FFF268 - ROSA 'PIERRE DE RONSARD'

Rosa 'Pierre de Ronsard' is a moderately vigorous, climbing rose ideal to cover an arch or small trellis. Bred in France, by Meilland and introduced in 1987, 'Pierre de Ronsard' is a very disease resistant rose. The 7 to 10 cm globular flowers comprising 55 to 60 petals are a very attractive creamy white suffused with carmine pink borne singularly or in clusters up to 4 blooms on reasonably sturdy stems.

Adding to its seductive, colourful display these flowers have a light, delicious tea rose fragrance. Flowers last reasonably well when picked for floral arrangements. This rose has performed well throughout the world and thrives in our Melbourne climate. When grown against an arch, the plant can achieve heights around 3 metres, so it is preferable to plant a rose each side of the arch to achieve a complete and even cover in 3 to 4 years. Regular removal of spent blooms will ensure repeat and constant flowering throughout the growing season.

'Pierre de Ronsard' roses have a few thorns implying the arch needs to be at least 1.5m wide to avoid being caught by thorns when passing through the arch. For romantics, an arch of 'Pierre de Ronsard' provides a classic framework setting for photography, such as wedding photographs. Due to its popularity 'Pierre de Ronsard' is readily available to purchase.

The rose name honours Pierre de Ronsard (B.1524 – D.1585). Pierre de Ronsard was a famous French Poet whose 16th Century poetry earned a place in literary history. He enjoyed a great life: Well educated, well-travelled, highly productive, popular and he mixed socially, as friends, with royals such as King Charles of France, Queen Elizabeth I of England and Mary Queen of Scots. His own generation, in France, called him the “Prince of Poets”.

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FFF266 - 'FIREFIGHTER' ROSE

Bred by Joseph Orard prior to 1998 and introduced to Australia in 2009 is Rosa 'Firefighter', a glorious rose with tall single stems of the most highly fragrant dark red rose which is suitable to work with in floral art and yet easy to grow in the open garden will be a joy to all rose gardeners. An added bonus is that it has few thorns.

The name of this rose, 'Firefighter' honours the work our firefighters do here in Australia and as it states on the plant label: “This rose is so named as to remember those men and women who risk their lives daily to protect ours”.

The generally sunny, dry and hot conditions of the Australian garden are particularly well suited to planting roses and roses flourish in our gardens when you take measures to provide the following:

1) Watering: Roses are very deep rooted plants and require one good, deep soaking at least every 10 days in hot and dry conditions;
2) Feeding: Because roses flower throughout all but the Winter season, they should be regularly fertilised with quality (preferably organic) fertiliser which contains a balance of major nutrients (NPK) and trace elements. The fertiliser should be applied at least once a month – small amount often – with fortnightly applications of liquid seaweed over the foliage.
3) Pruning:  During Winter, 70% of the rose plant should be pruned and all old wood removed back to the crown and the bush pruned to shape. During the flowering seasons, 25% of all flowering stems should be cut back after flowering to encourage strong re-growth.
4) Mulching: Particular attention to application of lucerne or pea straw directly around the root-zone of each rose will enhance the overall health of the rose and then the whole bed should be mulched to 75mm with any other mulch medium available.

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FFF263 - BUTTERFLY & ROSES

Pieris rapae, the small white, is a small- to medium-sized butterfly species of the whites-and-yellows family Pieridae. It is also known as the small cabbage white and in New Zealand, simply as white butterfly. The names "cabbage butterfly" and "cabbage white" can also refer to the large white. The butterfly can be distinguished by the white colour with small black dots on its wings. They are distinguished from the smaller size and lack of the black band at the tip of their forewings.

It is widespread and populations are found across Europe, North Africa, Asia, South America, and Great Britain. It has also been accidentally introduced to North America, Australia and New Zealand. The caterpillar of this species is seen as a pest for commercial agriculture. Often referred to as the "imported cabbageworm" they are a serious pest to cabbage and other mustard family crops.

The pink rose is a nameless variety that is in our neighbour's garden and is bushy, a prolific bloomer and can become rather messy with spent flowers, requiring generous deadheading. Nevertheless, it can be quite pretty when blooming with masses of small semi-double blossoms.

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FFF259 - GEUM 'LADY STRATHEDEN'

Geum commonly called avens, is a genus of about 50 species of rhizomatous perennial herbaceous plants in the Rosaceae family, widespread across Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa, and New Zealand. They are closely related to Potentilla and Fragaria.

