Sunday, July 4, 2010

Prune and Protect Your Roses

Winter is the time to prune and protect your roses in preparation for getting the best display from them this summer.

How to Prune Your Roses

  • First spray your roses with NO Fungus Super Sulphur. This is a curative and preventative fungucide that will help reduce the risk of infecting your roses when it comes to the pruning operation. NO Fungus Super Sulphur is BioGro certified organic; it has no offencive odours has no withholding period, can be used all year round and is suitable for use on: Roses, Fruit trees, Citrus, Vines and Ornamentals.
  • Prune your roses about 1 week after treating with Super Sulphur. Pruning your roses encourages new growth, removes old woody stems that would be prone to disease and lets you shape your roses for the best display.
  • Hybrid Tea and Floribunda roses benefit most from pruning but all roses should be checked over and dead or diseased stems removed.
  • Use a clean and sharp pair of pruning shears. Do not leave a ragged stem end which would be prone to infection.
  • Cut just above an outward-facing bud to encourage the plant to grow into an open shape. If the cut is too far above a shoot the stem above the bud will die back and there is an increased risk of disease. Slope cuts away from the bud, allowing rainwater run off away from the bud.
  • About 1 week after the prunning, spray the roses with NO Insects Super Spraying Oil.
  • This BioGro certified product protects the rose from insects and disease as it prepares for the new season’s growth. Controls: San Jose Scale, Thrips, Needle Blight, Citrus Red Mite, Aphids, European Red Mite
God made rainy days so the gardeners can get the housework done.

2 comments:

  1. Hi David, I live in a block of flats in London and about 2 weeks ago I heard a scratching sound underneath my floorboards in my bedroom. It started at around 4am in the morning and continued in the next few days around the same time. I put down a couple of traps but I have not seen any mice or any droppings. Then the sounds stopped and today it started again around 4am. Could this be mice or something underneath the floorboards? Could you offer me some advise on what I can do and what you think it is? thanks Natalie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello,
      Keep the traps in place (somewhere under cover and out of sight, e.g. roof void, behind, fridge etc.). It can take several days for rodents to get used to the trap.
      The timing of the noises suggests it might be something else such as birds or expansion/contraction noise from boards or pipework. Consider those possibilities if you hear the noises again.
      David

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