395. Roses - Christina Sinclair: Salty Sam's Fun Blog for Children

September 9th, 2022

Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children

Number 395

Roses

Hello Everyone

One of the things you will notice about Auntie Alice’s garden is that she loves roses.

They are in abundance in the summer months climbing over arches and even a shed or two. They are wonderful for bringing into the house as a cut flower and even a single bloom can look lovely in a small, narrow vase.

ln a sheltered spot, her rose bushes can bloom into December.

Roses are the nation’s favourite flower.

They are a garden classic and have been associated with romance and beauty for centuries.

Are they your favourite too?

They come in various shapes, colours, sizes and even with different scents.

The most ancient of roses tend to be pink or white and they mostly flower at the beginning of summer.

They were cultivated back in the gardens of palaces in Ancient Egypt, Rome and Persia. They have, for a long time, been used to flavour the confectionery called Turkish delight.

There are wild roses in the hedgerows; there are cultivated roses in people’s gardens.

The roses that we grow today are the result of much breeding done by growers in Europe and Asia over the last 500 years. They started with a rose that grows in the wild.

Roses are actually related to apple trees.

During the 18^th century, Asian-bred roses came to Europe. They were cross-bred to create roses called floribunda roses and hybrid tea roses. These rose plants grow as bushes.

lf you wish to cover a wall or archway with a rose, you can use a rambling or climbing rose.

So what is the difference between the two?

Well, a rambling rose has smaller flowers and blooms just once in a year on the previous year’s wood.

Climbers tend to have larger flowers on shorter stems and bloom on the new wood that forms the same year that they flower.

You can have flowers blooming for most of the year.

Roses bloom from late spring right into the depths of winter if they are in a sheltered position, and the way you can encourage them to keep flowering is by deadheading them. Dead heading roses is a really important thing to do and you must do this regularly through the summer to keep them flowering well.

Dead heading means that when the flowers start to fade and shrivel and turn brown, you snip them off at the bottom of their stalk. This will give the plant more energy to produce another bloom.

Of course, some plants produce beautiful hips after the blooms have faded and you won’t get these if you have cut the flowers off – because it is the flowers that eventually turn into hips.

Hips are seed-pods. They can sometimes be the most beautiful orange or red.

A species rose, or wild rose, only has a Latin name not an English one as well. They need to be pruned in June or July. These roses often do well in shade and grow well in a hedge. You will see their bright hips in the autumn.

Roses can be raised from seeds or cuttings.

A lot is talked about in regard to pruning roses but an experiment was carried out once where on bush was pruned in a traditional way and the one next to it was half annihilated (destroyed) with a chain saw and if anything the one indiscriminately hacked with the chain saw continued to do better.

That means you should not worry too much about this subject!

Roses are really quite tough plants. They grow in all soils, even heavy clay. You can find one for almost any position; sunny or sheltered.

They have deep roots; they can be left out over winter but you mustn’t plant rose bushes in soil where others have just been taken out – in order to try and keep them disease-free.

The earth roses grow in should be well-drained and the plants really like being fed with well-rotted manure. (Fresh manure is too strong for plants and can damage them.) The manure can be dug in with them when they are planted or spread around them as a mulch. Don’t let it touch the stems; leave a 10cm circular gap around them.

You might find it easier to feed them with rose or tomato fertilizer to encourage growth and flowering.

Rose plants do like to be watered in a severe drought and people in Australia in recent years have been encouraged to grow gardens that are filled less with the plants that you would find typically in an English garden and more drought resistant plants that are indigenous (native) to Australia. This is in an attempt to save precious water reserves.

There are some problems that roses have from pests and diseases. Some varieties are more resistant to problems than others.

Rose problems can be identified by using photographs in a gardening book or online.

Aphids (or greenfly) can be a common problem.

There are various ways to deal with greenfly – you can use a soapy-water spray, or just let the birds deal with them. lf you have fed your birds during the winter to encourage them into your garden, they might stay around through the summer to help you out with eating your greenfly.