From a basal rosette of leaves, they produce flowers on wiry stalks, in shades of white, red, yellow, and orange, in midsummer. Geum species are evergreen except where winter temperatures drop below −18 °C. Geum species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including the grizzled skipper.

The cultivars 'Lady Stratheden' (shown here), and 'Mrs J. Bradshaw' have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

The semi-double blooms of 'Lady Stratheden' are golden yellow, saucer-shaped and like magnets to bees. This hybrid of the Chilean native, Geum chiloense, is easily grown from seed and offers an airy, old-fashioned look to the summer garden. Throughout the year, this hardy, clump-forming perennial offers a low mound of fuzzy scalloped leaves. The foliage is evergreen in all but the coldest of winters.

The flowers are large, semi-double and rise from tall, well-branched, wiry stems. They first appear in late Spring, and if well cared for and deadheaded they will continue to bloom sporadically into Autumn. The blooms are followed by attractive fluffy seed heads. Avens grows best in full sun or partial sun with some afternoon shade. It manages well in average garden loam with ample drainage.

Plants can be short-lived if subjected to cold, wet soil conditions in Winter. Healthy clumps should be divided every three to four years. Popular and easy to grow, 'Lady Stratheden' is grown for its lovely, old-fashioned blooms, so it is a great candidate for cottage gardens or any informal perennials border. Its flowers also compliment garden fresh flower arrangements.

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FFF249 - ALMOND BLOSSOM

The almond (Prunus dulcis, syn. Prunus amygdalus) is a species of tree in the Rosaceae family, native to the Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent and North Africa. "Almond" is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree. Within the genus Prunus, it is classified with the peach in the subgenus Amygdalus, distinguished from the other subgenera by the corrugated shell (endocarp) surrounding the seed.

The fruit of the almond is a drupe, consisting of an outer hull and a hard shell with the seed, which is not a true nut, inside. Shelling almonds refers to removing the shell to reveal the seed. Almonds are sold shelled or unshelled. Blanched almonds are shelled almonds that have been treated with hot water to soften the seedcoat, which is then removed to reveal the white embryo.

The almond is a deciduous tree, growing 4–10 m in height, with a trunk of up to 30 cm  in diameter. The young twigs are green at first, becoming purplish where exposed to sunlight, then grey in their second year. The leaves are 5 -10 long, with a serrated margin and a 2.5 cm petiole.

The flowers are white to pale pink, 3–5 cm diameter with five petals, produced singly or in pairs and appearing before the leaves in late winter to early spring. Almond grows best in Mediterranean climates with warm, dry summers and mild, wet winters. The optimal temperature for their growth is between 15 and 30 °C and the tree buds have a chilling requirement of 300 to 600 hours below 7.2 °C to break dormancy.  Almonds begin bearing an economic crop in the third year after planting. Trees reach full bearing five to six years after planting. The fruit matures in the autumn, 7–8 months after flowering.

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FFF234 - ROSA 'FRIESIA'

Rosa 'Friesia' (synonyms: 'Sunsprite';  'KORresia') is a rose variety developed by Reimer Kordes and introduced in 1973. The rose was derived from the cultivars 'Friedrich Wörlein' × 'Spanish Sun', and is one of the most successful floribunda roses. It was named 'Friesia' after the region Frisia (Friesland), the home of the breeder, and was one of the first roses to be given a code name (KORresia for Kordes).

Its sunny yellow blooms are large and flat with 17 to 25 waved petals, reaching an average diameter of 8 cm and have a very strong fragrance. The high-centred flowers appear solitary or in small clusters in a blooming period lasting from June to September. Their bright yellow colour hardly changes with age. The flower is not well suited as a cut flower as it has short stems and only lasts for a short period of time after cutting.

The plant has light-green, glossy leaves, forms upright, bushy shrubs with about 40 to 75 cm height and up to 60 cm width, is very disease resistant and hardy (USDA zone 6b) and can be grown on the ground or in containers. It is used as a parent rose, leading to cultivars such as Rosa 'Sun Flare' (Warriner 1981) and 'Morden Sunrise' (Davidson & Collicutt) 1991.

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FFF220 - 'GOLDEN CELEBRATION' ROSE

'Golden Celebration' ™ (Ausgold) bred by David Austin is a delightful variety in their English Rose Collection. It is one of the largest-flowered and most magnificent of the English Roses. Its colour is rich golden yellow and the flowers are in the form of a giant, full-petalled cup. It has excellent shapely growth, forming a nicely rounded, slightly arching shrub with ample foliage. It is very reliable and easy to grow.

