If today stays dry, and all evidence thus far suggests it will, I will fleece and bootie up and endeavour to crack on with the pre-winter tidy up the garden needs. The summer lobelia will need to come up and the centre bed needs to be dug out, it’s full of bloody weeds and healthy looking nettles. The lawn is too wet to cut but that can wait until the weekend. I am going to collect the remainder of the chilis and dry them out. The lavender is fine although it is currently being swamped by the last of the summer bedding plants. All the jasmines ( I have white and red) need to be staked and wired up, or maybe I should just bite the bullet and go buy a wooden lattice for them.
Le sigh! So much work.
My question is on roses and the herbs.
How far back should roses be pruned and is this the right time to do them? I know the climbers need pruning but do the bush roses need trimming too?
Herbs- The mint looks fine, but the spicy oregano and the massive rosemary look woody in places, plus the oregano flowered recently and though the flowers have died off the stems are ugly and making the plant gangly. Should they be cut right back?
Oh and the raised beds, will these need a break? Mulch? Can I plant winter shrubs now or is it too late? What might make a good winter flower anyway?
All input gratefully received.
November 10, 2009 at 12:08 pm |
I generally trim all the herbs back in the fall. Just noticed they come back better in the spring that way, rather than having to slough off the dead stuff from over the previous fall and winter. Flowers, I don’t know about. I’m going to let them go and see what happens. Any flower that doesn’t thrive in my yard in 2010 will be replaced by hostas.
November 10, 2009 at 12:17 pm |
I can’t grow hostas here, it’s like catnip for slugs. I will deffo give the herbs a trim back so, too woody by far. In two minds over roses though, I know the climbers need to be pruned back to two thirds of the new growth, but am perplexed about rose bushes.
November 10, 2009 at 12:54 pm |
Roses are so fussy – I don’t know what to do with them either. I have one I inherited from the house’s previous owners that’s not very healthy at all, and one more hardy, wild variety I put in a couple summers ago. I”ve been leaving them be, but I’m not entirely happy with their shapes right now…I’ll be watching this space for input from others on that!
November 10, 2009 at 3:10 pm |
Our winters are so brutal and inconsistent that I haven’t been able to figure out what to do with our single rose bush either. So I leave it alone, with mixed results. One winter it nearly completely died, this winter it survived but didn’t thrive over the summer, who knows.
Surely you don’t get hard freezes that would do them in entirely? The hardier rose bushes on campus, the groundskeepers don’t trim. The ones around the corner that always seem to do well (I think they’re those fussy hybrid tea varieties), they look to be trimmed back to about 2/3 every year.
November 10, 2009 at 3:18 pm |
See, herein lies the problems we rose owner have, I am befuddled what to do with the bushes. Some of the stalks look rather straggy I think, but have younger buds on them which I assume would fill out in spring, but by the same token we do get a few sharp frosts which might kill them.
Also I have huge ‘rose hips’/rose bulbs on the climber and I wonder should I be collecting them????
November 10, 2009 at 5:14 pm |
Unfortunately, it rather depends on what kind of rose, and there is as much advice around as on how to bring up children.
November 10, 2009 at 5:20 pm |
You mean cut them back to 3/4 growth or leave them go wild? That WOULD be interesting parenting.
November 10, 2009 at 7:54 pm |
Depends – as ElizT says – on the kind of roses you have.
Tall roses can benefit from pruning before winter so winds and storms don’t damage the root bed, shorter roses can be left until February or so.
What kind of roses do you have?
November 10, 2009 at 7:57 pm |
Two climbers and two bushes, all only eight months old, so I would really like to get them off to a good start if at all possible this winter.
November 10, 2009 at 11:00 pm |
cut the herbs back or as I prefer, let em die and just re plant in the new year…..It’s the gift of something to do…….!
November 11, 2009 at 7:26 am |
What Manuel says. I have lots of pots, and generally manage to kill them over winter. Last weekend I replanted them with lots of herbs and they’re all looking green and lush (until such time that I manage to kill them slowly,again).
You wouldn’t pick I spent eleven years of my life with a guy who grew thousands upon thousands of plants for a living.
November 11, 2009 at 7:54 am |
http://www.gardenweb.com can help. They have all sorts of information about garden care.
November 11, 2009 at 4:04 pm |
I can’t let them die out, waht the heck sort of gardener would that make, a crap one! Plus the rosemary is a number of years old and quite the specimen.
Max! I know I could rely on someone for a useful link, I thank you.
November 11, 2009 at 4:59 pm |
At some point most of us end up trimming our rose bushes. I’m curious what everyone uses to trim? I use a garden sickle or bill hook which lets you pull the brambles taught and then slices them with the inside curve of the blade.
November 11, 2009 at 5:17 pm |
I just use a plain secateurs, but they are not that big yet. If you have thick brambles I imagine a sickle might be more useful, or long handled clippers.