The most popular rose in Britain is one called Peace. lt is a two-toned rose that changes colour as it opens from a bud to a full bloom. lt is pale yellow and pink. lt is very beautiful and smells sweet and delicious.

lt was developed by a French grower called Francis Meilland in the late 1930s.

When he saw that the Nazi invasion of France was about to take place, he sent cuttings to his friends in ltaly, Turkey and Germany to safeguard his precious creation.

He also managed to get a packet on the last plane that flew out to the United States before the Nazis invaded.

There, the rose was propagated during the duration of the war.

lt has different names in different countries but in Britain, the United States, Sweden and Norway; it is called Peace.

The adoption of the trade name Peace was announced in 1945, the year in which the war ended.

Peace has won many awards, and was given the highest accolade when it was named as the world’s favourite rose.

lf you like my blog, please support it by telling all your friends and followers about it.

Thank you!

And see you again next Fun Friday!

Love and kisses

Salty Sam

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www.christina-sinclair.com

Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week

Bill: What did the bee say when he saw the rose?

Bob: l don’t know. What did the bee say when he saw the rose?

Bill: Hello honey!

Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.

Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com

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Picture Gallery

Peace

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desk THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK

This week, the children were helping Auntie Alice in the garden again.

The vicar was arranging a big seed swap in the village hall and Auntie Alice wanted to see if she could swap some of the seeds from her flowers for some flowers that she didn’t have already.

Other people who grew flowers in their gardens might have flowers that she would like to have growing in hers for the first time.

She furnished herself with a lot of large envelopes and went around her flower borders collecting seeds that were drying in the sun.

The children helped, but Auntie Alice kept an eye on what they were doing because everything had to be labelled correctly and the children did not know the names of all the flowers.

The seed swap will be one Saturday at the end of the summer.

Auntie Alice has been collecting seed for some while now for it. You need to collect seeds at exactly the right time so that they are ripe – but before they blow away!

The vicar will lay the seeds out on some tables so that people can see them clearly displayed. Auntie Alice will help him because they will need to be put in categories by someone who knows a lot about gardening.

There will be vegetable seeds and flower seeds.

There will be seeds of flowers for sunny places and shady places, dry places and damp places, sheltered places and windy places.

Then people will get to grow plants that are suitable for their garden.

Whilst Auntie Alice is laying out all the envelopes I expect she will see what she wants to pick out for herself!

The vicar will hand out receipts to everyone that hands in packets of seeds and they will be able to take an equal number of packets away.

If they contribute ten packets of seeds, for example, they will be able to take away ten packets of seeds. They will give in their receipt as they leave the hall with their new seeds.

The door to the village hall will open at ten o’clock.

Everyone will pay a small fee to come in – to contribute to the upkeep of the hall.

There will also be refreshments for sale.

This is the first time that Rocky Bay has had a seed swap like this.

It will be called the Big Rocky Bay Seed Swap.

When people get their seeds they will have to take them home and keep them in a cool dark place so that they will be alright for planting in the spring.

Of course, there will be no sowing instructions on most of the packets but gardening books can tell you all you need to know. There is also information online.

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Quick Quiz

Red is a very warm and energetic colour. Red roses signify love.

Can you fill in these missing letters to find different types of red?

c _ _ _ _ t
c _ _ _ _ _ n
g _ _ _ _ t
s _ _ _ _ _ t
c _ _ _ _ y
t _ _ _ _ o
p _ _ _ _ _ x
r _ _ y
b _ _ _ d
m _ _ _ _ n

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lt’s the Weekend!

HOW TO MAKE A LlTTLE KNlTTED LlTTLE RED RlDlNG HOOD

This Little Red Riding Hood is dressed up and ready to go for a walk in the forest. She has a basket to take with her too.

BACK (KNIT ONE)

Using 4mm knitting needles and white dk yarn cast on 8 stitches