Tag Archive for: roses

Different locations to plant roses

different locations to plant roses
Nothing is as romantic as a spray of roses: this is Flower Carpet® Appleblossom and it is ridiculously easy to grow…anywhere.

Here’s a fact: a single long-stemmed red rose is a romantic gesture, but if you’re planning to declare life-long love, find a garden seat nestled beneath glorious sprays of roses. Yup – sprays of roses take romance to a totally different level. Roses that produce many blooms on each branching stem are glorious, lovely and should be in every garden. They give so many more blooms, and the way they grow in loose arcs of flowers is fairy-like and magical. To put some rose romance in our lives, we all should grow them, and here’s all the different locations to plant roses…

1. On a balcony? Yes you can grow a rose on your balcony. First, choose a large container so your rose will have enough soil nutrients and water to thrive. Then pick a robust rose that looks after itself like one of the Flower Carpet® roses. Since it will bloom from spring through to late autumn, choose the colour carefully to blend with your indoor décor. If you can’t decide between a scarlet red or lipstick pink, plant a Flower Carpet White rose which will look good anywhere as well as glow under lights at night. Plant and water as you would any plant, then as it grows, tie the flowering sprays where you want them. Over the months of flowering, trim back spent sprays of flowers to encourage more, maybe scatter some slow release fertiliser around, and when the show is finally over, give the plant a once-over hair cut to get it ready for the next spring and some more rose romance.

Rose romance
Roses and lavender are an instant way to add romance to a low maintenance garden: Flower Carpet® Pink is at the front with Appleblossom behind.

2. Up the garden path: if you have a garden then you probably have the space to create a garden path. And by a garden path, think of the type of paths we found so interesting as children. These were usually a little loose and wild, and you couldn’t see the end from the start. To make yours is simple. Pick the start and finish points, or better still, make it a loop. Mark it out so that it wends – wiggles – gently and naturally so that it’s fun to walk but not irritating. Then plant it with loose romantic plants like foxgloves, salvias and roses. Again, if you want an easy rose to grow (one that won’t demand the-big-pruning-moment or spraying to keep it healthy), then plant Flower Carpet roses. To work out what goes where you could scribble a plan, but sometimes you get the best result just by grabbing what you like at the garden centre then bringing them home and plonking them in where you think seems right. Add mulch, water and stand back knowing it will be a success because those sprays of roses will pull it all together.

different locations to plant roses
Through an overgrown gate and off down a grassy path that leads off out of sight: this is an easy garden project and the roses will bring in the romance.

3. A massed garden seat moment: this is such a fun project and all you need is a boring lawn and a bench that never gets sat on. Pick a spot on the lawn in full sun, then set your bench there. Then with stakes and string – or just a good eye – cut out a garden bed so that it forms a border around the bench. Make sure you leave the lawn under the bench, and also leave a gap in the garden bed so you can walk from the lawn to the bench. Looking at the end result, the garden bed should look like a rectangular border of turned earth sitting around the bench. Now fill the bed with romantic roses, and add in some bulbs for added fun. Because you probably want impact with low maintenance, again plant Flower Carpet roses. Mix it up and use all eleven colours or make a statement with just one. And if you want to keep things a little lower, take a look at the latest addition to the Flower Carpet rose gang – Flower Carpet Mini Cherry. Imagine sprays of cherry red roses combined with bulbs for a gorgeous display. That once lonely bench will now get a lot of use.

Bushes & shrubs

Great reasons to plant bushes & shrubs

great reasons to plant bushes & shrubs
All good gardens have bushes; and the best ones have truly lovely shrubs like Coprosma Pacific™ Sunrise.

When did bushes & shrubs step out of the spotlight? Remember when they were part of the holy trinity of garden plant types – trees, bushes, lawn? The point is, the bushy plant well-deserves its place. Here are some great reasons to plant bushes & shrubs and how to use them cleverly…

1. Bushes buffer breezes: Bushy plants are essential core building blocks in any garden. Because the foliage grows thickly, they are dense enough to reduce breezes. This may not sound exciting – until you get clever with it. Imagine you have a nice spot in the garden, except the wind whips around the corner of the house and makes you and your more precious plants feel very uncomfortable. Each time you go out there to enjoy the view or read a book, you find yourself standing up and moving somewhere more comfortable, leaving your plant treasures to suffer alone. But if you plant a few bushy plants into the right spot, the wind will be deflected and broken and your outdoor space will be a haven to enjoy, where your more delicate plant treasures can thrive.

2. Blocking views & directing traffic: These are such key reasons to have bushes working for you in the garden. Imagine you have a front path that no-one likes to use and instead they cut across the lawn or garden to get to your door. It’s a common problem because we are a lazy bunch, but it’s easily fixed with a low line of bushy plants – aka a hedge. It doesn’t need to be a tall hedge as people tend to stick to the path rather than risk stepping over a line of shrubs more than knee height. And if you have an ugly network box, pool filter, or air conditioner visible outside, you can distract or hide it from view by planting bushes & shrubs in front of it. This isn’t rocket science but it’s surprising how many people build a cupboard around something like this which makes it even more of an eyesore.

great reasons to plant bushes & shrubs
People tend to stay on the path if it’s bordered by shrubs or a low hedge: here, English box stops anyone taking a short cut and it forms a neat edge to the massed planting of Flower Carpet® Pink roses.

3. Six good shrubs: Use this list to do a little online research. Then take this list with you when you go to the garden centre because it will make your life easier when you’re surrounded by an often overwhelming amount of choice. First is the very worthy Pacific™ Coprosma. Easy to grow and gorgeously coloured, these medium sized bushes (3ft x 3ft) are good at directing foot traffic, filling in gaps in the landscape, or just looking good in a pot. Lavender is a forever favourite because it has attractive grey foliage and those lovely scented flowers. Mexican orange blossom (Choisya ternata) is a good mid-green tall shrub that has white fragrant flowers in spring. It’s tall enough at 10 feet to block an ugly view. Rosemary (the herb) is another good bushy plant because it is a brilliant garden bed edging, and being edible, looks great framing the vegetable garden. An Australian favourite is Westringia or costal rosemary. It’s not edible but it is clip-able, and the landscape designers down under love to trim it into funky spheres. And finally if you need something to softly hide the dog house, plant a Spiraea thunbergii. Note the name because there are a few Spiraeas around and this is the one that grows to five feet high (and wide) and in spring and summer covers itself in white flowers.

If you’re looking for a plant to do a job, why not pick one that looks fabulous. This is Coprosma Pacific™ Sunset.
great reasons to plant bushes & shrubs
A clipped ball of English box growing next to lavender: a garden combo that’s become a classic because both these plants look good and perform well.