is adventurous, and over the years have developed their personal favourites that are super-performers. Some roses have become their signature, like the three ‘Granny’ roses (‘My Granny’, ‘Granny’s Delight’ and ‘Granny Dearest’) in various shades of pink that are always found in gardens created by Karen Gardelli of Creative Containers. “My Granny’, interplanted with ‘Granny’s Delight’ in magenta pink. She pots up huge, beautiful mixed containers, using all three ..read more

We are all planting as many veggies as we can, but there is no reason to dig out the roses! Basket of home grown veggies and roses It is not an either-or-option, because you can have both; food for the body (veggies) and food for the soul (flowers). French kitchen gardeners have always combined roses with the vegetables and herbs in their family potager. It is a productive and companionable mix because rose blooms attract pollinators, especially bees, which are needed to pollinate the vegetables. Roses and vegetables share the same growing requirements; full sun, shelter from strong, c ..read more

This couldn’t be a better time to spend with your roses and any attention lavished on them will be rewarded by beautiful blooms right through to winter. What better way to spend the lockdown?  Start each day with a walk around the garden and greet each of your roses. You will begin to see how different each rose is and how they are growing. Do they need fertiliser (yellowish leaves or chlorotic leaves), feel the soil (is it moist), are bugs eating the leaves or spoiling the blooms? What is so satisfying about roses is that they respond within a week to any improvement, whether it is fer ..read more

Want a new look for your roses? Break away from formality and traditional rose beds with these fresh, contemporary ideas by landscaper, Helét van Blerk, of Gorgeous Gardens. Helét is a landscaper in Pretoria and many of her clients have ultra-modern homes in upmarket estates.  “Everyone still loves roses but not the formal rose beds, so we mix the roses with other perennials and grasses for a more natural look,” she says. Grasses are an obvious choice. Helét loves using them because they bring movement and texture into the garden while softening the rose bushes and emphasising the bloom ..read more

Do you find it daunting to choose the perfect rose? Just listen to you heart, you will be surprised how easily you’ll fall in love with the one that is just right for you at that moment, no matter the colour, fragrance or shape.  We were all beginner’s at rose growing at some stage….  Of course, it helps if the rose grows easily, is disease resistant and needs very little care – which is a core value for Ludwig’s Roses novelty roses.  After many years of helping to find your perfect roses, these are the five recommended winners for beginners. ‘Garden Queen’ KORbilant(N ..read more