Roses 9

Lovely collection. Looks wonderful.

Beautiful....

OUTSTANDING rose collection! My compliments to the "chef"!

Thank you, Gt, Dd and N2o - on behalf of my mother (the "chef"!) who I am sure can hear you all. Her roses required a tremendous amount of work, which she did all by herself, not that she would have wanted any help, she was such a hard worker - unlike me.

That was your mother's rose collection? What was the history behind this great looking area? The colors in the photo look like it might be an older "scanned print" from an older photo. I just wonder if she grew them organically like most of us did in the "old days" or used any modern chemical fertilizers on them.
All of my roses have been grown under a strict organic program and they are looking GREAT this year!
~N2O~

Pinelands was conceived as a Garden City, and originally no shops were allowed - later two areas were given to shops. There were many pine trees, some had to be removed to make way for houses and streets.
Yes, I had to scan these photos from my mother's prints.
The soil was pure sand, my mother imported soil by the lorry-load into her beds. She used the standard chemical mixtures, but also used a lot of compost. And sprayed the roses regularly against all sorts of disease. I didn't like that much, because we had many chameleons in the garden, some of whom became my best friends.
Good for you, N2O, I do believe organic is a great way to go.

Ahhh that is great that your mother used a lot of compost! That is the key to successful plant production. She also sprayed the roses? Do you have any idea what the old folliar feeding spray was? The current organic technology's spray formula is a mix of compost tea, seaweed extract, orange oil, and mild soap. I have had great results using this mix on tomatoes because it kills the fungus that causes "early blight" on new and older tomato plants.

Alas I can't tell you. Even the names of her roses I seem to have forgotten entirely - I found it hard enough to remember them even when young - somehow I could never digest the usually long names of flowers.
I never agreed with my mother's use of poison - pellets thrown onto the ground to kill snails, under the grapefruit tree - who knows where that poison ends up ? In the grapefruit ?
And I think it was perhaps karmic justice that eventually all her roses were wiped out by a plague of beetles - who bred, ironically enough, in her compost bins.
They came in their thousands - huge yellow and black striped, noisy flyers - I used to remove hundreds from the flowers every day - and stuff them into bottles.
These beetles covered the flowers and devoured them entirely in a matter of minutes.
Once you interfere in the balance of nature, you must be prepared for dire consequences.

Gurthbruins, that says it all... That Is why I have always stuck to a strict organic program and only use non-toxic organic pest control methods. Mother Nature always knows best and always will in the long-term.
~N2O~