It is an ideal rose to mark any celebration or important event. The flowers are initially tea-scented but often develop a wonderful combination of sauterne wine and strawberry. It features repeat flowering and will benefit from summer pruning in most areas. This variety won the best shrub and most fragrant rose awards at the Rose Awards Day 2000.

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FFF209 - MOTHER & CHILD ROSE

Rosa "Mother and Child" is a new release hybrid from Rankin’s Roses for 2015. The elegant strong stems of "Mother and Child" peak into highly fragrant clusters of dark pink flowers, with up to 10 flowers per stem. Set off by hardy, dark green foliage, the beautiful blooms of "Mother and Child" will flower profusely and will stay disease free (very resistant to black spot and mildew in gardens). The rose grows approximately 1.1m high x 0.6m wide. Rankin's "Mother and Child" sales will follow the tradition in supporting research into MND (Motor Neurone Disease) to find a cure for this terrible disease.

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FFF187 - JAPONICA

Chaenomeles japonica is a species of Japanese Quince in the Rosaceae family. It is a thorny deciduous shrub that is commonly cultivated. It is shorter than another commonly cultivated species C. speciosa, growing to only about 1 m in height. The fruit is called Kusa-boke (草木瓜) in Japanese. Chaenomeles japonica is also popularly grown in bonsai.

It is best known for its colourful spring flowers of red, white or pink. It produces apple-shaped fruit that are a golden-yellow colour containing red-brown seeds. The fruit is edible, but hard and astringent-tasting, unless bletted. The fruit is occasionally used in jelly and pie making as an inferior substitute for its cousin, the true quince, Cydonia oblonga.

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FFF155 - SPARRIESHOOP ROSE

The Sparrieshoop rose was bred by Reimer Kordes (Germany, 1953). It is a shrub rose producing many light pink blooms with a strong fragrance. The flowers are single with five petals, have long pointed buds, and an average diameter of 10 cm. Blooms in flushes throughout the season. A bushy, climbing, upright rose with dark green, leathery foliage. Height of 150 to 305 cm, width of 120 to 275 cm. This type of rose can be hopped to produce even more ample flowering.

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FFF 133 - YELLOW ROSE

Roses are probably the world's most popular plants, which is not surprising when you consider that they come in a fantastic range of colours, shapes and forms, and many have a beautiful perfume.The way roses are being used in gardens has changed over the years. Varieties with long stems have been popular for picking, and more recently they became cottage garden favourites. Today, catalogues are filled with roses which can be used as architectural or structural plants, and the most fashionable of these is the tall standard rose.

Rosa 'Gold Bunny' flowers almost continuously. It has medium-sized, clear yellow blooms in a classic shape, and soft green, disease resistant foliage. It is available as a standard rose, a bush rose or a climbing variety.

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FFF127 - TROILUS ROSE

'Troilus' is a David Austin old-fashioned rose with beautiful, large, deeply cupped blooms of a wonderful shade of honey-buff colour on a strong growing bush with mid-green foliage. It is a fragrant rose that performs outstandingly well when grown in a warmer climate.

Troilus was released by David Austin in 1983.  It was named after the Trojan War hero in Shakespeare’s tragedy, 'Troilus and Cressida'. The Troilus rose flowers continuously from spring to late autumn.  It is a sturdy, upright shrub of medium height.

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FFF123 - ROSA 'LOVING MEMORY'

 Rosa 'Loving Memory' is a hybrid tea rose also known as: Rosa 'Korgund 81', Rosa 'Korgund', Rosa 'Burgund 81', Rosa 'Red Cedar', and 'The Macarthur Rose'.  It is an upright, thorny, deciduous shrub bearing pinnate leaves with ovate, toothed, glossy, dark green leaflets and lightly fragrant, double, high-centered, dark red flowers from late spring into autumn.

The slightly scented flowers have long straight stems, which make this rose ideal for cutting and exhibiting. It is hardy and has good disease resistance. Grows to 90-120cm in height. This specimen is from our garden where the bush has been growing happily for several years now.

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FFF 117 - VALENTINE'S MINIATURE ROSES

Gardeners limited in space can enjoy all the fun of rose growing by cultivating miniature roses in containers. They also adapt well to flowerbed edging, front-of-the-border socialising with perennials and annuals, and low hedges.

Miniature roses first came into being in the early 1930s as an accidental result of rose hybridising. Since then, master miniaturists have created many jewel-like varieties featuring perfectly shaped tiny blooms on clean, healthy plants that generally stay under 60 cm height.

Miniature roses respond to all the care basics of regular-size roses - deep irrigation, sunshine. and regular fertilising - but they do need extra winter protection in colder climates. To ensure the plant doesn't die back to the roots, in Zone 5 and below, bury the rose plant in a mound of soil.

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Happy Valentine's Day from Floral Friday Fotos!

FFF106 - AMBRIDGE ROSE

The 'Ambridge Rose'  (David Austin. 1990) is an old-fashioned rose borne on an attractive bush, about one metre tall.  It has beautiful soft, apricot pink, fragrant flowers that bloom Repeatedly. This is one of two ('Fair Bianca' is the other) of Oprah's favourite roses for her bedside table.  The apricot pink rosettes have a deliciously strong rose fragrance and the medium size blooms with 50-100 petals bloom repeatedly on a medium size bushy plant with medium green coloured foliage.

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FFF91 - SPRING BLOSSOM

One of the best spring blossom trees, Prunus x blireana is a cross between the Japanese apricot (Prunus mume) and the purple-leaved plum (Prunus cerasifera 'Pissardii'). The common name is the double flowering plum. It is a deciduous tree growing to around 5m  tall. It has slender, arching branches, double mauve pink flowers, and reddish purple leaves which turn purplish green in summer. Flowering time is from mid August to mid September in Australia. This hybrid is sterile, so does not produce fruit.

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FFF87 - GEUM

Geum, commonly called avens, is a genus of about 50 species of rhizomatous perennial herbaceous plants in the rose family Rosaceae, native to Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa, and New Zealand. They are closely related to Potentilla and Fragaria.
From a basal rosette of leaves they produce flowers on wiry stalks, in shades of red, yellow and orange, in midsummer. Geum species are evergreen except where winter temperatures drop below −18 °C. The cultivars "Lady Stratheden" and "Mrs J. Bradshaw" have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

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FFF73 - ROSE: STRAWBERRY ICE

The Floribunda rose "Strawberry Ice" was bred by G. Delbard (France, before 1971). It was introduced in France by Delbard/Georges Delbard SA in 1973 as "Bordure Rose". It was subsequently introduced in the United Kingdom by Bees, Ltd. in 1975 as "Bordure Rose". It is white and pink, pink edges, no fragrance.

A double rose with 17-25 petals, cluster-flowered, in small clusters, cupped bloom form.  Blooms in flushes throughout the season.   Short, dense.  Glossy foliage.   Height of 90 cm.  Width of 60 cm. USDA zone 6b through 9b (default).  Can be used for beds and borders, container rose or ground cover.

It is very hardy and very disease resistant.  Spring pruning should remove old canes and dead or diseased wood and canes that cross should be cut back. In warmer climates, cut back the remaining canes by about one-third. In colder areas, you'll probably find you'll have to prune a little more than that.

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FFF69 - ICEBERG ROSE

'Iceberg' is a floribunda rose cultivar that was bred in Germany in 1958. It is also known by the names 'Korbin' (the registered cultivar name), Fée des Neiges and Schneewittchen. It is among the world's best known roses. Iceberg is a modern cluster-flowered floribunda rose cultivar. The cultivar is commercially available in two main forms. These are as a tall bush and a standard rose produced by grafting. Weeping and climbing forms are also available. Shrub forms of the cultivar have an upright habit and are 75 to 150 cm wide high and 60 cm wide. Leaves are light green and glossy. Blooms are about 5 cm in diameter and have 25 to 35 petals. Buds are long and pointed. The fragrant flowers usually appear throughout the year.

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FFF68 - PARADE MINI ROSE

Parade Roses are miniature, fragrant, potted roses meant to be grown indoors. They are hardy and will also do well out in the garden in temperate climates.

Poulsen's Nurseries of Denmark have developed a series of about twelve Miniature Roses with 'Parade' in their names. They have called them 'Rosa Nova' to distinguish them from similar roses from other breeders, just as Meilland's of France have called their Miniatures 'Meillandina' or 'Sunblaze'. The 'Rosa Nova' series are all very small, bushy growers that are suited to pot culture. They are all excellent pot plants with good continuity of bloom.

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